The rise of the LP?

Apple just passed Wal-Mart to become the #1 one seller of music in the US. Not the #1 seller of digital downloads, the #1 seller of *all music in the country regardless of format*.

Think about that for a second. These aren't CDs, they're digital downloads. Most are DRM'd, all are lossy. The market has spoken, and in general it prefers convenience over highest possible quality. (Wow, there's a shock no one could have predicted.) Burning to CD-R for back up is always an option, so a physical copy can be made instead of bought.

Obviously, this doesn't bode well for CDs - also digital, the differences between a CD and a 256kbps AAC file are not noticeable to most people on most equipment. So, there's basically no reason for most people to get a CD anymore, unless you really, really want liner notes. (And even those are starting to pop up with downloads.)

I've seen a number of pundits declaring this the death of physical music media, but then there's this uptick in LP sales, and titles offered... and I have a notion.

An LP offers a completely different type of signal fidelity and reproduction than does either a CD or a download, both of which are digital. As an analog signal, an LP has much better adherence to the original source. The downsides are: size, fragility, impermanence after repeated playbacks, and a lack of an easy equivalent to ripping for playback on the ubiquitous digital portable devices.

We've come a long way in materials technology since vinyl, but LPs haven't. What about a CD-sized, protective-encased disc that has *analog* grooves microscopically encoded, and read by laser? Yeah, I know this is basically exactly what the old LaserDisc was, but again, we can do better. Think of it this way - a cheap optical disc that carries a highest-fidelity analog signal, and offers something no digital download can. It has a differentiating feature unique to the medium, something CDs don't.

Hell, call it a High Density LP and ride that HD branding wave, I don't care.

If I could get *that* at $15 an album, I'd bite, whereas I just don't see the need to buy CDs anymore. (I still do from time to time, but it's rare, and getting more so.)

Any of the various music folks reading this care to comment? :)

The rise of the LP?

Apple just passed Wal-Mart to become the #1 one seller of music in the US. Not the #1 seller of digital downloads, the #1 seller of *all music in the country regardless of format*.

Think about that for a second. These aren't CDs, they're digital downloads. Most are DRM'd, all are lossy. The market has spoken, and in general it prefers convenience over highest possible quality. (Wow, there's a shock no one could have predicted.) Burning to CD-R for back up is always an option, so a physical copy can be made instead of bought.

Obviously, this doesn't bode well for CDs - also digital, the differences between a CD and a 256kbps AAC file are not noticeable to most people on most equipment. So, there's basically no reason for most people to get a CD anymore, unless you really, really want liner notes. (And even those are starting to pop up with downloads.)

I've seen a number of pundits declaring this the death of physical music media, but then there's this uptick in LP sales, and titles offered... and I have a notion.

An LP offers a completely different type of signal fidelity and reproduction than does either a CD or a download, both of which are digital. As an analog signal, an LP has much better adherence to the original source. The downsides are: size, fragility, impermanence after repeated playbacks, and a lack of an easy equivalent to ripping for playback on the ubiquitous digital portable devices.

We've come a long way in materials technology since vinyl, but LPs haven't. What about a CD-sized, protective-encased disc that has *analog* grooves microscopically encoded, and read by laser? Yeah, I know this is basically exactly what the old LaserDisc was, but again, we can do better. Think of it this way - a cheap optical disc that carries a highest-fidelity analog signal, and offers something no digital download can. It has a differentiating feature unique to the medium, something CDs don't.

Hell, call it a High Density LP and ride that HD branding wave, I don't care.

If I could get *that* at $15 an album, I'd bite, whereas I just don't see the need to buy CDs anymore. (I still do from time to time, but it's rare, and getting more so.)

Any of the various music folks reading this care to comment? :)