MP3s Have Liberated Physical Products, Not Destroyed Them
Whenever the digital revolution gets mentioned in the press, or indeed in conversation, it tends to be closely accompanied by murmurings about declining CD sales and questions about whether or not the rise in digital sales makes up for that shortfall and whether or not anyone will actually need to own music in five years and so on and so forth.
The answers to the above questions are both simply ‘no’. There is no need to own music anymore and digital sales will probably not make up for the revenue generated by the somewhat false heights of the CD industry. So what.
What doesn’t get mentioned too often, though, is what an incredible benefit the mp3 has been to the CD in another sense: it has liberated it from the constraints of being a commodity product. The mp3 is now the commodity, needing to be as cheap and readily available as possible, with price and availability considerably trumping any questions of quality. High bitrate mp3s and lossless file formats don’t seem to have made any impression on the digital market when they have been provided at a premium price, and I don’t really think people care that much. An mp3 is merely a commodity, shunted about in large quantities, and exists simply to reach as many people as possible and to generate revenue. It is important, but very unglamorous work.
That used to be the job of the vinyl record, of course. Then for a while it was the job of the cassette tape, although to a lesser extent, and by the nineties it was pretty much entirely the job of the CD. What did that mean for the little shiny silver disc? Well as with any commodity product, it put pressure on price. It was all about how cheaply you could make them, and in what volumes. At those numbers any kind of increase in the manufacturing price has a massive knock-on effect on revenue generation, which is by its very nature what the ‘industry’ part of the industry cared about, no criticism implied.
Now, of course, no-one ever needs to buy a CD; it is as obsolete as vinyl and tapes. There are still plenty of CD players around of course, and it will take a while to fully die out, but basically the CD has had its day as a delivery medium for music, as has any and every physical medium. And for these various media that is a liberation, not a condemnation.
As we’ve seen recently, there has been a significant rise in vinyl releases and vinyl sales. In the last year or so we’ve seen all sorts of things released on tape as well. I wouldn’t be wholly surprised to see something released on DAT tape or something stupid like that in the near future, provided it still comes with a digital download. I seem to recall someone from Domino boasting recently at a Born to Be Wide seminar that they had recently released something on a tin of beans.
Basically, it is no longer enough for a CD to be a mere delivery mechanism for the songs, because the mp3 does it cheaper, faster, and with more flexibility – better, in other words.  A physical product nowadays has to justify its existence in its own right, because the music contained thereon is not enough anymore, and this challenge has been risen to with some alacrity by the more forward-thinking record labels and self-releasing bands. No-one needs to buy a CD these days, so if you are going to bother going to the trouble of making them then you have to make them worth owning. The packaging has to be beautiful. There has to be something extra. It must, in itself, be something which is a pleasure to own and to use.
It reminds me a little of the argument about wine bottle sealing technology. Screw-tops are, I seem to recall, actually better at preserving the wine properly, but they haven’t really made as much headway as they might. Simply, they cannot compete with the satisfaction of cutting and removing the foil, and then uncorking a bottle of wine. It’s a tactile pleasure, and I feel the same about music.
Vinyl may not reproduce music as faithfully as a CD or a high quality digital file, but there is a ritual to putting a record on the record player which mp3s and playlists can never match. When it comes to opening a CD package to play an album the same has to be true. Click on the picture above and have a look at the gorgeous packaging of the Now Owl album. Apart from being an excellent piece of music (buy it here), that album is a pleasure to own, and a pleasure simply to open up and play.
Now, I think the CD has a few years left where people will buy it simply as a commodity – because that’s what they can play in their cars or their living rooms, perhaps. In general the technology isn’t quite obsolete just yet. But we are getting ever closer to the point where a physical medium for music is more of a hindrance than a help, and soon it will not be enough to simply put together some graphics and duplicate the music.
And in a way that will be a blessing, because freed from the rather brutal economics of the commodity product, where all is dependent on keeping costs down, you are now selling a luxury item, and the economics of that are rather different. All of a sudden it makes sense to spend a little more on paper; to think of new ways to package your music; to release on tape, on CD on vinyl, on wax cylinder, on whatever you want; to sit there and hand-fold a few hundred copies and sell them for a little more; to hand-stitch your vinyl sleeves; to superglue actual sequins to your album cover…
When no-one has to buy your product anymore, the people who do buy are the ones who really want to, and they are great people to be working with as they will spend a little more money, and they will appreciate and reward that extra effort. The whole transaction becomes a little bit more rewarding for everyone, which in my eyes is a very good thing indeed.
Amen to that, brother.
In the short term, it’s convenient for the artist because they can produce runs of CD’s and package them all differently for different prices. You’d have the bog standard CD for whatever, then a signed or personalised package then, maybe vinyl, with free multitracks of the recordings etc. Long term; the CD is destined for the ‘glue factory’.
I’d be interested in seeing more bands documenting the process of recording their album. The material itself has to be great, but fans always like to know how things were recorded and what it was like in the studio etc. All that jazz can also be commodified. The access to the band’s experience can be a product.
I’m currently looking forward to the forthcoming documentary on the making of ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’. I may be off topic at this point…
Katy Perry’s new album apparently smells of strawberrys.
It would be more honest advertising if it smelt of her sloppy old vag.
Steven – I think you’re absolutely right about documenting the process. FOUND are pretty good at that kind of thing, I think, but I have seen few others do a decent job of it. There must be a few though.
Great blog, that.
