Look at last.fm’s most played tracks this week. The top 10 is made up entirely of new entries; this is unprecedented. The CD is on it’s way out, pop kids. We are witnessing the beginning of the end.
And that’s OK. Hard drive space is becoming ever-cheaper so we will be able to have as much stuff as we like in uncompressed format. Already I’ve noticed that I’m encoding at higher rates, and lots of that stuff that I download is also encoded at high rates.
Well done, grumpy old Radiohead! (Oh yes, the album is alright too, but you probably know that as it seems everyone downloaded it last week.)
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October 15, 2007 at 10:58 am
themilkman
Well, what a sad and boring world it is going to be with just 0s and 1s to show for when you buy music… I’ll keep my CDs for now if nobody minds. I like being able to look at the artwork when I listen to a CD. It’s so old school I know…
October 15, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Enda
I think some physical format will still exist, but as a niche-market for the tactile amongst us. In a sense, I’m already in that zone: I’m quite happy just to have the audio file for much of the contents of my iPod, but I go out and get physical formats of Rufus, Neko, Scritti, PSB etc or anyone who makes an effort with packaging. And whose music is excellent, obviously.
October 15, 2007 at 12:34 pm
conortje
The thing I always think about digital tracks is that I would probably end up losing them – I’d have to make all sorts of back-ups and what not – am I going to have to get organised to enjoy music? Yikes!
October 15, 2007 at 7:20 pm
alan
I went through a phase of “Screw CDs!” and just downloaded anything I listened to. But then I got sick of not being able to stick them on stereo in my bedroom while I read before bed time. So I came back to CDs
But I hate that every single format seems to have such a limited shelf life. Vinyl. Cassette. CD. Can’t we just stick with one, and just improve upon it’s quality. I really don’t fancy having to rebuy my favourite older albums everytime a new fancy smancy format comes along.
Also, I wonder would last.fms chart have been so if Radiohead had set the price to a fixed amount, like $20 or €15, or whatever. Unlike the 10 pence I paid for the Radiohead album last week…
God, I don’t half yack on, eh?
October 15, 2007 at 9:51 pm
eguinan
The stereo in my bedroom – the bomb in it’s day – decided it didn’t like CDs some years ago. I’ve hardly noticed as I only use it for the radio these days. I have a little Logitech mm50 to dock an iPod and that fulfills the cd urge.
You gave them 10p? You brat! I gave them £3 as I reckoned I never play any of my Radiohead albums that much (OK Computer, Kid A and the one after that), but I applauded their decision to make things interesting!
Thom Yorke’s solo outing was good though.
October 15, 2007 at 10:07 pm
alan
I’m just cheap. I know.
October 18, 2007 at 10:49 am
Jonathan
NEW ENTRIES?!?! It’s the entire In Rainbows album in sequence! And very good it is too. Less of the Rhead bashing please.
p.s. 10p? That’s just shockin! ;-P
October 18, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Enda P
Mad innit? And they’ll still be there again this week, I’ll wager.
10p is shockin’. I hope you’re happy now Alan.
October 18, 2007 at 8:08 pm
alan
HEY!
Everyone, “Rhead” stuck the whole ‘pay what you like’ thing just for good PR, and it worked. So I called their bluff. I exercised my rights as a consumer. And I will not be made feel guilty for doing so. I could have limewired their asses instead!
October 18, 2007 at 8:46 pm
eguinan
Hee hee! Poor Alan! He’s having dreams of Thom Yorke running around trying to find bus fare.
Is LImeWire still going? I thought it was all torrents these days. Ah, I remember the sweet old Napster days when I would scour the system for Scarlet Fantastic and ‘I Won’t Let You Down’ by PhD (it wasn’t there
)
October 18, 2007 at 9:25 pm
robin
What about newsgroup reader services like Easynews etc? Still plenty of good times to be had out there scouting the outer reaches of Usenetland. (You might even be able to find some Rainbows there, geddit, Raaiiinbowwwsss, wink wink nudge nudge.)
October 18, 2007 at 9:40 pm
eguinan
Easynews you say…. I do hope that if I get caught ‘previewing’ any Gloria Estefan tracks, I won’t be fined $220,000.
October 19, 2007 at 4:47 pm
robin
Topically enough… yonder comes the clampdown:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21376597/
Duh, what’s a torrent?
October 19, 2007 at 5:09 pm
eguinan
Eeeps. That’s not nice. It’s just like copy-protection software a few years ago. Short-sighted and doomed. This won’t catch on either methinks.
What’s a torrent? Fo’ real? I must admit I had to have someone sit me down and explain them and how to use them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent has the skinny.
October 19, 2007 at 7:49 pm
robin
I was kidding. Heh.
October 19, 2007 at 8:08 pm
eguinan
Don’t mind me; I’m always looking for a chance to set my inner educator free
November 20, 2007 at 9:25 am
Alan Says » Blog Archive » Saving face
[...] Not that I felt guilty in the first place. OK! [...]