9.06.2005
Blame it on the youth
Perhaps I'm just getting too old to stay up with technology these days, but I'm puzzled by the latest news out of the music industry. Blame it on the Youth, the forthcoming debut disc by the band The Sun (hard to believe that name was still available, isn't it?) will come in three formats: digital downloadable files via iTunes et al., a video-only DVD and good old vinyl. That's right -- no CD.
The DVD will include .wav files of the songs so those with DVD-ROM drives on their computers can manually make their own CD or rip the tracks to MP3.
"I haven't bought a new CD in a very long time," drummer Sam Brown told the Washington Post. Instead, he searches for vinyl versions, or rips songs to his iPod, or gets music from friends, he said.
How does one "rip songs to an iPod" if not from a CD? Oh wait, do you suppose he means "stealing"?
As such, isn't this a step back rather than a step forward? Assuming that I want to actually own a tangible thing rather than rights-limited files, and that I want to listen to the album in my car but am not content with the fuzzy sonics afforded by my iPod's FM transmitter, I must buy the DVD and burn the tracks to a CD. If I want to convert these .wav files to MP3, I must run a conversion program, just as I would if the songs were on CD. So, really, they're making it harder to listen to the music, not easier. The ideal way to listen to this music, it seems, is to put it into your DVD player and watch it, and who does that anymore? In fact, I'm personally set up so that the easiest way to get the music into a listenable form would be to listen to the vinyl album and then rip the songs to MP3 from there.
Why not offer this as a DualDisc? Sure, it's a bit more expensive, but the people who want to listen to it on a CD player -- and there were 766 million CDs sold last year, so someone is still listening -- could do so, while those wanting the bells and whistles would get those, too.
Brown acknowledges that it's an odd move, but hey, it's for the kids, OK? "It is risky for an unknown band to release music that requires so much manual extraction," he tells USA Today, "but the people most excited about music are young and pretty computer-savvy."
Then again, none of this is worth the trouble if the music isn't any good, right? My reaction was lukewarm at best when streaming the songs on the band's web site; check it out yourself and see if it's worth the fuss. Why, if I didn't know better, I'd think this was just a gimmick to cover for mediocre chops.
The DVD will include .wav files of the songs so those with DVD-ROM drives on their computers can manually make their own CD or rip the tracks to MP3.
"I haven't bought a new CD in a very long time," drummer Sam Brown told the Washington Post. Instead, he searches for vinyl versions, or rips songs to his iPod, or gets music from friends, he said.
How does one "rip songs to an iPod" if not from a CD? Oh wait, do you suppose he means "stealing"?
As such, isn't this a step back rather than a step forward? Assuming that I want to actually own a tangible thing rather than rights-limited files, and that I want to listen to the album in my car but am not content with the fuzzy sonics afforded by my iPod's FM transmitter, I must buy the DVD and burn the tracks to a CD. If I want to convert these .wav files to MP3, I must run a conversion program, just as I would if the songs were on CD. So, really, they're making it harder to listen to the music, not easier. The ideal way to listen to this music, it seems, is to put it into your DVD player and watch it, and who does that anymore? In fact, I'm personally set up so that the easiest way to get the music into a listenable form would be to listen to the vinyl album and then rip the songs to MP3 from there.
Why not offer this as a DualDisc? Sure, it's a bit more expensive, but the people who want to listen to it on a CD player -- and there were 766 million CDs sold last year, so someone is still listening -- could do so, while those wanting the bells and whistles would get those, too.
Brown acknowledges that it's an odd move, but hey, it's for the kids, OK? "It is risky for an unknown band to release music that requires so much manual extraction," he tells USA Today, "but the people most excited about music are young and pretty computer-savvy."
Then again, none of this is worth the trouble if the music isn't any good, right? My reaction was lukewarm at best when streaming the songs on the band's web site; check it out yourself and see if it's worth the fuss. Why, if I didn't know better, I'd think this was just a gimmick to cover for mediocre chops.
