A Musical Dilemma Part 2

Something about myself. I have a predilection for collecting. When I was young, it was comic books. As I got older it grew from that to books, VHS, CDs, and DVDs. At some point, MP3s became a part of that too. But it has taken me a while to take it seriously. I looked at these bits of information as something of a throwaway commodity. I think part of that came from the rise of the MP3. I sometimes wonder if MP3s would be where they are today, if not for the days of Napster and illegal downloading (as if those days ever came to an end in some circles). I suppose based on what I know of the ease of MP3, that it was somewhat destined to become the format of the masses. much to the chagrin of audio elitists everywhere. If I read any more about the wonderful, beautiful, god like virtue of FLAC or Oggvorbis I may puke. As Prince once said, it's all 1s and 0s no matter what the format, and that "math" isn't good to listen to. He also once shouted "No format!", so I really have no idea what the man is talking about. My point is, there is no difference between the digital formats. If you believe there is, chances are you champion vinyl as well, and I rest my case.

My real point from above, was that without Napster letting those darned kids, that I once was and still very much feel like sometimes, download with abandon, we might not be listening to MP3s. The popularity of downloading MP3s forced the music industry to adopt MP3 as the go to file format. True, the industry was pulled there by it's hair (kicking and screaming the whole way), but it got there finally. So (back to what I was saying) while the rise in popularity of downloading may have brought about the new format, it was seen largely as a throwaway commodity. Wanna hear the new crap band single? Download it for free. But it's a new week, and another shitty band has released an even shiter song everyone will be talking about! Simply hit delete, and last weeks single is gone and forgotten. No fuss, no muss. Whatever that means. What exactly is muss? And for a good portion of the 2000s that's how easy it was to get music. Until some people actually felt they should get paid for their badly made music. Not to get off on yet another tangent, but that argument has always bothered me. If the bands that were being downloaded on Napster were making such terrible music, why download it at all? What is the point of owning bad music illegal or otherwise? Just always had a problem with that defense.*

The idea that MP3s were indeed here to stay, was when MP3s went legit and the MP3 player was born. Unfortunately this was cemented when lemmings formed a big line to buy the iPod. I say unfortunately because I always felt that people deserved better than that device. And certainly better than the terrible iTunes. I don't think I have disliked a software more, until the Zune software arrived. The iTunes software has some good points it's not all bad, I just... forget it. I'm getting off topic again. However I may feel about iTunes and it's terrible practices, the fact remains that it proved to be a major turning point in how people bought music. I resisted for several reasons. I like the album artwork. I like the feeling opening a new CD, and putting it inside my stereo for the first time. I like the look of a CD collection on display. What is the MP3 equivalent? Scrolling through a persons MP3 player. At least with a collection a smattering of people can admire/mock what they see. Is everyone going to stand in line to scroll through your player? That's a boring party. Also while scrolling, I can see your face react to my collection. Just bad all around.

I suppose it finally came down to how much money I was spending. As a younger twenty-something money didn't matter to me, because I never had any. Then I got older. I started realizing that $8 for an MP3 copy (opposed to $16 for a hard copy) meant I had a lot more money for music! Yes I have spent an awful lot of time going on about the virtues of a physical collection. However most of that was spent describing notions that I long since outgrew. I do still prefer a nice physical copy as opposed to digital. If it's something special that I feel I should have the physical copy, I will go out of my way to get it.

There are two things that stop me from going full on digital. One is liner notes. Liner notes are an important part of my music listening experience. Since my digital revolution, I have changed my habits as a necessity. This problem is slowly changing, hopefully, with some web sites giving you a pdf file of the liner notes. This is great, and should be done for every album on every site that sells MP3s. The second problem I have has to do with local record stores. While logically I can dispense these notions, I have a real connection to these stores. I have spent many years scouring these establishments discovering new bands, albums would never have come across, and just plain discovering. I feel a sense of guilt not supporting these fine establishments. However, the employees of said establishments have been pretty big dicks in the past. Oh well, dinosaurs have a way of dying out.

I guess it comes down to the fact that I will collect music in whatever format I deem the most viable. If it started being put out on thumb drives, I'd think it was a terrible waste, but I'd probably be down. A collector born, a collector I will die.






*I understand that "bad music" is a subjective term, and that chances are those bands thought their music that was being downloaded illegally was in fact "good music". Don't tell them otherwise, it might hurt their feelings.