CD-Loving Japan Resists Move to Digital Music

[SEAWOLF97]

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/business/media/cd-loving-japan-resists-move-to-digital-music-.html?_r=0

[Ducatista47]

Interesting article. As usual, it is all about how they can sell what they have, not what they have to sell. Japan is not that different from elsewhere that way.

I still prefer CDs for home playback, for reasons pretty much my own. I tend to really like the artists I pay attention to, so I like everything they do. No interest in playlists is the result, so CDs are preferred to downloading or streaming individual songs.

Maybe it is my hearing, who knows, but with the really revealing playback equipment I use Redbook CDs sound as good as high rez files. Science is on my side here, by the way. Recording and processing at higher rez has advantages, but as a playback source, actually not. Bad things can happen as a result, but nothing better than 44.1 sound results, not that human ears can hear. So files are relegated to portable use. I have some Japanese CDs and I can see why they love them still. They are generally better mastered than ours, ignore the loudness wars in the titles I like, and are better manufactured than ours.

Another factor, I personally find it really lazy to think it is too much work to change CDs. The physical convenience of files holds no alure for me, again except for portable. And as for physical CDs being bulky, the vinyl industry is everywhere and they are far bulkier than CDs.

[Lee in Montreal]

What happens when your 1Tb hard disc containing your $50,000 music collection crashes? You end up with, nothing. The iTune principle is doomed because all you get is zeroes and ones, and they easily disapear. And this format is victim of its technology. Why pay when you can get it for free? Unless one gets a tshirt, a concert ticket, when downloading an album from iTune. But then again, when the HD crashes, nothing remains.

At least with a CD, you can hold something and the data can be transfered to a hard disc.

But that being said, my last CD was purchased 5 years ago. I don't really pay to download music, and I rarely download music off bittorent. And if I do, I listen to the music for a few days, then erase. Music is now available everywhere and anytime, so i don't need to stock it... except for my vinyl of course :)

[dr_gallup]

I still mostly buy CD's. I like to have physical media I own. I duplicate them for the older vehicles that can't play any downloads & rip them for the portable music players & vehicles that can use them. I don't like the streaming services, they are decidedly mid-fi at best. The high-res download services are selling a load of malarkey. 99.9% of the time they are starting with a redbook CD master (or worse) and converting it to some higher sampling rate and word length. That makes no sense at all. You can not improve the resolution of a digital signal beyond the weakest link in the chain.

[SEAWOLF97]

I don't like the streaming services, they are decidedly mid-fi at best.

I'm souring on Pandora , besides the mid-fi , the ads are really intrusive and the playlist is repetitive.

Red Book CD's played back on my 24/192 DVD players sound great.

[BMWCCA]

I pretty much buy only CDs. I tried hi-res files but it doesn't feel the same. I miss the liner notes included, not downloaded. I don't mind changing CDs. I only have to remind myself what a pain it was to carefully open an album and remove the sleeve, preen an LP, clean the stylus, walk softly on the bouncy floor, all for maybe 20-minutes of music.

I miss my local record store. They're still here but selling mostly used CDs and LPs with a lousy selection of new material. They've moved to a location less than 1/4 the size of their previous storefront. The local Best Buy has such a pitiful selection I only go there for steals on recent block-buster releases such as Clapton's tribute to JJ Cale (ten bucks less a ten-dollar award certificate). I buy most of my music from Amazon and enjoy buying the CD for less than the download and getting the download thrown-in for free. Ya gotta love that logic! I don't mind listening to a new release through my Sennheiser ear-buds on my iPhone until the actual CD shows up a few days later (free shipping).

I do use Pandora to find new artists and new albums, but I jot down the info and search Amazon while listening, and then dump the CD in my "basket" until I accumulate enough to reach the free-shipping threshold. But I really like having the actual CD and never think the sound of a good CD inferior on my discriminating system. When I can, I order directly from the artist, unless (quite common) they simply link to iTunes or Amazon anyway. It's not my fault the whole industry is screwed-up. I've always done my best to support artists and buy my music in a physical form. I'm not changing if I can help it. :dont-know:

[Ducatista47]

Complete agreement. When I can afford it and it is a release current enough for them to have it, I do buy directly from the artist as well. The one time I downloaded a ton of files from artists was when I joined the Cowboy Junkies Clubhouse. In exchange for contributing $150 to support the production of their four CD Nomad Series, they offered everything they had ownership of, rarities, unreleased and live recordings included, in 320mp3 and/or FLAC. They threw in a really nice limited edition coffee table book they were publishing in conjunction with a famous artist/designer. The book alone must have cost 75 dollars. Go figure, the older RCA and Geffen CDs they don't own later all showed up at the local used shop when someone sold their collection. I don't like the idea of paying as little as possible for music. If you like it enough to want to listen to it, you owe it to the artist to support them. But this time I wasn't even trying, and that just fell into my lap.

