Spotify

Didn't check the second page earlier. Replying to both posts in one:

No ones disagreeing with you about the streaming issue. I just find it odd that you think the solution is analogue.

Plenty of past discussion here, not very focused, though.

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15213828/

It's not a 'solution' for all ills, e.g. people who don't really listen to music and only want to play a silly dance beat on their mobile phone still won't care. That's fine, but unfortunately the stampede for convenience usually diminishes quality.

More and more musicians might be going back to physical media, but it’s still a heavier burden to invest in that than digital music.
I still buy my music in digital form in high quality.

See below.

Well I dunno how much music he actually listens to on a daily basis so it’s my fault.

A *lot*. It's also not a purely personal interest.

Whomever is on this thread is somewhat uneasy about the current structure of music consumption, but I see little point in blaming musicians or making people trawl 3 for 1 CD’s at a shop.

@Oliver Schick I’m sorry but you currently sound like ‘old man shaking fist at sky’. The analogue vs digital debate is flogging a dead horse. 320 or FLAC is just fine. Most people couldn’t tell you the difference. People want to listen to and enjoy music, not debate the nuances of ‘warm sound’ on vinyl. Move on.

No, that's just because you don't know the difference I'm talking about. I used not to, either, it had to be shown to me. I don't think I would have noticed on my own. Digitisation cuts off the top and bottom end of the signal and dirties it. A single digital step is enough to ruin a recording process. The so-called 'clean' CD sound is merely stripped of a crucial aesthetic quality. It took me a few goes to hear it, but once you do, you understand. You then also realise that it's not actually a subtle difference, and that no matter what the 'resolution' of a digital file, it is impossible for it to emulate this quality. The upshot is that digital recording is aesthetically impoverished and people have been being short-changed by a naïve futurism in jettisoning a very advanced technology for one that's jolly useful in a number of ways (such as ubiquitous proliferation), but poor in the main core respect.

The 'warm sound on vinyl' stuff is obviously nonsense. It's people fetishising the physical material over the underlying recording quality, e.g. trying to improve the sound of digitised sources by pressing them on vinyl. Vinyl and magnetic tape only happen to be the two main reproduction media we have so far found for analogue sound. There's every possibility that better ones could yet be found, just like shellac was replaced after a couple of decades (still loads of scratched 78s in charity shops), but what's important is the quality of the underlying recording. I'm not sure why the various mentions above didn't make it clear what I think of putting digital files on LPs? Obviously, following the Great Bonfire of the Master Tapes, the mainstream music industry is just a wee bit fuxored when it comes to reissuing many of its greatest hits in a proper format, so let's try to pull the wool over people's eyes and sell them overpriced stuff in poor quality again ...

One of my favourite signs ever was in the previous incarnation of HMV in that same shop: 'Upstairs: Music and Vinyl'. It always makes me laugh to think of it. Sadly, they don't have it any more (probably in part because music and vinyl are now downstairs). To think about 'vinyl' first is a superficial misunderstanding, however nice that packaging or the strawberry-shaped neon ultramarine glittery coloured vinyl wotsit might be.

How’s that HMV vinyl section since I used to manage it 20 years ago?

Have you not been there yet? Most of that new HMV shop seems to be a tat shop. The ground floor is 100% awful. Records are in the basement, and that's where you see the glory of £40 LPs, and I'm sure I could have found much more expensive ones if I'd tried. Compared to the old HMVs, it's tiny, a very small selection, and pretty sad. It also tries to do that 'let's make it look like a small independent record shop, with untidy hand-scrawled signs and errything' thing. I haven't bought anything there yet apart from a drastically reduced copy of Dave Davies' memoir. Not impressed, but I wouldn't know the first thing about running such a business when yes, if people are interested in LPs, it's probably just for 'warm sound on vinyl'.