New technology in the music industry, but is it better?

As an online retailer of recorded music through my website, A Web of Fine Music (www.finemusic.ca), I have witnessed a lot of changes in the music industry over the years, and they are likely to continue into the future. When one format supercedes another, the argument always comes up: "Is it better than before?" Well, let's look at the situation this week.

For years now, I have heard the cry from vinyl afficionados that vinyl records still sound superior to CDs, and while that may be true, I feel you would really need a high-end turntable and sound system to really hear a significant difference. Most people have long abandoned their old turntables and are even on their second or third CD player since those came out about 1981. I still own a lot of vinyl, although I have culled the collection many times, selling off as much as I can over the years while still keeping the rare or old favourite LPs I remember from my youth.

I can't tell much of a difference on my middle-of-the-road stereo system in my office, and frankly I like the smaller shelf space CDs take up compared to the old LPs of long ago. I do have a number of heavy wooden record shelving units acquired from the radio station that still employs me, CKTB Radio in St. Catharines, and they will never be empty. But they don't get visited as often as they once did, either. Still, last year I purchased from my website designer, Lex Parker, a lovely old Pioneer turntable and Sansui pre-amp/tuner, which I promise myself this year (okay, hopefully this year) will be properly set up in the newly-organized basement so I can get some more use out of it than I have since I bought it. I also have the software to transfer my old LPs to my computer to burn onto CD, which is a new concept for me, I must admit. It is simple enough, although somewhat time consuming. In time I hope to offer the service to my music customers, but only for still out-of-print LPs not available on CD. I have never agreed to the concept of burning CDs in order to make an "extra" copy for someone else rather than support the artist involved and actually buy the thing, which is clearly the right thing to do.

The one thing I do miss with many CDs that are reissues of old LP-era material is the great cover art and copious liner notes we were often treated to. I have several CDs of old LPs with the original liner notes reproduced so small it is almost impossible to read without the aid of a magnifying glass. Often the original cover art is discarded in favour of some generic computer-generated replacement that bears little resemblance to the original, and that's a shame. One of the pleasures of buying albums years ago was scanning the creative cover art from those days. And yes, I must admit having bought my fair share of albums not because of the artist or music inside, but simply because I loved the cover art! Okay, so it was often a lovely, winsome girl, but that was my perogative, right? It was put there to sell the album, for heaven sakes, and who am I to question their decision?

Anyway, old lp albums will never die, and there will always be the dedicated souls who will always collect it. Twice yearly in St. Catharines there is a used record show and sale at the Market Square downtown, usually in the spring and fall, and although I have not been in a few years, it still brings a thrill to me to spend a little bit of time reacquainting myself with a music format many had written off as archaic about twenty years ago, yet is still with us today. My thanks to Bill Gibbs and his gang of vinyl afficionados at Atomix Records in downtown St. Catharines for keeping the flame alive for all the die-hards out there.

I won't get into tapes here: cassettes and even (God-forbid) 8-track tapes had their time in the sun, and while cassettes are still with us today, their impact is negligible in this day and age. I don't remember the last time I was asked for something on cassette, and never have I been asked for 8-tracks. That is as it should be, I think. They are outdated formats that have outlived their usefulness except for those with cassette players still in their cars.

Now, if I can only stem the tide of weekly phone calls from people wanting to sell their old LP collections. If I had a warehouse I could happily fill it with the number of offers I get to "unload" their old collections, but as it stands, there is neither the space nor the will to devote much time to it. What most people forget is the fact there is simply so much vinyl available second hand now, unless it is extremely rare and/or in pristine condition, it is nearly worthless in today's marketplace. In the last few years when I included my LPs in yard sales, rarely could I get more than a quarter a piece for it. The sentimental value of a particular album is almost always more than the actual value of it, and people need to keep that in mind; enjoy it while you can, but let go when the time comes. The best thing to do with your old collections is to whittle it down to the bare essentials you cannot do without, and simply donate the rest to the Salvation Army or Goodwill or similar organization, so they can at least sell the stuff and put the money to good use. As for me, I have no more room for the stuff, and don't want to start down that road again!

Next week, we'll look at the other end of the spectrum and see what becomes of CDs in this digital music age.

January 31st, 2009.