iPods: Convenience or Trendy?
Here's a post from a rant on DSBP's website. TommyT posted it at the end of Cable's rant on how the illegal downloading (black market style) is hurting the indie leagues in music. I have to say that, while I agreed wholeheartedly with Cable's post, TommyT's follow-up seems to need a little fine-tuning.
This is why I haven't chosen to negate the article in it's entirety but simply respond to it because some really good points are made. Who knows, it might open some dialogue and make some progress and that's really all I'm after.
Everything in Quotations and bold print will be from Tommy's statement.
"Subject: Napster and Itunes kill the music scene!!!!
yes, they do...don't even try to say I'm wrong...cause I am not. Ever since these 2 places became all the RAGE amongst the trendy millions in this stupid country, CD sales for all underground labels, and bands have gone so far down its pathetic.We are all jaded and torn at this point.We are all going bankrupt slowly and some quicker than others as we see... Its really sad to see the people that really "do care" about the music and the bands that produce the music going down, and losing it all, as these corporate monopoly online companies are cashing in huge and becoming so rich off of all the compulsive impulsive, trendy sheep that don't care about killing it all off, because they still support those places."
Napster and iTunes Music Stores, respectively speaking, have really done nothing more than make the corporate leagues richer, this much is true, however, most of these places DO NOT carry independent artists a lot of the time. When they do, however, the bands lose money on the production costs of the music. Let's face it, there's server space to rent here and, if you can't pay Apple or Napster, your tunes are cyber-history. I'll get to the trendy sheep portion much later on.
"So, Why is this happening? -society is always looking for the next corporate trend, the poor and lower middle class are always working hard to make the RICH RICHER and then bitching about it. So, whenever they give us a new trend to latch onto, most sheep flock to it like flies on shit.Thats the deal with ipods and napster. Its really pathetic to hear people talk about it all, and all the music they cop for free online and think they are cool as they are destroying the very nature and livelihood of the music scene that is responsible for most peoples sounds and their "look and image" as well..thats where it all starts..the music!!"
Ok, originally, this was about the iTunes store and Napster, not the iPod. Blaming the iPod for the transgressions of those that use them is like blaming guns for what criminals do. The iPod is only a tool in this, nothing more. The iPod is simply just an mp3 player. The biggest flaw with this particular player is that your music has to be in a certain format (AAC format, primarily) and then and only then can it be put onto the iPod in question.
"They are advertising these companies on the TV all the time and promoting the fact that we should all pay these people for crappy mp3's and turn the "album concept" into a thing of the past, as they are trying to make everyone buy song by song of all the stupid mainstream hits, and then that trickles down to the underground as well.The underground is hurting more because every lost sale is more of a big deal than it is for the mainstream shit labels that sell millions to trendy weak sheep anyways.."
On the point of album concepts for just a moment. This, to me, is completely understandable. I can't tell you how much I actually like checking out CD artwork and liner notes and even who's in the "Fuck You/Thank You" sections. Having the lyrics is also a plus. I don't know why but there are always little nuggets of wisdom in a lyrics sheet. Everyone that grew up with music the way we have agrees with this...EVERYONE. While I'm not saying it's right, some people (sadly, too many of them) are just not as appreciative of the art and concepts that are put forward. For some of us, it's not just music...it's a dimensional gateway into some other world that we'd never get to experience otherwise. You can't deny someone an experience. The ones that pride themselves on being more "functional" just don't understand this point and, therefore, miss it altogether. I've seen some CD art that should be on display at some goddamned museums but I've seen some that's just shit. The latter cases are mostly few and far between. They're nearly nonexistent in the indie leagues. I wonder something though and this point does beg the question, does most mainstream music even have such things as album concepts these days?
"ipods are $300!!!!! imagine how much money these corporates have made off of all these sheep...when was the last time these people spent $300 on cd's in one shot? not often believe me...I am a distributor and work with so many others that do, and its very rare to get $300 from anyone for cd's...yet these people are paying that kinda cash for a walkman that plays inferior sound quality...mp3...is not a CD!what the hell is wrong?"
