4 ms·

People also forget the stranglehold the big labels had on the industry and retail. CDs were often expensive too - I remember paying £18 for albums from a large

People also forget the stranglehold the big labels had on the industry and retail. CDs were often expensive too - I remember paying £18 for albums from a large mainstream shop in the late 90s, not obscure but not ones that would have been in the charts. Compare that to the price of seeing that artist live at a proper music venue (not stadia) in a big city at the time - £40ish, maybe less. Maybe my memory isn't great, but the market has been stretched with live music becoming substantially more expensive, while recorded music has become substantially cheaper. I feel like if you want to be a professional musician, then that's exactly what you should be expecting to do with your time - playing music to people, not recording once and expecting to live off royalties forever. Recordings should be seen as marketing for the live performance. I'm not really a fan, but Gary Numan is a case in point. He's been gigging forever and has made a point of making sure his tickets are affordable so his fans could continue to enjoy his shows, ensuring a lifelong revenue stream.

72deluxe 6y ago
I think your memory is correct. I have all the old order details for CDs from 20 years ago and they've definitely got cheaper. I also have my old gig tickets from back then (I kept them despite some being a bit sweaty), and gigs have definitely gone up in price, maybe even 2 or 3 times the amount. I am not sure recordings should be seen as the marketing for live performance though - what about bands in another country? They will never tour here. And I will never get to see The Beatles... Also, recorded songs can sound very different to live songs, hence the "thin" nature of some of the live recordings. The ability to create a sonic soundscape on a recording is what makes it so special. Recordings should be seen as art you are paying for. Nobody seems to mind buying a painting but objects to spending money on a CD. Baffling.
- bcrl 6y ago
  You can't get CDs anywhere near a easily as one could 22 years ago. All the old music stores I used to go to are closed. The big chains are gone. The small indie stores are all gone. Some of the boutique websites still exist, but it has been more than 10 years since I purchased a real physical CD. One thing I do miss is that CDs are mastered far better than anything on iTunes or YouTube is these days. Modern music is compressed (not MP3 artifacts, but flattening of dynamic range) in a way that wasn't common back then. Algorithmic remastering of music by all the big websites is overdone in my opinion.
  - wishinghand 6y ago
    If you're buying lossless music files, it's not a matter of CDs sounding better. The audio compression you're hearing is a result of the loudness wars and pop music trends.
  - runamok 6y ago
    I've heard that was done to CDs as well. E.g. people psychologically prefer louder music so mastering practices have done this at the expense of dynamic range. This kind of explains it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war http://georgegraham.com/compress.html http://georgegraham.com/compress.html
intricatedetail 6y ago
That doesn't sound inclusive. Many people for various reasons can't play live (e.g. because of disability) or for given genre it's not possible to perform it live in a meaningful way. What should those artists do? Only fit and agile artists deserve income?

72deluxe 6y ago

I think your memory is correct. I have all the old order details for CDs from 20 years ago and they've definitely got cheaper. I also have my old gig tickets from back then (I kept them despite some being a bit sweaty), and gigs have definitely gone up in price, maybe even 2 or 3 times the amount. I am not sure recordings should be seen as the marketing for live performance though - what about bands in another country? They will never tour here. And I will never get to see The Beatles... Also, recorded songs can sound very different to live songs, hence the "thin" nature of some of the live recordings. The ability to create a sonic soundscape on a recording is what makes it so special. Recordings should be seen as art you are paying for. Nobody seems to mind buying a painting but objects to spending money on a CD. Baffling.

bcrl 6y ago
You can't get CDs anywhere near a easily as one could 22 years ago. All the old music stores I used to go to are closed. The big chains are gone. The small indie stores are all gone. Some of the boutique websites still exist, but it has been more than 10 years since I purchased a real physical CD. One thing I do miss is that CDs are mastered far better than anything on iTunes or YouTube is these days. Modern music is compressed (not MP3 artifacts, but flattening of dynamic range) in a way that wasn't common back then. Algorithmic remastering of music by all the big websites is overdone in my opinion.
- wishinghand 6y ago
  If you're buying lossless music files, it's not a matter of CDs sounding better. The audio compression you're hearing is a result of the loudness wars and pop music trends.
- runamok 6y ago
  I've heard that was done to CDs as well. E.g. people psychologically prefer louder music so mastering practices have done this at the expense of dynamic range. This kind of explains it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war http://georgegraham.com/compress.html http://georgegraham.com/compress.html

intricatedetail 6y ago

That doesn't sound inclusive. Many people for various reasons can't play live (e.g. because of disability) or for given genre it's not possible to perform it live in a meaningful way. What should those artists do? Only fit and agile artists deserve income?