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THE FUTURE OF THE MUSIC BUSINESS / Re: CDs are dead (almost)

« on: November 10, 2010, 11:34:15 am »

Up until about a month and a half ago, I was COMPLETELY tied to physical formats (tapes, vinyl, cds) and I just couldn't understand people who downloaded all their music (whether they paid for it or not). Admittedly, a large part of the reason for this is that I've sunk a good chunk of change into a quality stereo system and speakers...I just can not fathom playing compressed mp3s through my cherished tube amp (even if I'd be hard pressed to hear a difference!) I've also always enjoyed having an OBJECT to hold and stare at as I listened...even if it was just a cassette inlay or cd case...for whatever reason I like to have a physical object. This changed recently though after taking a shot at incorporating a squeezebox touch into my stereo system...the convenience of the whole thing has completely changed my mind on buying digital music. I still have ZERO interest in mp3 for the reason I mentioned above, but I've recently been buying music from Boomkat in FLAC format. The sound quality is absolutely in line with, if not better than my reference cd player and the convenience and ease of buying flac files at 3am has me seriously considering going digital as my primary listening source. I'm still buying cds, tapes and vinyl primarily, as many labels have yet to offer files in WAV for flac format. Editions Mego and Raster both provide Boomkat with flac format files, and it's been awesome not having to pay shipping and wait for the physical items to arrive via mail. I've been eagerly awaiting for the time when 12K offers their music in an uncompressed format! I  missed the boat on the Line Mark Fell record and stare at it on itunes regularly, though I can't pull the trigger on those mp3s!
On a related note, don't even get me started on people who want their music for free...truly mind boggling. I really like what Warp has done recently by offering really nice vinyl packages that include an option to download mp3, WAV or flac format files...this is really the best of all possible scenarios for me...