Re: arsclist Demise of label product?

[Mike Richter <mrichter@xxxxxxx>]

At 09:36 AM 7/1/2002 -0700, Paul T. Jackson wrote:
> Here is an interesting thought.  Will streaming as indicated here make 
> produced/manufacturered recordings obsolete...perhaps similar to what the 
> digital camera may be doing to the photo film industry (if cameras become 
> cheap enough?).

In some fields, I believe it will - and should. This harks back to an 
argument I've made for some years about "sizzle" and "steak".

The record companies are under the false impression that their product is 
the music; in fact, it is the packaging. That is, for decades it has been 
possible and practical to reproduce the music at will. Though it is only 
recently that the reproduction (CD-R) can match the original (CD-DA), the 
differences with tape were not great enough to bother most users. The 
reason that original tapes and LPs sold was that they offered a package - 
typically including a booklet but always including artwork - which had 
value to the consumer. Recently, collateral products from concerts to tee 
shirts have provided supplementary income often exceeding that of the 
released recording (at least to the artists).

The analogy with film is a poor one at this time, though some day it may 
not be. A 35-mm frame has about 35 Megapixels of resolution at 100 lpm, far 
more than any digital camera yet achieves. Needless to say, a larger format 
offers still more. Film also provides many more than 8 bits of resolution 
per color. While this is of no practical difference to the average 
photographer, it is important to the professional.

*NOTE* if someone has the ability to set nomail or to unsubscribe
    "Alain Bourassa" <alain_bourassa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
I urge that it be done promply. Otherwise, we are faced with eighteen days 
of echoes on this list and possibly even a loop in which there will be 
replies to his autoreplies ad infinitum.

Mike

mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/


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