Ok, slow down for just a minute and let's not be misleading.
The iPod Touch (nearly indistinguishable from the iPhone) ranges in price of $300 - $400
iPod Classics run about $250
iPod Nanos run roughly in the ranges of $150 - $200
iPod Shuffles run about $75
We all remember when the CD mediums first came out...a CD discman was unheard of. When those first started hitting the shelves, some models and brands ran in excess of $200 and the bad part was, you had to be uber-careful with them. Now, even the lowest quality CD player has anti-shock and is a bit more durable than those of old. Long before I could even THINK about affording a CD stereo for my room, I had to work a solid week of busting my hump washing cars, slinging tires and handling oil in the most unforgiving conditions (this included inclement weather and inclement customers...namely every backward-ass fuck on the face of the planet) and even then, after that week, I barely had enough for two CDs PLUS the stereo...the CD Walkman was the absolute LAST thing on my brain. I just made tapes of songs I liked from what few CDs I had and went on my merry way...and this was back in the mid-90s. Since then, I've gone through a succession of tape decks (my fave will always be that $50 Aiwa with the AM/FM radio...GODDAMN I miss that thing!), CD discmans (And I had some GREAT ones) and even CD Boomboxes (the new one I got makes CDs sound like you're listening to them through a tin can).
More on this point later.
"The companies are banking off all the people and taking them away from the cd's and the record labels as they make billions and the artists who they are taking from are becoming broke, and have to find new ways to keep their livelihood going as they are not making royalties off their records/cd's anymore.I know this..I am in this position with my label and my band...and yet we get thousands of e-mails from fans and supporters each week that love the way we all sound, but they don't buy anything...cause they have the free downloads from somewhere or they bought a few online, or they are too busy with their own "new project" as everyone has a project in this scene too."
And this is a sad fact. Sadly as well, it's also one of the symptoms of the iTunes/Napster/Rhapsody illnesses.
"Sure, I know what the "haters" are saying right now..."the artists get paid from the downloads"....very naive...I bet you believe there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq too?"
So...I think that answers my question about George W. Bush claiming that we kept the receipts for those. Figures.
"I don't know of any bands that have made any kind of signifficant cash from downloads at all..if you call $10.00 for thousands of downloads a paycheck, I would like to say, how about we do that to you at your job? $10 for 1000 hours? cool...we'll submit the forms to get that going for you too, so you can live like all of us "well off musicians"...."
I actually got the same argument at my own job when a major was attempting to pound a sense of duty into our heads when they addressed how important it would be to the institution to have us there in the event of an emergency. He also added in, "The money was never part of the deal."
I called up every bill paying department that I could find a number to and told them I'd no longer be paying them as I'm fulfilling a duty. In my mind they stood and cheered but on the phone they threatened to cut me off. I later sent that major a letter, with all due respect, informing him that, unless they've found some miracle that allows bills to pay themselves, the money IS part of the deal or he can find others that are far more naive than us. This point? VERY Understood.
"I talk to record labels as well, and most of them are not making much at all off of this...its not helping, its just hurting as society becomes "done with the cd format"....for an inferior format of mp3? talk about going backwards just to be a lazy fuck who doesn't want to stack any cd's in their house.. jeeez..."
Note: There is a slight loss in sound quality. While it may be unnoticeable, when you read the meters in a program like Adobe Audition, you can actually spot it in the waveform. In this case, there isn't a debate over whether MP3 is an inferior format, I simply think that, rather than overemphasis of how inferior the format of MP3 is is useless. Rather than that, should we not go with just how superior .WAV format is?
"The corporates have pulled the wool over society's eyes again...yeah, many of the so called glamourous rebels are just sheep in peoples clothing as they try to act so "industrial" or so "sub culture" yet they are just feeding the corporate society and making Bill Gates kinda people all the more richer. while killing the bands, the labels and the people who really DID care about the music, and now really have to go to other things just to survive because of the downfall of the support system for an ACTUAL MUSIC PRODUCT!!
its like people don't care they are not getting a product for their cash when it comes to downloads..they are that blinded by all this.. they are paying for a cheezy mp3(like a cassette tape), and getting no physical product for all their cash...the mp3's can always crash or your system can have failure and you lose them all...unless they are all backed up..whatever..."
