High End Audio-Gaining Higher Ground?

It's an interesting paradox that commercialism is generally considered a bad thing for music, yet that is how a musician would get paid for making music.

On the flip side, a true artist and music lover does it because that is what they like to do. They might make some money playing live on the side still, but how many can make a living just being a musician? Not many, ever!

Music/record companies are becoming almost irrelevant these days, except as a way to make money by hyping lowest common denominator pop stars that are more about sex appeal, visuals and pop culture as they are about anything having to do with serious music.

I think we are too caught up in our ideas of what good sound means and thus what the high end is about. I think audio is being repositioned in the minds of many consumers, especially young people. Its why Apple bought Beats. They see the opportunity in a way other companies don't. Check out vox.com and look for the article on the music industry written in response to an op eds piece in the WSJ by Taylor Swift (yes, that Taylor Swift). I read it today. Embedded in it is a video with Jimmy Iovine and Ed Cue from Apple... Between the lines you can figure out why this deal happened. Its fascinating to me as a marketing guy who started out selling audio 40 years ago. I am not sure the opportunity is truly for a high end user base yet...but most consumer markets segment out ultimately to have a 10-20% component that is premium oriented whether that means luxury,performance etc. Why couldn't that be the NEW Hugh end uuser? Check out the discussion. Its not just about streaming music...there is more there. Apple has lots of consumer analytics data. I think they are looking to disrupt audio more. After all, that's what the iPod did...now maybe they will fix or alter more if what they broke!

Children are more qualitatively than quantitatively driven. Recognition of quality comes into thinking and evaluation as an individual evolves from child to adult. It is wrong to believe that adulthood is met at a scheduled time threshold like age 21. Some individuals are precocious enough to perceive a qualitative hierarchy early in life and most (Americans, at least) never seem to develop this ability.
All of this leads to the fact that the majority of us just don't comprehend differences in quality. The much heralded "dumbing down" that I see taking place is demonstrated by reality TV, movie quality and theming, rap, and numerous other social indicators. We are devolving through compromised education and over-control of the marketplace and media. As a result, education which used to develop the individual into a fully functioning mature person, now reaches very few effectively. And since an ever fewer number of us can perceive genuine quality any longer, the marketers are taking over and obsoleting the engineers. The product offerings contain less material and more fantasy all the time. We are forsaking substance for appearances as a society and our buying habits are slowly being altered to satisfy ever larger profit margins. This will not end well. The products are ephemera in both utility and durability and the landfills are topping out with this gradue. But we are dumb, fat and happy, fa la la la la la la.
Please see a film called Idiocracy.

Are we any more dumbed down really these days than say our parents were back in the post war 1950's?.

I agree that we are, but not that its anything new.

The difference is today there are many outlets for one to get information from if one only chooses to find it.

Used to be we were spoon fed whatever gov. and corporations of the day wanted to feed us with little recourse. Now at least there is. My kids for example get it I think and are not dumb.

Flip side is one still has to sort through all the noise to detect the real information. Not always an easy task.

Listening to music used to be a communal event years ago. A bunch of friends get together, put on an album and then sit there to enjoy it. In this day and age of personal audio, sharing the emotional impact of the music you listen to is next to impossible when wearing a pair Beats headphones. On top of that, the thought of sitting still to do anything today is frowned upon by most. If your not constantly in motion then your considered lazy and not serious. The culture has changed and good sound is more readily available without spending $20k for an amplifier. High end audio has its place but that place is shrinking by the day...