Hawkwind question for Ian

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On 02 Feb 2009, at 09:01 , Steve Freight wrote:
> Ah but what do you actually get for your money?

The music -- which I wouldn't get otherwise!


> where's the disc, the artwork etc.

Usually questions I have had to ask anyway when the CD I ordered  
"disappears" in what passes for the local "postal system" .... ;)

No, understand this point of view -- hey, when I was a teen, I  
thought CDs were clearly the invention of Satan -- but I also can't  
get my head around it anymore.  If I go to a concert, there's no  
artwork -- just the music (and, OK, a bit of a light show, but I  
didn't go to the gig for that!).  And if it weren't for the  
inescapable fact that in the past it was _necessary_ to sell recorded  
music as a physical object, there wouldn't have ever been any  
packaging in any case.  Sure, it's nice that people have, over the  
last few decades, found interesting and creative things to do with  
that until-now necessary packaging ... but for me, it's not nearly as  
important as the music. I can merrily do without it.

Right now, for me, ordering CDs is basically impossible -- but  
downloading is easy-peasy.  And its a simple fact that there are vast  
audiences on this planet that are out of reach of shops or postal  
delivery but increasingly have ever faster access to the internet.   
If one wants to tap those audiences (and we can hardly start from the  
supposition that musicians -- especially working musicians -- _don't_  
want larger audiences for their creations), vinyl LPs and even CDs in  
a box are just not gonna cut it.


> And if you don't like it you can sell on - can't do that with digital
> downloads.


This is, of course, more or less true -- though a sensible system  
would let you stream something at low bitrates and then buy higher  
bitrates if you liked it.  Admittedly, in my specific case, I there's  
no practical way for me to sell things on anyway, so it wouldn't  
matter. :)  But, in an ideal system, the costs of production and  
delivery would likewise drop, so the music _should_ cost less (which  
is not to say that record companies are not going to be dumb enough  
try to screw us for _more_ money when there is less product!).


> Downloads to me are a record label con job (I would only buy or  
> download if
> you can't physically buy a hard copy).


For me, the con is that low-bit rate digital copies still usually  
cost about as much as the CD.  I _should_ be able to buy CD-quality  
FLACs for _less_ than the CD (there being, after all, no physical  
product to produce or truck about the planet).  You can sometimes do  
this, but it's still quite uncommon.  I refuse to buy MP3s or AACs  
that are of lower bit rates than the CD would have but cost  
effectively the same, track for track, as the CD.


> Each to their own though.



True enough!  Still, since my local shops don't have a wide  
selection, I _can't_ effectively order physical CDs with reasonable  
expectations of arrival (and even if I could, delivery would be  
unattractively expensive), I don't have much hope _except_ for the  
growth of CD-quality digital downloads ... or, alternatively, ever  
more online piracy!  I leave it to the record industry, in its  
wisdom, to choose which of those will become most easily available to  
me .... ;)

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/