we had a televisionshow on the belgium television about the "best" flemish songs of the past years, people could vote on a website: http://www.voxpop.be/tv1_master/subsite/voxpop/v oxpop_homepage/index.html (i didn't vote because i coudn't find 3 good songs in the available collection). now there is an ad on the radio: "buy the songs online, for only 2.00 euro / piece" ($2.478 at the moment). but all those songs are old! $2.5 for an old piece of music, thats probably allready on some kind of compilationsdisc you have..
when cd's are compared to songs in ogg, mp3, wma or whatever comprimed music format, not only practical issues should be considered.
an album is more than a list of song on a physical medium, it is a concept.
it might be easier to download a song than go out and buy the cd, but by donwloading it you get less. an album is a concept that goes beyond a single song, or a collection of songs in a well chosen order. it consists of a box with a specific weight, texture, even smell. open the box and you find a booklet giving you images, texts and maybe other things, wich the artist wanted you to see before or while listening to the music.
a cd is not only a physical medium for the music, but for the whole concept that the artist created and gives context to the individual songs, wich helps the music to be understood or enjoyed in a more complete way.
to conclude: an album involves more senses than the hearing alone, a downloaded musicfile doesn't.
Slashdot Mirror
we had a televisionshow on the belgium television about the "best" flemish songs of the past years, people could vote on a website:v oxpop_homepage/index.html
http://www.voxpop.be/tv1_master/subsite/voxpop/
(i didn't vote because i coudn't find 3 good songs in the available collection).
now there is an ad on the radio: "buy the songs online, for only 2.00 euro / piece" ($2.478 at the moment). but all those songs are old!
$2.5 for an old piece of music, thats probably allready on some kind of compilationsdisc you have..
rather expensive, no?
nope,
..
then you have all the numbers in the right order, but still no further context, like images, texts,
this could be solved with a flash-like file containing all the music and the artistic context, but still, no feel, no smell..
when cd's are compared to songs in ogg, mp3, wma or whatever comprimed music format, not only practical issues should be considered.
an album is more than a list of song on a physical medium, it is a concept.
it might be easier to download a song than go out and buy the cd, but by donwloading it you get less. an album is a concept that goes beyond a single song, or a collection of songs in a well chosen order. it consists of a box with a specific weight, texture, even smell. open the box and you find a booklet giving you images, texts and maybe other things, wich the artist wanted you to see before or while listening to the music.
a cd is not only a physical medium for the music, but for the whole concept that the artist created and gives context to the individual songs, wich helps the music to be understood or enjoyed in a more complete way.
to conclude: an album involves more senses than the hearing alone, a downloaded musicfile doesn't.