Re: [ARSCLIST] "All hail the analogue revolution..."

[steven c <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Hirsch" <punto@xxxxxxxx>
> The main issue I have with iTunes, iPods and other manifestations 
> digital music delivery is the complete de-contextualization of what I am 
> listening to. No notes, questionable and mostly useless "artist" info, 
> no art, no package whatsoever. I guess there are some exceptions where 
> the stuff is made available as a pdf or displayed on your computer or TV 
> screen, but it doesn't sound like that would be of any interest to the 
> clients of "Jack the Ripper" that you refer to. I guess that the idea of 
> liner notes didn't fully catch on until the LP era (yes, I've seen them 
> on 78 albums and I love the spoken intros on cylinders and early discs, 
> but they don't illustrate kind of thing I am talking about) and maybe 
> the decline of the format has inevitably lead to the decline of the 
> accompanying content. Even the albums, mostly, but not exclusively, pop, 
> that had only art and minimal track listings but no useful text beyond 
> that are something that I could connect to in some way on a level that 
> is not replicated by downloading from a file server.
> 
Well, it seems never to have occured to the makers of 78's (except
Edison) that they could or should have put any sort of information
about the artists and/or songs on their record sleeves! In fact,
the idea of sleeves specifically intended for a given record
only seems to have become a practice (and a far-from-standard
one) around 1950, and then only for a handful of discs!

With LP's, I assume somebody figured out that since there was all
that empty space (an LP had to have a protective jacket of some
sort)...why not fill it! CD's, of course, come with "inserts"...
but there is no guarantee those will remain with the disc over
time (or keep on being produced as the rush to find cheaper
methods of packaging CD's continues...)

Steven C. Barr