Re: [ARSCLIST] The "dumbing down" of Downloaded Recordings

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

By the way, another part of this market implosion is of direct concern to collectors, archivists and 
librarians on this list.

MANY CD titles are being taken out of print, and not because a reissue is made with a better 
remaster of the same material. One of the first consultant-driven cutbacks a megaglomerate makes to 
keep its stock price from cratering is to make a an ever-higher cutoff point for number of units 
sold per time period in order for an item to stay in-print. This especially effects classical and 
jazz recordings, which tend to sell more like a tortoise, annuity-like, as opposed to short-term 
hits that then fall off into oblivion. A large body of material that was readily available for 
purchase in the mid-1990's is simply not available as packaged CD's anymore. Some of this material 
has migrated over to iTunes and Amazon, but in lossy-compressed formats.

There is a slight upside to this. Right now, and I doubt for too much longer, there are lots of 
still-shrinkwrapped copies of CD's taken out of print floating around in the Amazon "buy used and 
new" and eBay universe, peddled by smaller-scale sellers around the globe. Most of these units were 
bought for pennies on the dollar from bankrupt retailers and are sold well below original list price 
and sometimes below typical street price for a copy of similar material still in print on a 
different album. And at least one music-releasing company, Concord Music Group, has taken to selling 
directly to customers at very competitive prices and discounts like free shipping for orders over 
$50 and 11th CD free, etc. I would imagine the underlying strategy for Concord is to get rid of 
warehouses full of CD's returned from defunct retailers like Tower, but they also might have hit 
upon a better business model, cutting out the retailer for at least some of their sales and reaping 
the full retail margin.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Lindner" <jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 8:54 AM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] The "dumbing down" of Downloaded Recordings


> Is it just me who wonders about this? With the hundreds of articles I  have been reading on the 
> changes in media distribution (literally  hundreds and is this a REALLY big surprise??) I have not 
> read one -  not one - that makes any mention of the fact that the quality of the  recordings being 
> distributed by download are significantly compressed  and poorer then those distributed on media. 
> Of course it does not  have to be this way - there is no reason why .wav files could not be  being 
> downloaded instead of AAC or MP3 - but no one seems to care -  at all.
>
> I figure that if anywhere - the members on this list should care. I  don't get it - why aren't 
> people complaining? Has our benchmark for  quality become Apple Ipod earbuds? Tell me it isn't so. 
> While people  are spending untold thousands on Krell's and esoteric speakers what  we are 
> witnessing here is a recording media and quality implosion and  I for one am concerned that 
> getting a recording that is of the former  relatively high (ok we can debate that but this is not 
> the real  point) quality of recordings on CD will become an impossibility in  the not too distant 
> future. How come there aren't a bunch of  audiophiles - or professionals - or both - speaking up 
> and saying to  the downloading public and to the distributors - hey wait a minute -  if I am 
> paying the same prices for downloading as I am for physical  media - the least you can do is give 
> me the same quality.
>
> All I hear is - silence. To me this is a HUGE threat - even short  term - to what you are going to 
> be able to listen to, and the quality  of what you will be able to listen to.
>
> So, members of ARSC - I ask you - to discuss this - and - OK I will  say it - as an organization - 
> take an actual position on this subject  - let the world know that this is a BIG issue. That is 
> right - I am  actually advocating for standing up and talking out loud - not to our  group but to 
> the rest of the planet. If we are not going to take a  stand on this -  what will we take a stand 
> on? Get some manufacturers  behind you - you know the Krell and "monster cable" kind of folk that 
> have lots of marketing smarts - because there really isn't any point  in spending thousands of 
> dollars on esoteric gear when the quality of  the recordings will not let you hear it anyhow. They 
> have allot to  lose also. What we are talking about here is the dumbing down - the  AAC'ing of all 
> distributed music and I for one think this is an  issue. Does anyone agree?
>
>
>
> Jim Lindner
>
> Email: jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
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