The Art Neuro Weblog

Is this another clever record company trick to rip you off by making you buy the same records again?
That's the phrase that adorned the promotional material that came with the Rykodisc re-releases of Frank Zappa' albums in the 1990s. Being a sucker that I was (and still am), I fell for the trick and bought CDs of albums I've already purchased on LP. Lack of hiss and clicks and the necessity of turning over a vinyl disc that wears out, all seemed like a good idea. In fact, I'm still locked in this largely stupid process.

Against this backdrop has been the debate of copyright and the issue of copying CDs and file-sharing MP3s. A good friend of mine with a decent CD collection held a party once. Some of the teenagers looked at his collection and said:
"Wow, look at all these CDs"
"Yes," said another "and originals too!"
That's right, there's a whole generation of kids out there for whom CDs are nothing more than housing for pure data, the data which is in its essence, music. Finally, there is a generation that is freed of the 'garni du jour' mentality decried by Frank Zappa; but ironically, this liberation has come at the cost of copyright-breaches, depriving Frank's estate of his fair share... Allegedly.

Today, we find out that maybe these illegal copying of music are not hurting sales at all. That is to say, conscientious consumers of music are always going to pay the required premium to 'own' a copy of their music, while people who are slack with copyright were never going to buy anything from the music industry even if the option to breach copyright wasn't available. They're not cheap, they just don't think the product is anything worth forking over hard-earned cash. It stands to reason when you think about it. There's a certain guarantee in buying the real/authentic/approved version of any software that people need. That is to say, the sound quality of a MP3s is so questionable, why would you want that, even if it's for free?

Then there is a whole range of software that people don't want, but with which they merely want to have a cursory relationship. They are two vastly different requirements in people's lives, and so there are two separate populations. That is to say, one would sort of like to fart around with listening to stuff, but deepdown, they don't care enough about it to invest hard-earned cash in the whole experience of music. Were these people ever really part of the market from which the record labels could ever have made any money? I doubt it.

Anyway, I've been re-purchasing Yes albums AGAIN(!) because they have re-mixed and remastered many of the 60s and 70s albums properly for the first time since the advent of commercial digital media. These 'Yes Expanded' versions sound great, with better fidelity and transparency. However, is this an authentic experience of Yes? I think I'll discuss that another time.

- Art Neuro