Hmm, I must have missed something I typed. I don't remember saying anything about stealing. I think you are reading to much between the lines.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Digital Music Sales Decline for First Time Since Opening of iTunes Music Store
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Hmm, I must have missed something I typed. I don't remember saying anything about stealing. I think you are reading to much between the lines.
if you look after your vinyl there is no clicks or pops. Only ones which have been mistreated sound poor. I have some 180 Gram virgins, use gloves to handle them, use a bulb blower on them and they sound immense on my 1978 deck. Vinyl actually captures more information, since the vibrations of the music are cut into the disk, with digital recordings you loose "some" frequency range during play back. Misconceptions of vinyl stem from amateurs not looking after their records. I wouldn't switch my deck or valve amp for anything.
I've been searching for some new music that I like enough to listen to for a couple of years now, but I can't find anything (My tastes are quite diverse). Everything seems to be style over substance, even bands that I used to like are just releasing rubbish.
I think the internet is killing creativity. Everyone is researching everything to death, instead of just coming up with spontaneous original music like they used to.
There is a similar problem in the movie industry, but the occasional quality film is being made.
I think the internet is killing creativity. Everyone is researching everything to death, instead of just coming up with spontaneous original music like they used to.
There is a similar problem in the movie industry, but the occasional quality film is being made.
I've found a ton of new music to listen to and this thread shows that it's obviously a matter of personal opinion, a lot of people seem to be caught up on the "back then everything was better" thing, which I absolutely cannot confirm for myself. I'm glad we're out of that absolutely awful alternative/grunge hole that MTV pushed rock music into in the 90s by hyping the crap out of garbage like Nirvana or Ugly Kid Joe...
^^^^it is, but I noticed the majority of the best stuff was in the 90's.
Its like they stopped making great music in the new millennium
I disagree, I heard some great music throughout the 90's
To be honest, being brought up in the CD age, I can't see the fuss about Vinyls. I know about the superior sound quality, but the hassle of it, having to flip it over after 5 songs, having to check the needle, getting the speed right, etc. compared to CD's or digital music- I just don't think the positives outweigh the negatives. I also don't think that there is much of a perceived difference between 320kbs mp3 and Vinyls, certainly not on less expensive hardware. Then theres the price, the size, the lack or portability. I just don't get it.
Not saying that music on those Vinyls are bad, I mainly have music since 2000 but there are some old albums that will always be iconic.
----------
I think quite the opposite. New composers have so much content on the internet to create the best songs now. Most songs will have samplings from older songs, which is made much easier thanks to the power of the internet. Also, distribution can be wider, they're more likely to be played on radio, in adverts, etc.
Adverts say a lot about music at the time,
----------
Autotune is just another instrument that may or may not be used. If an artist wants to use auto tune to enhance their music, I'm all for it. When artists use auto tune to create their music, then there's a problem. Music is so much more than just the artists voice.
Not saying that music on those Vinyls are bad, I mainly have music since 2000 but there are some old albums that will always be iconic.
----------
I think quite the opposite. New composers have so much content on the internet to create the best songs now. Most songs will have samplings from older songs, which is made much easier thanks to the power of the internet. Also, distribution can be wider, they're more likely to be played on radio, in adverts, etc.
Adverts say a lot about music at the time,
----------
Autotune is just another instrument that may or may not be used. If an artist wants to use auto tune to enhance their music, I'm all for it. When artists use auto tune to create their music, then there's a problem. Music is so much more than just the artists voice.
I think the streaming services are eating into downloads. I use MOG and my CD buying is down dramatically. ( I always preferred CDs to downloads).
I think there is plenty of good music, but you have to find it. Also, nothing says you can't listen to older stuff.
I think there is plenty of good music, but you have to find it. Also, nothing says you can't listen to older stuff.
Having not heard the song this song springs to mind. As well as many others. Artists aren't always necessarily writing from personal opinion, experience or conviction. Again, I'm not familiar with the band or song, so I could be way off base.
Hopefully not repeating something already said, but there was a good article in the WSJ in December on the subject. While streaming is drawing customers from digital downloads, it is actually more profitable to artists, so don't worry Lady Gaga will eat well.
I rarely make digital purchases myself. If anything, I only order from iTunes every 6-12 months in total unless I get a gift card. I primarily invest into CDs and even just recently started investing into Vinyl.
All my digital music purchases are purchased on a CD!
CD is still the highest quality digital audio out there
Subscription services may well be more profitable in the long run if the value per subscriber becomes more than the value of the downloads they would have purchased. In other words, subscription services are a more expensive way of consuming music, even though it may not seem that way to begin with.
I do not think one is superior to the other. Sure there are sonic differences, but I don't think that in itself should pose as the primary difference. I've heard digital done extremely well, even in modern day recordings.