Not to argue with anyone, just an observation, but some day it will be common knowledge that listeners who prefer vinyl sound, tube sound, output transformer sound and sources past the Nyquist rate, not to mention super tweeters, do not have a technical leg to stand on. There is no law against liking your favorite distortion or feeling happier listening to sound you could not possibly hear. The enjoyment is not at all objectionable, but the high horse claims of superior reproduction are very much so. More than enough of that already from the pseudoscience fans and the climate change denyers.

Unrelated, a late thanks for turning me on to Edgar Meyer.

[JeffW]

I buy CDs, rip them to a local hard drive that is mirrored on a RAID configured NAS. If all of those drives fail at once, I'd have to re-rip. Stream them with a Sonos system. Want to play the whole CD? It'll do that. Want to compile a playlist? It'll do that. Want to do all this while in the garage while the CD player and CDs are in the living room? It'll do that. Want to stream internet radio? It'll do that. Want to listen to ripped CDs in the garage while streaming internet radio in the living room? It'll do that. Purists will appreciate that Sonos won't handle files any more high res than Red Book. Plus if I'm feeling quaint, I still have the CDs and a player. And I can run the CD player output into the line in of the Sonos and listen to that CD on every Sonos in the house and garage.

But I also have albums and a turntable, and you guessed it. I can also route the turntable out over the Sonos net.

I guess I don't see the need to limit my sources or selection due to some ideological dogma. If it's music, I'll play it.

[honkytonkwillie]

I've lost countless 1s and 0s over the years with random hardware failures. I've probably got a dozen physical drives laying around that I've stripped from my defunct hardware, as the files are likely recoverable from most of them, but I'm never so bored as to make the attempt.

In this way, physical media provides convenience for me. It's rare though, that I'll buy new vinyl or CD, because I'm cheap like that. I don't have the patience either for hunting thrift stores or garage sales. My latest solution is used CDs from Amazon. Practically everything I've sought can be had for $0.99 + the customary $3.99 shipping, so the $5 price point maximizes my return for the minimum effort of finding it.

[Allanvh5150]

Why loose info when drives fail? Raid storage is easy and cheap today.

Allan.

[SEAWOLF97]

In this way, physical media provides convenience for me. It's rare though, that I'll buy new vinyl or CD, because I'm cheap like that. I don't have the patience either for hunting thrift stores or garage sales.

There really isn't much new that I'd want to buy. I borrow CD's from the library (they have lots) and we have a used game/DVD/CD chain with 5 stores near. Prices are reasonable.

I'm retired and bicycle daily. There are also at least 13 sources for used vinyl within my riding radius...most LP's are priced at +- $1.


Why loose info when drives fail? Raid storage is easy and cheap today.
Allan.

Not quite so easy on my laptop, but a 2TB external drive does the job at irregular intervals.

[dr_gallup]

Complete agreement. When I can afford it and it is a release current enough for them to have it, I do buy directly from the artist as well. The one time I downloaded a ton of files from artists was when I joined the Cowboy Junkies Clubhouse. In exchange for contributing $150 to support the production of their four CD Nomad Series, they offered everything they had ownership of, rarities, unreleased and live recordings included, in 320mp3 and/or FLAC. They threw in a really nice limited edition coffee table book they were publishing in conjunction with a famous artist/designer. The book alone must have cost 75 dollars. Go figure, the older RCA and Geffen CDs they don't own later all showed up at the local used shop when someone sold their collection. I don't like the idea of paying as little as possible for music. If you like it enough to want to listen to it, you owe it to the artist to support them. But this time I wasn't even trying, and that just fell into my lap.

Wow, wish I'd known about that deal. Cowboy Junkies is one of my favorite bands these days. I've been picking up all their older CD's here & there. Too bad they never tour down south, I'd love to see them live.

[BMWCCA]

Unrelated, a late thanks for turning me on to Edgar Meyer.

:) Glad you like his playing.
Consider it a small thank-you for the Bill Evans recommendations!:cheers:

[Ducatista47]

:) Glad you like his playing.
Consider it a small thank-you for the Bill Evans recommendations!:cheers:
Nothing small about him as a musician to listen to. I have never heard any bass player nearly as adept.