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Re: [microsound] Physical Media - aura in an age of immaterial reproduction



Regarding Graham Miller's comments on digital music:
"a business model for the future of all music artists and an age of
infinite downloadable reproduction: ..."

I see where you are going with all of this, and I think it is a viable
business model for some artists. Moreover, I agree that threatening
people with lawsuits is the wrong way for record companies to adapt to
a changing market. I think nowadays they all know that too. That said,
I remain unconvinced that it is inevitable that digital music will be
reduced to a marketing device for other things like t-shirts and live
events. Certainly some people will happily continue to download as
much free music as possible no matter what happens, but I believe many
people are attracted to file-sharing more by the ease of use /
convenience than by the fact that you don't have to pay. Now there are
many reasonably priced, easy to use, well-stocked digital music sites
(iTunes store, emusic.com, and bleep.com for example), and from what I
gather they are faring pretty well. There was a gap between consumer
demand and what was available in terms of digital music, but as far as
I'm concerned it is being filled.

As far as physical media goes, I say why worry about it. If vinyl
hasn't died out already, it probably isn't in any danger of doing so.
As other people have pointed out, it is less the media in itself than
the way of interacting with music it entails that gives it its
tenacity. I think vinyl enthusiasts are confused if they think its the
physicality itself that is the issue. Likewise, if the most
interesting thing on offer wrt CD packaging is fancy materials and
liner notes, frankly I'm not going to miss it. Why is collecting nice
CD cases such a great thing anyways? Maybe I just haven't seen any
mind-blowing packaging.

Instead of worrying about how to make more people collect CD's, I say
people should start thinking about creating new ways for people to
interact with digital music. In other words, create lifestyles like DJ
culture but built around digital music. This could be the new
"packaging."  Many artist websites are boring, even when they're nice
to look at. A good many of them fail to exploit even the most obvious
distinctive functionalities of the web, like discussion boards, to
their advantage. Artists could make listening to their music a way to
meet new people or learn new things. A while ago Bip-Hop released some
CD's full of simple music software with sounds designed by the
artists. This is a good example of exploiting the possibilities of
digital music. Also, someone made a comment about DJ culture
representing an interface between physical gestures and music. Why not
think up new ways of accomplishing this? People who make electronic
music often have impressive technical / programming skills; we should
put them to use.

Miller Peterson

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