Better stock up now....BMG music service runs some good sales now since sales are way down, Alligator records, Acoustic Sounds, CD Connection.com

I can't resist grabbing this rare opportunity to agree with DUP. "Stock up now..." is good advice. I've been doing it for some time because I feel as you do about the music I own. Just because he dotes on the biggest ugliest speakers known to man, wires'em up with stuff from the garage sale circuit, and plays 'em so loud he has God covering his ears doesn't mean he's wrong all the time. This time I'm afraid he got it right.

Tonight I'm seeing a future where artists own their own work and we download directly from their sites.

Then, we can make a disc or just keep the stuff in the computer or other device.

We can pay for the degree of fidelity we want based on the bandwidth it takes to transmit the data.

(Hi FI always costs extra, eh?)

Prices will stabilize below current rates because instead of labels, groups of similar artists may share websites or a link network.

I predict ten bucks for the equivalent of what a CD is now.

We will also be encouraged to join "fan clubs" that will provide "free content" for their subscribers. We kind of already see this with many artists with members being able to get get good seats to their shows.

Labels will cease to exist, other than providing fee for service for promotion or marketing via their "name" to assist artists in getting exposure.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it until tomorrow.

Music should be art. Unfortunately, it is usually viewed as a disposable commodity. Sell a million units this month, next month 999,999,000 are in the $2 used bins, and that's fine with the record companies. If the artist got a bigger slice of the pie I'd be all for downloading music, as long as it was at the same or higher resolution than we have today. But don't kid yourself, the distribution method may change but it will still be the same suits running it.

Unfortunatley, I think that it will happen sooner than any of us can imagine. Face it, another term for the "consumer" should be MORON. The "consumer" wants Convenient, Cheap, and they don't care a bit about Quality. Frankly, I think that download files are an ABOMINATION. Granted, in the uncompressed form, digital audio approaches real quality. However, the "consumer" isn't going to wait around for the 100 plus mb that a 3 minute song would require, not when a 1.2 mb files sounds sort of like music. Keep in mind that the typical "consumer" has NEVER heard a well recorded LP played over a decent sound system so they actually think those over compressed MP-3 files actually sound good. The simple fact is that it's the "consumer" who is driving the train and they have no reference as to what music should actually sound like. The problem is that when the "consumer" does his shopping on the net instead of actually visiting a physical record shop, those record shops have to close. Think about it, when is the last time you saw an LP at one of the Big Box stores? It won't be too long before you won't be able to find a CD there either. The simple fact is if it doesn't sell it gets taken off the shelf and downloading music over the net is just too darn easy. So, go on a buying binge while you still can because it won't be long before the only way that most of us will be able to buy a physical record will be by ordering it over the net. I know that I wish that I had bought a lot more LP's when I could because what's available now is only the "Big Sellers", the minor pressings are gone forever.

I think what most of us have forgotten is that we have been "downloading" since the advent of AM/FM and black and white TV.

Now with downloadable HD TV it seems the future of music downloading is slightly behind. I do think the likes of the major music labels who do CARE about quality will devise a way of getting us full(er) format wav+ files we can easily live with.

Even though watching movie DVD's in 480P is pretty nice, Blueray/HD DVD is about even better video...we hope. I do like my music in "hard" form, but the future will probably hold something different.

Does it really matter that each night we leave our computers on to download some new HI-REZ music we just bought to store on our HD to "Print" our own "physical" copies as we see fit. With the inexpensive DiscWelder program I see the future as different, not necessarily worse...but time will tell there.

Maybe they can find a way to "pack" DVD-A and DSD and we can at our end make it like "puffed rice", bigger than ever. If it remains 192K files or worse then the music business will suffer and we will suffer more that most.

High Def DVD

I'm somwhat surprised that people give the music consumers of the past any credit at all.

The LP era was only coincidentally Hi FI.

Consumers had moved through wax cylinders, 78's, and mono before the stereo LP hit.

After a brief ascendancy, LP was replaced by 8-track tapes and cassettes.

Then came CD.

It seems consumers have never cared all that much for the highest fidelity, so why criticize them for not caring about the fidelity of the next dominant format?

Besides, even during the LP's golden age, hardly any consumers ever heard a "properly played back" LP. We shouldn't wax nostalgic for a golden age of listening quality that didn't exist for most consumers...

Us audiophiles have benefited from the fact that LP and (to some extent) CD have had any content that can be turned into Hi FI in the first place. We have never been at the forefront of the industry's goals, so we should be comfortable with the concept of Crap Fi, in general.

Whatever format takes over, there will either be a small marketplace for the good stuff, or we'll invent a way to get our precious Fi out of whatever horrors have been visited upon the sound.

It'll be fun, no matter what. It always is.

I'm also hopeful for Hi Fi based on what Mr. Tavegia said. As high resolution becomes cheaper and cheaper, Hi FI sound may sneak by because it won't add any real incremental cost.

Cheers!

Time keeps marching on and the future will be upon us before we know it, whether we like it or not.

And downloading music is the wave and way of the future. However, the future does not have to be all bad. Witness these developments happening right under our noses, helping to send a ray of light into the darkness of the downloaded digital music wasteland.

Some links for your enjoyment:

Psiber Audio

Fatman Audio

To quote someone famous:

"I feel your pain."

However, I ain't crying about it. Why you might ask? GREED, my friend. If you've followed my posts here on the forum over the past year or so you would know by now that I place most of the blame for the demise of the music business as we once knew it squarely at the feet of the corporate music giants who placed greed as their number one priority. Good riddance to bad rubbish, as it's been said. And if downloading becomes the way of obtaining music in the future then so be it.

Oh, and if you still want CD's and LP's you can always buy from one of those high end mail order/on-line specialty dealers but be prepared to open up your wallet really wide because, as my brother likes to say "these guys aren't afraid to charge". $50 and up for a single LP. Hey, I like liner notes too but you can download them as a text file you know.

As far as those links go, at least there are people out there who are trying to educate the masses of iPod users about the world of high quality audio. Something that JA as been talking about for some time now. Sure there are tons of iPod owners using those crappy earbuds that come with the iPod but there are also plenty who have discovered that with a better set of headphones one can get some fairly decent sound out of that little device. And like it or not, those educated iPod users are most likely going to be the future of high end audio.