In the future, where we "know" that all music will be delivered digitally ( you know...no actual objects you can touch...just downloadable stuff (I don't thing this will really happen, but that's just me)), will anything go "out of print"?
A related issue: access to 'historical' (read: "old") recordings. Since there will be no "record" stores, how will a person discover older music? Heck, this really does apply to new music as well.
I started thinking about this stuff yesterday after listening to an interview with King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew. In particular, the segment on reaching new and younger audiences. Adrian points out that he's had a recording career for over 25 years....and how does he make his music known to the younger audience that he just knows is out there?
Similarly, how will a person in our perfect, digital future discover music that's new to them? Web (or whatever it is by then) searching? Online browsing?
I do know people who don't have much use for cd stores. These are definitely not your typical "RIAA enemies" who pay for nothing (oh please, oh please...may we be talking about the RIAA in the past tense in our "perfect future"). They just aren't all that interested in in-person browsing. Most of their music is purchased online (Amazon, etc).
I may be showing my age here (and please, don't let me get started about vinyl!) but this just doesn't work for me. "Browsing" for cd's on the internet is so...uhmm...unfulfilling...compared to flipping through stacks of cds at a store. It reminds me of those "dinner pills" the Jetsons used to swallow. A nice, convenient idea but....no thanks. I mean, there have been so many recordings I've stumbled across while doing a record/cd "troll" at the store. This is possible (I guess) online....but...hmmm, I dunno.
I've got no answers here. We don't even really know how the current recording industry mess is going to shake out.
Ideas, anybody?
(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)
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Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
I can't imagine music never having a physical media that you buy. People want to "own" things, even if by "owning" a CD you simply own a physical license to listen to the music (a fact few people really seem to grasp - music is only licensed to you and delivered via whatever form of media you choose to purchase it on - you don't own the music ON the media.) I think we will see brave attempts to dispense with the media, but ultimately people will want something to hold and look at - if they're paying for it.
I'm with you - my week's not complete unless I get a chance to slowly scour the racks at my local music store. Searching online is unfulfilling, again, like you say.
I don't hear much about bookstores being worried about e-readers replacing real books. I think they're much more realistic about the impact electronic media may impose on the world. I just don't want to read on a computer monitor or a PDA-equivalent. People want to own books. I think people want to own music, too.
2 - Mark Saleski
yes, the same argument applies to books as well. while i can see some advantages of e-books (mostly in the academic realm), there's nothing interesting there for me.
i just don't enjoy reading anything that's longer than a page on a computer screen. at work i print out documentation and read it from paper.
3 - Jim S
Both mediums have their value. I've been known to scour the racks at a music store AND I do quite a bit of online browsing (mostly stuff like Mp3.com and sites where you find unsigned/self-distributed bands), and buying on amazon, etc.
I don't think you'll ever see record stored disappear. The mediums might change (although, they'll probably still be called "record" stores for some reason... CD shop or Music place doesn't have the ring, does it?), but they'll still sell the physical music for a couple of reasons.
like you already said, there's the comfort of browsing/trolling a record store. There's also a market of people who won't buy online and/or don't have access (think technophiles, people who have security issues, cash-only obsessives, etc.). Lastly, there's the instant gratification and/or compulsion shoppers. There's always going to be a market for the stores.
The real key to the digital revolution (so to speak) is to create a business plan that has the stores and the online distribution working hand-in-hand. THAT is what the record companies and the RIAA have failed to do.... eventually, it'll probably happen, but they ARE being dragged into it, kicking and screaming.