As somebody who spends an inordinate number of hours, days and weeks cutting, sticking, printing, sweating, swearing and obsessively making and remaking bits and bobs for DIY releases, I have to confess to a love/hate relationship with packaging.
But aside from the simple satisfaction of creating something beautiful or intriguing, it’s such a brilliant opportunity for expressing what you’re all about to the people buying the recordings. You sometimes have to make a lot of lyrical compromises when writing songs – and during the journey it takes from source, through the band, the recording process, mastering, packaging, mass production and then getting doled out to a music buyer via Amazon there are so many ways to lose the initial purpose and sometimes the intimacy of the songs.
Really thoughtful short-run packaging can be a great way to get some of that initial feeling and meaning back to the ‘thing’ you’re sharing with people.
Not enough bands make use of it – although that could be cos you’re so knackered, stony broke, and sick of the sight of the fecking thing by the time you hit packaging you just want it out there
well made argument.
keep it going.
The interesting thing is the difference between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’
people do need something to spend their cash on.
even if it is something which they dont need.
hence the consumer society.
I think this will follow all trends, and then something will replace it.
I kn ow thats vague. But economics drive the business. So eventually people will want to buy advertised goods and sit on their new couch, listening to their new music on their new hi fi.
In the meantime, its best to acceot that those days are not imminent.
and act according to the supply/ demand of our very own Adam Smith.
An enlightening read, despite my conclusion.
Here in Spain, a label has just began selling music in Phonograph Cylinders (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_cylinder).
What’s next?
Great article, btw.
Phonograph bloody cylinders???
That’s mental, brilliant and incredibly frustrating all at the same time!
The example of the needs/wants which is the most clear is Apple’s new ipad.
to which i say.
500 quid, just to have that in your flat?
When I refer to needing CDs here I simply mean that in order to actually have the music at all, people pretty much had to buy a CD. Now there is no such need for a physical product at all, so the choice to buy one requires a different motivation.
yes,different indeed.
a challenge.
Cracking post!
I can honestly say that I have bought, acquired and legally paid for more music in the last three years than in the ten before it combined. I don’t subscribe to the idea that the entire world needs to be at your finger tips but, the idea that you can buy clothes, books, concerttickets, toilet paper (seriously, I know a guy who does this. it’s insane but, he might be a genius) and such online and wouldn’t be able to buy music is absurd. MP3 sales are good because more people get more music. So more than good they are inevitable.
I just need MP3′s to start sounding a little better is all. CD’s already don’t sound good enough. Come on MP3′s, step up!
Crikey, we’re going to be back at augmented product theory soon.
I love the way that CD’s are developing, even mass produced ones look better, feel better and have ‘stuff’ with them. Most of the CD’s I get direct from labels or bands are splendid and I never begrudge the extra couple of quid.
Mind you I’d still buy The Beano if they gave away xray specs every week on the cover…but that would be an essential purchase.
Good article Matthew, you should spend even more time drinking at tiny festivals it seems to work a treat.
It was Max Tundra who released his album with beans.
Well, they are the musical fruit. It’s a wonder nobody beat him to it.
“No-one needs to buy a CD these days, so if you are going to bother going to the trouble of making them then you have to make them worth owning. The packaging has to be beautiful. There has to be something extra. It must, in itself, be something which is a pleasure to own and to use.”
Yes!
I don’t have to buy CDs at all, but I’m buying them all the bloody time now. I like owning them, holding them, looking at them on the shelf. Given how easy it is to access music these days, the CDs I buy are kinda a tribute to how much I love that particular band – I don’t HAVE to spend money on it, but I choose to. Bands seem to be spending more time on artwork and design too, it’s brilliant.
I order most of my CDs online too (living in Oz is somewhat limiting when it comes to the more independent international releases!) and I love receiving all those little packages in the mail, unwrapping them, popping the disc in the player… Downloading some invisible file doesn’t bring the same satisfaction, somehow!
Well even I am buying CDs again, six years after ripping them all and selling them on Amazon Marketplace, determined to go entirely digital and never look back.
Jonnie, that is not funny at all. Shame on you.
It’s interesting, this.
I quite like the idea of artists finding a way of releasing music that *can only* be released in a physical format. The rise of tapes and vinyl releases is pretty cool – but still very much the domain of the indies. I wonder if any major label would have the balls to release an act’s music on tape/vinyl only (no download). I doubt it would affect their prospective revenue for the release.
Do you? I disagree. Our label has been greatly helped by the revenue from digital releases. It costs almost nothing to actually make something available digitally, and the money just keeps trickling in. It’s not loads, but it’s really helpful to have that money, especially as it takes almost nothing to actually get it.
And the bigger the back catalogue, the more it would be.
I see what you’re saying … but i think it would be a really interesting experiment if someone MASSSSIVE like, say, Bruce Springsteen did a new release that was available only on vinyl, and compare it with revenue from digital sales of his previous record. I know folk would just rip the MP3′s from the vinyl, but i’ve a feeling – revenue wise – pushing a physical-only release would generate greater profits … because the audience would be forced to buy it if they wanted the genuine officially-sanctioned version.
Not that it’s all about the moolah, of course.
For me, MP3 isn’t the medium, but rather just a format in which to listen to music you own on other mediums. I don’t buy MP3′s as products, in pretty much the same way i didn’t buy official cassette tapes when i was younger. I’d buy the CD, and then copy onto C90 tapes, so that i could listen in my parents car; to the same extent, i make MP3′s of music i already own so that i can listen to it on my personal stereo, or on my laptop.
I agree with everything you’ve stated in your post, though … i just think that the more that people can fuck over the digital age, the better!