Neil Young’s Lonely Quest to Save Music
jnorris2005 ... this also could be a comment on the fact that fewer and fewer humans are actually involved in the creation of music.On what do you base this "fact?" It seems to me that more people than ever are making music, often taking advantage of technology that simplifies creating it and recording it. |
I agree Cleeds. Streaming and services like Spotify means we are entering a golden age of published music. I can listen to musicians from the world over the barriers to entry for unsigned acts to have people access their music are incredibly low. Maybe Neil is just rattled by suddenly facing competition from 10s of thousands of talented musicians for the public's ear time. Of course streaming also increases access to even established acts and music from generations past even. Since I started streaming I'm now listening to material recorded 20 , 30, years before I was born. Some spectacular stuff that never plays on the radio channels I use in the car. Previously everyone's frame of reference used to be what records , tapes , cds friends and family played and that can be very narrow sub set of what you can find on streaming services. I'm enjoying music from my youth , young adult life , all the fabulous modern signed acts and some great stuff from the 50s 60s and 70s and I'm appreciating world music too.... All this with good sound quality for £10 a month , how lucky we are. Theres a bonus too. Now I'm not contributing to further demise of the planet by making , packaging and distribution of all that plastic. I'm using the money saved to experience more live music events and improve my system. |
I think there are more people creating music now than anytime in history with the advent of computer technology. Case in point is my brilliant Silicon Valley buddy who moved back to India and created a software system to create traditional India music. He wanted people without means to be able to create music. |
an obvious point being missed here is why major recording lables are not posting their artists albums in online HD accessible formats thus bypassing physical production of discs and their associated packaging. if no HD versions of the recorded masters is doable, then at least post the Red book lossless versions. or they will or should soon pursue a third party facilitator to aggregate and dispense those digital files for them. I’m not keen on upsampled files merely taken from Red Book formats. an old adage here said trash in, and its trash out. upsampling does nothing to aid increases in fidelity. it takes a natively rendered HD format to actually achieve higher resolution. that said, higher res files vs streaming each has its place. there is content out there which will not be enhanced by upsampling, yet will be acceptable provided in lossy formats, ie., vintage era music from before the ’90s on average. I use Apple Music and am not thrilled with all of its ins and outs, though the catalog is impressive for discovery and arranging playlists. Spodofy prem is my second but only streaming app and I find it a tick or so above Apple in SQ, but not quite so friendly with user defined playlists creation. at some point going forward major lables will undoubtedly provide their Artists natively cut tracks. some independants already do. that is the next wave to come. Neil is right. lossy music has anestasized an entire generation from what music is to what music is supposed to be. there is a Youtube vid which has several audio gurus paneling a discussion on the genre. Van der steen, d’Agostino, McGowan, Noodle, and Stewart from Meridian. its hosted by the TAS editor. in it Bob S makes a great analogy about the present state of affairs on lossey vs lossless music, and our latest generation’s designs on it/them. in all a highly rec’d video. |
