Quality Control

[Tony Sakr <sakr91@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

It seems the 'virtual' vs. 'real' (audio) distribution question is rearing 
it's head again: Napster is in the news on what seems a near-daily basis; 
Fraunhofer's near-ubiquitous .mp3 format is facing a strong challenge by Ogg 
Vorbis' open-source, but more importantly patent and license-free, .ogg 
format; and '100% digital labels' are springing up at an alarming rate...

In the light of this, I wonder if the list has an opinion on 'virtual' vs. 
'real' releases. It's an interesting discussion which has potentially 
massive implications for the way in which media/data/information are 
currently distributed and, perhaps more importantly, may be distributed in 
the future.

Has anyone else, for example, been startled by the sheer number of "New 
works added by .tiln...!". At times there seem to be upwards of 
one/two/three/more a day!? The words 'quality' and 'control' spring to mind. 
Don't get me wrong, I think .tiln is (or was) a fantastic place and I 
applaud the concept, but, of late, it seems to be suffering from a severe 
case of lack of editorial rigor.

Perhaps the heart of the problem lies in the sheer ease with which - pardon 
the pun - virtually anyone can now become involved in 'publishing'. 
Establishing a 'virtual' label to unleash an infinite number of 'virtual' 
releases is as simple as hiring some server space and learning some .html.

If a '<100% digital/non-digital' label releases a CD (or even a CDR) it 
involves a significant investment in time, but more importantly, a 
significant investment in money. It is the money, in this instance, that is 
one of the keys to the equation. Money (or lack of) forces you to look at 
things (or listen to them) and question them closely. It almost instills a 
sense of 'by default' editorial policy.

Perhaps this is why we don't see 'real' labels churning out endless 
quantites of ill-thought out filler which, more often than not, tend to be 
the results of a string of presets and borrowed Max/Msp patches. Keyword: 
Edit.

The question we might ask is this: Is digital audio truly the free-for-all 
panacea it claims to be or is it simply an unfortunate curse contributing 
yet more data to our already overloaded ears?

Sakr


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