Vinyl can be to people what books can. It's a tangible object, there is no means of convience. It isn't portable, it was never supposed to be. When you want to listen to music on vinyl you simply sit and listen. Of course, we can still multitask, but you become much more intuitive when listening as you almost wait to flip the record. The same could be considered for books and watching a film. Mind you, this doesn't pose as a direct reason as to why people indulge in Vinyl for obvious reasons. However, It is a remnant of our past and it is one that perhaps could stay with us forever. There could be so many philosophical reasons that justify as to why it has grown popular.
Last edited:
Maybe thats why I'm not much interested in it. No connections to my past.
I don't know what the digital generation will be like in 20 years time, what with everything being digital, they would have no physical media in their house.
Not nice
Could be. Though I don't think everything will be digital, even in the future. We're not that far into progression to be at a point where everything is completely artificial. We are humans, we need tangibility. We will always need something to help retain our humanity.
Pandora and Google Play Music is really all I use. I used spotify prior.
I havent actually purchased a song in like year or so. These findings line up well with my personal activity.
I havent actually purchased a song in like year or so. These findings line up well with my personal activity.
Could be. Though I don't think everything will be digital, even in the future. We're not that far into progression to be at a point where everything is completely artificial. We are humans, we need tangibility. We will always need something to help retain our humanity.
On the other hand, I think it's great that my complete music and audiobook collection fits onto a tiny hard drive and doesn't take away any space in the home.
I still don't like to stream music unless I'm at home.
For one, it really does chew a 2GB data plan pretty fast, so you need wifi.
Second, it can be slow if you have a bad connection.
Third, intrusive and obnoxious ads (although iTunes Radios ads aren't as bad)
Forth, it's a big hit on battery life.
For me at least, nothing beats on board music, but for many, streaming may be the way to go.
Just my little rant.
I agree about on board music, but I love spottily premium. If I shazam an awesome song i hear while I'm out, I can go straight to playing it on my iPhone via spotify. The Data hit isn't bad since I'm a college student thus there is wifi in literally every building on the whole university campus. Even the dining hall has wifi. Plus I can easily spare the $10 per gig if I go over my plan. If I can't handle a $10 charge(I pay my own phone bill now so I can do whatever I want) I shouldn't have an iPhone.
I've also discovered awesome music via being able to follow friends on spotify.
It also of course saves precious on-board memory.
I still buy CDs, because that's still the easiest way to buy lossless music.
And most CDs from Amazon come with additional pre-ripped 256k MP3s available via your Cloud Player (easily downloaded into iTunes).
My GF got on my case recently because I have a whole stack of CDs that still have the shrinkwrap on them.
----------
There's the rub. Digital allows the masters/remasters to be engineered with tricks (e.g. the "loudness wars") that effectively don't apply to vinyl, at least not to the same degree.
I still buy CDs, because that's still the easiest way to buy lossless music.
And most CDs from Amazon come with additional pre-ripped 256k MP3s available via your Cloud Player (easily downloaded into iTunes).
My GF got on my case recently because I have a whole stack of CDs that still have the shrinkwrap on them.
----------
There's the rub. Digital allows the masters/remasters to be engineered with tricks (e.g. the "loudness wars") that effectively don't apply to vinyl, at least not to the same degree.
CD's aren't lossless. By their very nature, they are lossy.
Incorrect. Music CDs, by their very nature, store PCM-encoded (uncompressed) audio, which is functionally identical to the AIFF (Mac) or WAV (PC) uncompressed audio file formats. PCM encoding for music CDs was created prior to popular lossy compression algorithms for music audio such as MP3.
Now, at 16-bit encoding and a 44.1kHz sample rate, CDs may not have the same resolution as some currently available higher resolution audio, but music on a CD is, in fact, still lossless.
You don't seem to know much about CDs. If you're referring to limitations of sampling rates rather than digital file compression (there is no lossy compression on CDs, it's straight PCM) then NO medium on earth is lossless since LPs can't even play much past 15kHz on a very good day. The human ear can only hear 20Hz-20kHz anyway. There is benefit to mastering higher, but not playback (contrary to what many audiophiles think). 16-bit is slightly less than the ear's potential maximum allowable dynamic range, but I don't know many people listening to music that goes from a whisper to almost Space Shuttle launch volume (120dB begins to damage the ear almost instantly). Given the limitations of a typical room's noise floor, the CD was and is a good two-channel standard. Most of the poor sound out there has been due to poor mastering (human error or poor choices to make it loud, etc.), which is not the CD medium's fault. You can just as crappy sound from bad mastering in DVD-Audio or SACD. Albums released on those formats, however tend to master with high-end playback gear in mind, though and THAT is the biggest reason there's an audible difference in some recordings available for both, particularly popular music type ones.