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Ashes and Snow
First The Gates, a large scale public art project, overtook Central Park. Now, Ashes and Snow, a photography exhibit, literally sits atop the Hudson River on Pier 54 near West 13th Street. It is also the largest temporary exhibition space ever...
Film & TV Music: H'wood Reporter/Billboard Conference
Music for Film and TV: A Report from the Hollywood Reporter/Billboard Conference By Scott G (The G-Man) "Forget the name of this thing," one audience member said of The Hollywood Reporter Billboard Film and TV Music Conference, "it's really all...
Lyric Street's Kirk Boyer Confirmed As Indie Music Week Panelist
Lyric Street's Kirk Boyer Confirmed As Indie Music Week Panelist
Nashville, Tennessee - Indie Music Week (IMW) has announced that Kirk Boyer, Director, A&R for Lyric Street Records, will be a participating industry panelist. IMW, taking place...
MP3/Music Downloading Guide
Downloading music off the internet can be a tedious and usually
boring task. This article will show you how to find online music
faster and more precisely then ever before. There are a few
different ways of obtaining music over the net, however...
Three Times More Sales Of CD With The Belarusian Music
For the last half-year, sales of CD with the national pop music in Belarus have grown almost three times. Among the best selling Belarusian musicians English-speaking group Atlantica, Tsyany-Tolkaj, J-mors and Alexey Hlestov.
In opinion of...
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Interested in Improving the Sound of Your Stereo? Consider Records
Introduced in 1982, the compact disc was intended to provide better sound than the 40-year-old long-play record album, popularly known as the LP. Using a laser rather than a diamond needle for playback the compact disc was smaller, more convenient to use, and less susceptible to damage than the LP. A bonus was that the format was said to offer “perfect sound forever.” “Forever” isn’t that long these days; improvements in digital sound have come along in the last twenty years and the music industry introduced two new formats this decade that are designed to improve upon the “perfect” sound of the compact disc. Those formats are the Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) and DVD Audio (DVD-A.) Over the years, various audio publications have criticized the sound of compact discs, describing the sound as “harsh”, “brittle” or “sterile” compared to the sound of the LP. After years of research, SACD and DVD-A were introduced several years ago and introduced sound that was said to be cleaner and more natural than that of the compact disc. In addition, these formats offered multi-channel sound, and artists such as Pink Floyd offered special multi-channel versions of their albums to entice sales. It hasn’t worked, and sales of both formats peaked in 2003. What is interesting, however, is that both formats still trail the LP in sales!
According to the Recording Industry Association of America, the combined sales of SACD and DVD-A were less than those of the LP in 2004. The music industry is in a slump at the moment, and sales of all formats were down last year. But sales of LPs were down 13% from 2003, while combined SACD and DVD-A sales were down 33%. It would appear that the new formats are failing, even though they are said to be superior to the compact disc. The LP, on the other hand, continues to have steady sales. While the major labels are still somewhat hesitant to release new product in LP form, labels that specialize in reissuing older material, such as Classic Records, are releasing as much product as their manufacturing capacity will permit. It is worth noting that much of this reissued product comes in the form of high-quality, limited edition LP pressings that often carry premium prices of up to $50 per title. Why are records continuing to sell while the new formats fail?
There are
several reasons why records are outselling the new, “superior” digital disc formats:
Format wars. Like VHS vs. Beta in the 1970’s, the SACD and DVD-A formats are largely incompatible. While players have been introduced that will play either one, most players play either one format or the other. Worse, neither one will play on a traditional CD player. You must replace your player to play either one.
Multichannel sound is difficult to use and requires purchasing new amplification equipment. SACD and DVD-A both have multichannel capabilities, but neither format’s players have digital outputs. Both must be connected to amplifiers or receivers with special SACD or DVD-A analog inputs.
Most of the music fans who preferred the sound of records to compact discs still prefer the sound of records to either SACD or DVD-A. Most will agree that while the new formats sound better than compact discs, the unique “digital” sound of compact discs is still there.
Many listeners aren’t interested in sound quality. Arguments can always be made about the sound of compact disc vs records vs SACD vs DVD-A, but millions of consumers are content to listen to music in MP3 format on portable players. MP3 format is inherently inferior in sound quality to all of the other formats, but MP3 players are selling as fast as companies can make them.
The day will never come when records again become the dominant music format. The convenience of portable players for CD, SACD, and DVD-A discs and MP3 files outweighs the advantages in sound quality that records offer over those formats. Nevertheless, it appears that a small but steady market for records remains very real, and that that market exceeds that of the new “improved” SACD and DVD-A formats, which will probably soon go the way of the forgotten Elcassette, Minidisc, and 4 track tape formats of the past.
About the Author
©Copyright 2005 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier owns Retro Marketing, a firm that operates several retail Websites, including AluminumChristmasTrees.net, a site devoted to vintage aluminum Christmas trees and accessories, and RarePinkFloyd.com, a site devoted to rare records, compact discs and memorabilia by the band Pink Floyd.
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| Yahoo! Music - Internet Radio, Music Videos, Artists, Music News ... |
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| All Music Guide |
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| College Music Society |
| It is a consortium of colleges, conservatories, universities, and independent musicians and scholars. Dedicated to gathering, considering, and disseminating ... |
| www.music.org |
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| Apple - iPod + iTunes |
| Complete line of flash memory and hard drive-based music, video, and media content players. Includes technical specifications, video clips, interactive demo ... |
| www.apple.com |
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| Music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Music theory, within this realm, is studied with the pre-supposition that music is ... Amateur musicians compose and perform music for their own pleasure, ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Worldwide Internet Music Resources |
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| BBC - Music |
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| Pandora Internet Radio - Find New Music, Listen to Free Web Radio |
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| Yahoo! Music UK - Free Music Videos, Internet Radio, Music Charts ... |
| The latest official UK music charts, talent and music industry news and special areas. Includes chart commentary and music news round up. |
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| Napster |
| Add Music to Your IM, Email and Web Pages ... To see the terms for our Music Store and Subscription Service, click HERE. © 2003-2006, Napster, LLC. ... |
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| Read About Music News, Billboard Charts, Music Videos & Ringtones ... |
| Billboard.com is the music entertainment industry source for music news, information, and the popular Billboard Music Charts. |
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| Lycos Music - Music Home |
| Comprehensive search engine by Lycos. Site also has news, reviews and information on players, encoders and rippers. |
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| Welcome - Music India OnLine |
| Has a large collection of music and songs classified by type, language and region. All downloads are streamed through RealAudio. |
| www.musicindiaonline.com |
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| calendarlive.com - MUSIC |
| Concerts, album reviews, pop, jazz and classical music news from the Los Angeles Times. |
| www.calendarlive.com |
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| CLASSICAL MUSIC ARCHIVES - CLASSICAL MUSIC |
| Contains thousands of classical music files in MIDI format as well as live recordings. New contributions are solicited. A search engine is included. |
| www.classicalarchives.com |
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