The rise of the LP?

[kickaha]

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? :)

Comments

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

lack of an easy equivalent to ripping for playback on the ubiquitous digital portable devices.

Bzzt, sorry. http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/mp3/90a0/

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Bzzt, I know about that - but every computer with a CD drive can rip an audio CD. Not every LP player can rip. You go tell the guy with the $800 turntable that all he needs to do is go by a *$99* unit to rip, he'll laugh at you. The quality of the turntable determines the quality of the digital copy, and for those for whom LPs are preferred, they're preferred for fidelity.

That's what I mean by a lack of easy equivalent of ripping a CD. Anyone can do the latter, and in most cases produce a copy that is all but indistinguishable from the original. Not so with LPs unless you shoot for the very high end.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, granted--audiophilia is not my bag.

But to go back to your and franktheavenger's discussion re: Apple and the noncustomizable UI, I suspect that persons who prefer LP fidelity are an even smaller niche market than the tech-savvy users Apple is ignoring. And the segment of that niche that actually *wants* to convert their LP tracks to digital has to be minuscule to the point of effective nonexistence. Not much chance of higher-quality USB turntables ever appearing. Let alone the development of an entirely new storage format and the technology to play it.

None of which refutes your original point, of course. But far be it from me to argue a relevant point I can't win when an irrelevant one will do. :)

[franktheavenger.livejournal.com]

Indeed, I was going to make the same point; the guy that has an $800 turntable isn't going to go digital, ever. So fuck him. :p

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

LOL True, true...

Point taken, but I was stating that there is an opportunity here to address the issues surrounding LPs while preserving the trait that is unique to the marketplace. I don't think it would ever be huge, or come close to threatening online distribution - but I think it would have a shot at replacing the physical CD.

The vast majority of those who buy CDs will move to online, as bandwidth becomes cheaper, and companies offer lossless or near-lossless versions, is my bet. CDs just don't offer much anymore over downloads.

LPs still have a unique trait, but it's the limitations of the physical medium itself that makes them so &*(%@$ persnickety. So approach it as an engineering problem, and there's a slot left for physical media - just not physical *digital* media.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my argument remains that it isn't a big enough opportunity to offset the R&D costs.

And as those analog audiophiles continue to die of old age, it only gets smaller.

"That's not the point," you'll say, justifiably.

"That's the only point that matters", I'll say, also justifiably.

And we will iterate on that until the next shiny thing catches our attention.

So I'll boil my response down to its essence--Potentially neat idea. Not gonna happen. :)

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't say it was going to happen, or even that I thought it likely - only pointing out that physical media may not be as dead as physical *digital* media, which is all most people seem to be concentrating on.

Just you wait, in another 20 years, the retro wheel will come around again, and people will be nostalgic for all the analog goodness, but in those "neat old shiny silver discs". :D

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

Yes, I confidently expect to be waving my cane from my rocking chair on my porch, shouting to my grandkids that they will never understand true music until they've heard recordings of it played by people, on instruments.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

"Grandpa, what are people?"

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

"They're kind of like avatars, but they persist when the power goes out."

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

*applause*

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

You thought I didn't know, didn't you? :)

[jason0x21.livejournal.com]

While I agree that _most_ people are happy with lossy compression music, there are still people who'd like to get shipped music in FLAC format or on CD. This is still "lossy" in the sense that data is lost when transferring something from analog to digital, but even fewer people claim to be able to sense that loss (and those claims are often in dispute).

So what you're asking is if analog laser CDs could be the new "reference" format to quell the battle between vinyl LPs and regular CDs. I say "yes", with the following caveat.

Most commercial music is digitally recorded anyway. The analog studio is becoming a rarity, and digital sampling artifacts are starting to disappear under the best analog "noise floors".

So "HD Analog CD's" get you nothing, in fact, since they're laser discs, they remove the tactile joy of playing an LP. And you can already play an LP with a laser.

30 or so bit FLAC for audio quality, 128kbps ogg/vorbis for the (current) pockect si

[jason0x21.livejournal.com]

"pocket size"

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

"And you can already play an LP with a laser."

I hadn't seen a reference to this in quite some time - my understanding was that it didn't meet the quality level of a high end needle turntable, and was 'too different' to boot, so it rather died out. (IIRC, they were trying to market it as analogous (ha!) to a CD, which kind of got laughed at...)

This was actually my original thought, but then it occurred to me that a) this gives you an opportunity to push the grooves closer and make them finer, b) you can slap a protective layer over the top. Which kinda starts to look like a CD, but analog. Or, a LaserDisc. (Wheeeee!)

Gotta admit, I've never gotten the tactile joy from playing an LP. Usually just the opposite.

"On track, gently, on track, gently, on track, on tr*KRRZZZZTTTT*DAMMIT!"

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Oh, and what are these FLAC and Ogg/Vorbis of which you speak, strange and foreign person?

;)

Yeah, I'd love to see lossless sold online as well.

BTW, See Radiohead's remixing experiment slash soak the fans trial run on iTunes? Five raw tracks (stems) for the song _Nude_, DRM free, for remixing purposes. At $0.99 *each*. If you buy them all, you get the GarageBand file 'for free'. Yikes. Who needs the labels, when the bands can screw you over directly? :D

[jason0x21.livejournal.com]

Apple uses FLAC for their lossless format. Inside a wrapper, of course.

As for Radiohead, is everyone going to want to remix the song? No. Price set accordingly.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Wait, is Apple selling any lossless? I thought Apple Lossless was strictly used on the LAN between iTunes and Airport Express units...

[jason0x21.livejournal.com]

Selling lossless: no. Ripping to lossless: yes.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Gotcha. But unless the various sources I've checked are all equally mistaken, ALAC is not using FLAC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lossless

[jason0x21.livejournal.com]

Huh, I swear I heard it was FLAC somewhere. Oh well.

[retcon.livejournal.com]

From a dj standpoint, I think that the sale of LPs is now mainly to who scratch-and-mix djs and less to audiophiles. However, this is purely speculative as I have no hard numbers to back this up, nor do I think those numbers even exist at this point. My only backing for this view is that the only places I've seen vinyl* anymore are — you guessed it — dj specialty stores.

* At least in LP form. :D

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Mmm, good point. So is there any simple migration path to digital, or is it the equivalent of trying to mimic analog instruments with synths?

[zen-oven.livejournal.com]

i get buying LPs. i love the way they sound--i like to hear those cracks and pops while i'm listening to bob dylan or pink floyd on vinyl.