NME Writer Slams Physical Releases

[beetlejuice]

Someone called Rick Martin (probably not the gay popster) at the NME website wrote this:

Why I Don't Care About Record Store Day - Talking Heads - NME.COM - The world's fastest music news service, music videos, interviews, photos and free stuff to win

Then Alexei from Johnny Foreigner wrote this:

bloggy foreigner: my main objective is to be more effective

I find myself on the side of Alexei here. I love buying CDs: I like having a physical piece of music that I myself own. Yes, I listen to a lot of music in my iPod, but I also love browsing through, and listening to, my CD collection. (And, for the record, I also massively enjoy listening to vinyl, but have very little and currently no turntable.)

I know that physical releases are dying out - and I think that's a real shame - but there is no reason why physical and digital can't co-exist; this NME bloke is just being massively ignorant.

Plus, if all you do is download, what happens if your computer crashes? I know iTunes saves your music purchase history in case of this, but what if you bought it from a band's own online webstore? You have lost that music forever. Say goodbye to your hard-earned cash.

I also don't understand why he started off writing about Record Store Day, got bored of that after a sentence, and then ranted about download vs physical.

I suppose the comforting thing here is that almost everyone who has commented on the NME article - and on the JoFo blog - seems to be in agreement that that said NME writer is up his own arse.

Mini-rant over. Thoughts?

[scottyboy]

Plus, if all you do is download, what happens if your computer crashes? I know iTunes saves your music purchase history in case of this, but what if you bought it from a band's own online webstore? You have lost that music forever. Say goodbye to your hard-earned cash.

external hard drive?

[beetlejuice]

external hard drive?

Yes, and in fact my iTunes is backed up to one, however these too can be attacked by viruses or simply stop working.

[Guest idol_wild]

He's a music writer. A small number of music writers want a lot of attention. Public negativity is something music writers thrive upon as much as positivity.

I bet he's rubbing his hands in private at how much attention he's stirred up about this.

[Alan Cynic]

I'm assuming he's been told to wind folk up in an attempt to improve sales/downloads?

[Soda Jerk]

I don't think I'll ever fully embrace the digital age. I only use my ipod on train journeys. It's hard to believe that someone involved in the music industry can be so quick to write off music as a physical entity for the sake of a low quality digital version of a track a band/label have forked out thousands to record at the highest quality possible. Yet, he has the gall to say people who do focus on music as a physical entity are concentrating on the wrong thing that makes music so great. What a twat.

Whilst he's possibly spouting this to wind a few people up, I still think he backs every word.

[Monster Zero]

I think this bit was quite telling -

"I got rid of 90 per cent of my CD-based record collection last year, leaving behind only the records Id paid for before becoming a music hack."

So you have accumulated a collection you haven't paid for, burned the stuff that you want to keep no doubt and then decide to write a hideously freewheeling diatribe. What's it actually about? He bangs on about the death of CD singles one minute then harps on about High Fidelity type record shop staff the next.

I've long wondered why CD singles still exist when you can buy a complete album for just over twice the price of the single, I wised up to that years ago. Inevitably there comes a point when any B side worth having forms part of a 'Special Edition' release in any case...but I digress, this guy is obviously a twat. Just look at his face, it has smug punchableness all over it.

[Guest idol_wild]

I think this bit was quite telling -

"I got rid of 90 per cent of my CD-based record collection last year, leaving behind only the records Id paid for before becoming a music hack."

So you have accumulated a collection you haven't paid for, burned the stuff that you want to keep no doubt and then decide to write a hideously freewheeling diatribe. What's it actually about? He bangs on about the death of CD singles one minute then harps on about High Fidelity type record shop staff the next.

I've long wondered why CD singles still exist when you can buy a complete album for just over twice the price of the single, I wised up to that years ago. Inevitably there comes a point when any B side worth having forms part of a 'Special Edition' release in any case...but I digress, this guy is obviously a twat. Just look at his face, it has smug punchableness all over it.

He's probably the kind of slime who uploads his advance promotional copies for free download, too.

[Oedo 808]

Funny. I knew he'd be a right wee geeky looking snotter even before I saw his photo.

[Le Stu]

I haven't read a physical NME since 1993.

[Old Gold]

I like his stupid idea that album artwork will get hung in an art gallery or something instead. What a fucking balloon.

I bet he goes to vintage car rallies and tells everyone to "get a new one with air conditioning".

[Old Gold]

I think I dislike the Johnny Foreigner guy's article just as much however. Yuck.

