A really interesting compare/contrast between the information found on the label of a record and the info in iTunes (and, by extension, the data found in almost any mp3 tag).

Jazz has remained a very accessible art form partly because fans are educated by their own music collections. Albums employed text, photographs and graphic design to illustrate how a network of artists created a musical language together.
Without the physical album, online music stores will play a much larger role in teaching new listeners about jazz. While institutions, educators and preservationists will soon face the same challenges, music stores will be the first to use digital interfaces to educate the listening public about jazz.

Really a must read. As I was reading, it got me to thinking about the change in information over the last few years (digital media and no). Shrinking the package from vinyl to CD gave artists less real estate to work with when they were projecting their ideas to the public. I don't know if a modern day labbel would justify the expense incumbent to cover art of any magnitude (think Bitches Brew).

At the same time, the explosion of virtual real estate would seem to expand the horizons of people, but that doesn't always seem to be the case. I know that I get lazy when it comes to this sort of detail. A DVD can hold more information about almost any artist than most people will ever want to know — 99% will never put it in the player. I'm making up that stat, but I have good reason to think it.

Case in point — Oteil Burbridge's Family Secret. It's actually much more than a CD — it's a double disc release, both a CD and DVD. I love Oteil's work and his playing. I listened to the CD nonstop for about two or three weeks before moving on to other things. It was only a few weeks ago that I got around to dropping the DVD into my player, and even then it was on as background while I did other things. And, not to toot my own horn, but I'm both a fan and serious about music. Couple that with my techno-geek nature and you might think that would pre-select me to be exact kind of person that would be enthralled at the availablility of a DVD, but I didn't do it. From that, I would suspect that more will not be looking at online offerings than will.