Actually, I don't think Bill Gates had much to do with iTunes. This fell into more of Steve Jobs' vicinity. However, this point I also concede: When you buy something, wouldn't you rather buy something physical? I liken buying MP3s to the legalized snake oil salesmen called Insurance Agents.
"so I just figured I would bring up some of these points to anyone who wants to read through, and I am not pointing at anyone specifically, or naming names...but I think its pathetic that society has decided that all of us musicians and record labels and distributors deserve a HUGE PAY CUT, because they found some new corporates to make richer and pay for a non-physical product and still expect us all to release music and go broke and lose our own livelihood and house while all these people get their music for free, or close to it, and then stop buying cd's so they can just get their mp3's to use on their overly priced and trendy ipod.
this society is at its lamest and never in my worst nightmares did I dream that it would suck so badly to be in the music industry....baahhhhhh
good luck, anyone in the underground music business will need it...
----TOMMYT"
Ok, so now we come to the conclusion of this where I finally say that, on most everything, Tommy just nailed the problem...and mercilessly so but let me show you how this is not all a broad-stroke, black-and-white problem.
Granted, I've been taking my music with me everywhere as a kid. It was a rare occasions when you didn't see my head stuck in a set of headphones. Though the devices on the end of the headphone cord changed, one thing didn't...the function.
I gave up the tape deck because I got tired of fast forwarding through songs and having to rewind...it broke the groove on a constant basis and believe me, I'm not about to write a book called How Damien Got His Groove Back. Not to mention, tapes didn't last...they'd wear out. I'll never forget the awful tragedy of losing my beloved Anthrax tape to the player when it decided to eat it. I'll never forget how disappointed I was that I'd lost my beautiful Doro Pesch when the only copy of Warlock: Triumph And Agony's pad finally came loose from it's moorings, giving the tape itself no buffer whatsoever. CDs had more of a shelf life. I loved being able to skip over a song I didn't care for with a touch of a button. The only problem was that packing around CDs AND a player was just a little bulky.
I ended up getting an MP3 Player out of convenience. I'd gone through two in particular and then, I bought my first iPod on eBay...Apple didn't make jack shit off me. Why? Because I didn't buy it from them.
"Well, yeah, D, but you still have iTunes!"
How the hell else do you propose I put the music on there. All the music within my iTunes was bought and paid for...CDs (Unless they were generously donated by the bands out there who are helping me to help you, etc) There are a few exceptions but those are individual tracks (much like Cable, occasionally, I have to download to fulfill requests) and the most important part of that is...I don't buy a fucking thing through iTunes. I never have and I never will. I won't go and download an entire indie CD and if I do, best believe that I'm buying it shortly thereafter. If I don't like it, I'll ditch it...no need to take up hard drive space. I can honestly say, though, that I've liked just about everything I've bought or have had submitted.
Now, whatever happened to that first iPod? It got replaced. A friend of mine had told me about the new nanos after he bought a 4GB version. He didn't get much use out of it before upgrading to the 8GB version and then gave me his old one. Do I have an iPod because I wanna be "cool?" Hell no, I figure I'm already cool enough without the motherfucker. I've got it for the following reasons:
1. I'm not always alone at the gym and I don't understand how someone can get amped to R&B or country...I'm not making this up. With my iPod, I can listen to my Adrenaline tracks without someone bugging me. Not just that but the gym I go to on occasion doesn't have speakers and/or a stereo in every room (like their Dojo section where I spend most of my time) and I like the idea that not only can I listen to something to amp me up on my way to the gym but I can work out in any area of the gym without having to stop to turn up the volume or turn it down and I can listen to whatever I have on me at all times...portability case.
2. So far, this thing also plays movies. So, this means whenever I'm sitting down to dinner at a restaurant, I can watch one of my 9/11 documentaries or even those two episodes of Mystery Science Theatre that I have on the computer.
