In a recent conversation, it was brought to my attention that Apple has now become the third largest retailer of music, right behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy. This revelation displays the evolution of the distribution of music (and the whole cultural shift to the information age, but I’m not really here to talk about that). I have a few qualms with becoming a member of the music downloading mob and let me tell you why. Call me old-fashioned, but I like to have a physical copy of said purchased music. I mean, how many times have you or your friends hard-drive crashed and life as we know it ceased to exist they lost a bunch of fairly valuable files (I don’t particularly prefer to use the words “lost everything” because that’s just not the case, computer files aren’t “everything”). OK, so you tell me I can just back up all the files on my computer and then I won’t have anything to worry about, but how many of you back up all of your files? It’s a pain, your library is too big to conveniently store on a CD, your wireless network won’t let you store a back up file on someone else’s machine, you’d rather be watching videos on YouTube, whatever the reason, it just doesn’t happen. Sure, Bill (Gates) and Steve (Jobs) have some fancy softwares to help you recover your lost files but I’m talking about massive hardware failure. In any case, I like to have that CD so I can still enjoy the music for which I paid.
This discussion is intended to open several cans of worms, and I am prepared to deal with it. For example, CDs have a bit of a problem with lifetime as well, I have several that seem to be falling apart, or have a acquired a lethal scratch. You can’t scratch an mp3. Also, my car already has a CD player in it and I have a stereo. The culture I grew up in just happened to proliferate devices to understand these shiny, flat donuts. Yes, you can BUY devices to play your mp3 player through most any means, but those cost food money. And what about album art, lyrics, and goofy credits? Are those to be lost in the transition? Well, I have may ways, and I will continue purchasing CDs for the time being, sorry. Perhaps you can persuade me otherwise.
What do you think? Do you buy music files? Do you think CDs are obsolete? What do you do to secure your files?
4 responses so far »
1 David // Jul 2, 2007 at 11:00 pm
i too like the physical object. the shiny disc. However, in my life, that small pleasure is far outweighed by the convenience of digital distribution: all my music on an mp3 player, instantly accessible from anywhere, with no moving parts (flash-based players).
As far as the storage medium itself, i’ve begun to view it as a purely utilitarian tool. It was hardly designed to provide the consumer with a sense of value, like a hardcover book or a framed piece of art. owning and listening to Vinyl, with its oversized sleeves and accompanying foot-per-page booklet, is a much more satisfying tactile and visual experience than flipping a little 10 cm pamphlet to read the 5pt print. But vinyl is not even obsolete anymore, it is antiquated, now relegated to a historical artifact rather than an acceptable manner of musical consumption.
However, unlike other storage media from the days of yore, CD’s are a perfect digital source. When you have a digital source, it becomes trivial to make perfect digital copies. Hence, digital backups really are the best thing that could have ever happened to data. Digital distribution just cut out the middle man: the origin CD. the only optical media necessary in the chain is the backup, the safeguard.
The pitfalls of digital distribution are made obvious in your post. Nobody *wants* to spend the time and back up data. People are so concerned with instant gratification, myself included (see first paragraph), that time consuming activities without any immediate benefit are just… not done.
What we are trapped in, Chappie, is a cultural quandary. It is very satisfying for people to be able to look at, read about, and touch their music while listening to it, in the form of a physical medium, CD cases, and album art design. But as far as where the music actually comes from, whether it be a stylus needle, laser eye, or a magnetic disk head, i’m certain you could care less, as long as it sounds equally good.
Read this post on my blog for some pseudo-relevant comments on backing up and storing memories:
http://www.davidcomeaux.com/2007/04/02/a-musical-snack-an-esoteric-tale-and-an-observation/
2 Matthew Smith // Jul 3, 2007 at 7:07 am
I’m sure many of you know of my music acquisition methods. At one point in life I did buy CDs – and when I discovered the now universal MP3, I proceeded to convert my collection to digital format. As the internet grew, I began to collect new music from the vast amounts of illegally available material, in addition to ripping my friends’ CDs.
I don’t remember the last time I actually bought a CD. I’ve never bought a DVD. I have no real attachment to the actual physical product – I consume digitally. Now, in my case things are a little different, since I’m not paying for the privilege – if my entire collection were to go up in a cloud of misplaced bits tomorrow, I would have lost nothing but time – and considering the size of my collection, that would still be a monumental loss (not to mention the movies, software, and (most importantly) the personally created documents).
Of course, the obvious solution to the issue of data loss is to back up your files. But, as you pointed out, that task is easily forgotten until it is too late. And then there’s always the issue of managing the backups – what medium do you put them on for maximum lifetime? Where do you store the backups? How to you manage the “freshness” of a backup? When do you overwrite an old backup with a newer one? What about when a backup medium becomes obsolete (remember 3.5″ floppies)? And what happens as our personal data stores approach and pass the terabyte range?
Another topic that you didn’t mention is the ever-present quandary of “digital rights management.” This can of worms should really be called “digital rights removal” and is one of the biggest reasons that I do not buy music or movies in digital form. These “technologies” take away control of our purchases. If you bought a new pair of shoes that only allowed you to walk on concrete sidewalks (for your “safety”), I’m pretty sure you’d get annoyed about half a block from the store. While that isn’t the greatest analogy, it’s the same thing that Apple, Microsoft, or any other company that sells you “locked” files is doing.
What happens in five, ten, or fifteen years when you open that backup and decide you want to listen to some old song you’d forgotten about, only to discover that they will no longer play due to obsolete “rights restriction” software? Big things to think about, indeed.
And that’s why I don’t buy music online. I also don’t have any sort of good backup situation – a big problem indeed, and one I will be investigating in an upcoming post.
3 Michael Chappell // Jul 3, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Thanks for the insight, I appreciate your comments. I’m glad you mentioned the DRM stuff, I meant to say something about that. CDs are much more universal and shareable. Thanks to companies like Apple and Wal-Mart, only a dedicated account is able to play a song, which allows very little flexibility. Dave made a great point with the transition of music from the days of records. The “extras” that go along with a purchase have evolved with the media. I mean, remember when we got tapes? You didn’t get hardly anything along the lines of artwork with them, but that didn’t seem to make much of a difference.
If anyone who reads this (probably like 2 people, at best) wants another good read (or one good read if this one didn’t suit your fancy) check out the link in dave’s comment. I do appreciate the link it definitely highlights the necessity and difficulty of preserving digital media. In light of these articles, I am coming up with a solution for my digital data problems. If you have any suggestions, just let me know.
4 Data, Backups, and Digital Obsolescence at digivation.net | Ideas. With sauce. // Jul 5, 2007 at 3:31 pm
[...] my music…”). I started contemplating these things anew after reading my college’s recent post, as well as David’s reflections on the topic. Looking at these two articles reminded me of an [...]
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