[FOX]

I got rid of 90 per cent of my NME Magazine collection last year, leaving behind only the magazines Id paid for before reading Q instead.

[Le Stu]

He's probably right though, just in an unnecessarily obnoxious way. Vinyl is lovely, just completely impractical, and even shrinking album covers to CD size was horrible, let alone the postage stamps they've been reduced to now.

Spotify is a revelation though. I'm only going to buy music if I can't find it on there, or I want it for my iPod.

However, CD is still the best for being its own lossless backup. until FLAC or 24 bit becomes standard, I can't see me bothering with pay per unit downloads.

[Surfer_Rosa]

I think I agree with the JoFo guy, but every time I see him write "yr" my eyes vomit.

[FOX]

However, CD is still the best for being its own lossless backup. until FLAC or 24 bit becomes standard, I can't see me bothering with pay per unit downloads.

I like quality as much as the next guy, and I'm all for physical copies, but my ears simply don't notice the difference between FLAC and MP3.

[girl anachronism]

I think this bit was quite telling -

"I got rid of 90 per cent of my CD-based record collection last year, leaving behind only the records Id paid for before becoming a music hack."

So you have accumulated a collection you haven't paid for, burned the stuff that you want to keep no doubt and then decide to write a hideously freewheeling diatribe. What's it actually about? He bangs on about the death of CD singles one minute then harps on about High Fidelity type record shop staff the next.

I've long wondered why CD singles still exist when you can buy a complete album for just over twice the price of the single, I wised up to that years ago. Inevitably there comes a point when any B side worth having forms part of a 'Special Edition' release in any case...but I digress, this guy is obviously a twat. Just look at his face, it has smug punchableness all over it.

Agree with most of this. I'd be really sad to see the back of record shops too, I was in 1up today and Yogi made me an absolutely brilliant recommendation. I quite like having a wee discussion about music while I'm buying it, makes for a nicer shopping experience, a bit more personal. And I absolutely love having a physical release. Like someone mentioned earlier in the thread, I don't think I'll ever absolutely fully embrace the digital age either, but I guess it just comes down to convenience and personal preference.

[Le Stu]

I like quality as much as the next guy, and I'm all for physical copies, but my ears simply don't notice the difference between FLAC and MP3.

Me neither. The point of FLAC is to have a lossless backup source. You might not notice much difference between a lossy encoding and lossless one, but if you take the lossy encoding and then convert it to some other lossy format, the potential for compression artefacts squaring is there.

I think I've encoded (most of) my CD collection a few times now. 128kbps, 160kbps and finally HQ variable bit-rate mp3. That might be it but I have the CDs if I find a better format and it snows like it did this winter again.

And yes, it does feel like an obsessive compulsion.

[Oedo 808]

I dunno about FLAC but I can hear the difference between mp3 and CD. Is FLAC the same as CD quality?

[Le Stu]

I dunno about FLAC but I can hear the difference between mp3 and CD. Is FLAC the same as CD quality?

Yep. It can actually support better than CD quality but the source will typically be from CD.

It's surprising just how low fidelity sound is in this age. DVD audio doesn't seem to have taken off. Sound is still represented by an integer value between +/-32,000 changing 44 thousand times per second.

I'm not surprised that people keep the vinyl.

[soundian]

I dunno about FLAC but I can hear the difference between mp3 and CD. Is FLAC the same as CD quality?

The basic difference is that FLAC is lossless compression (reduces file size but doesn't affect quality) and MP3 is lossy compression (reduces file size but does affect quality).

Also remember that all MP3 files are not created equal. Most people will be able to spot the difference between a heavily-compressed MP3 and the original source, few will be able to tell between an MP3 with the lowest compression and the original source.

[Paranoid Android]

Yeah I can only tell the difference between mp3 and cd when the mp3 is very low quality.

[waltz]

I can't imagine writing about music with such wild disregard for how it's made and presented. Totally bizarre.

[Larsen B]

As far down as the Thom Yorke picture he makes some decent points about people being overly obsessed with the format as opposed to the actual music, but below the Yorke picture he undermines himself by just trying to be contrary. I think the stuff about guitar sales in particular is bullshit. i'm surprised at how many times I've seen links to this article crop up though. I thought nobody read the NME blogs.

[Pierre Von Mondragon]

The NME don't have writers, that op ed was randomly generated by the beta release of ShitGonk, a new application for filling press releases, coming your way soon.