3. Hey, it works as a photo album!
4. I don't have to list the songs in any particular order. I can go by band name, song title, album title or just shuffle through. Personally, I like just going by album and then having total control.
5. I don't have to stop mid-workout to change a CD.
Personally, if I could redesign the damned thing, I would. I'd eliminate the dependence on iTunes as it's a moody fucking program and I'd just give the fucker a drag-and-drop feature. Then again, as of the time of this writing, they probably already have a model like that in existence.
By the way, Tommy, if you ever really want to hear some inferior MP3 sound, pop in a pair of headphones to a newer model MOTORAZR and an iPod will probably sound really awesome in comparison.
At least, I know it does with me.
This is why I haven't chosen to negate the article in it's entirety but simply respond to it because some really good points are made. Who knows, it might open some dialogue and make some progress and that's really all I'm after.
Everything in Quotations and bold print will be from Tommy's statement.
"Subject: Napster and Itunes kill the music scene!!!!
yes, they do...don't even try to say I'm wrong...cause I am not. Ever since these 2 places became all the RAGE amongst the trendy millions in this stupid country, CD sales for all underground labels, and bands have gone so far down its pathetic.We are all jaded and torn at this point.We are all going bankrupt slowly and some quicker than others as we see... Its really sad to see the people that really "do care" about the music and the bands that produce the music going down, and losing it all, as these corporate monopoly online companies are cashing in huge and becoming so rich off of all the compulsive impulsive, trendy sheep that don't care about killing it all off, because they still support those places."
Napster and iTunes Music Stores, respectively speaking, have really done nothing more than make the corporate leagues richer, this much is true, however, most of these places DO NOT carry independent artists a lot of the time. When they do, however, the bands lose money on the production costs of the music. Let's face it, there's server space to rent here and, if you can't pay Apple or Napster, your tunes are cyber-history. I'll get to the trendy sheep portion much later on.
"So, Why is this happening? -society is always looking for the next corporate trend, the poor and lower middle class are always working hard to make the RICH RICHER and then bitching about it. So, whenever they give us a new trend to latch onto, most sheep flock to it like flies on shit.Thats the deal with ipods and napster. Its really pathetic to hear people talk about it all, and all the music they cop for free online and think they are cool as they are destroying the very nature and livelihood of the music scene that is responsible for most peoples sounds and their "look and image" as well..thats where it all starts..the music!!"
Ok, originally, this was about the iTunes store and Napster, not the iPod. Blaming the iPod for the transgressions of those that use them is like blaming guns for what criminals do. The iPod is only a tool in this, nothing more. The iPod is simply just an mp3 player. The biggest flaw with this particular player is that your music has to be in a certain format (AAC format, primarily) and then and only then can it be put onto the iPod in question.
"They are advertising these companies on the TV all the time and promoting the fact that we should all pay these people for crappy mp3's and turn the "album concept" into a thing of the past, as they are trying to make everyone buy song by song of all the stupid mainstream hits, and then that trickles down to the underground as well.The underground is hurting more because every lost sale is more of a big deal than it is for the mainstream shit labels that sell millions to trendy weak sheep anyways.."
On the point of album concepts for just a moment. This, to me, is completely understandable. I can't tell you how much I actually like checking out CD artwork and liner notes and even who's in the "Fuck You/Thank You" sections. Having the lyrics is also a plus. I don't know why but there are always little nuggets of wisdom in a lyrics sheet. Everyone that grew up with music the way we have agrees with this...EVERYONE. While I'm not saying it's right, some people (sadly, too many of them) are just not as appreciative of the art and concepts that are put forward. For some of us, it's not just music...it's a dimensional gateway into some other world that we'd never get to experience otherwise. You can't deny someone an experience. The ones that pride themselves on being more "functional" just don't understand this point and, therefore, miss it altogether. I've seen some CD art that should be on display at some goddamned museums but I've seen some that's just shit. The latter cases are mostly few and far between. They're nearly nonexistent in the indie leagues. I wonder something though and this point does beg the question, does most mainstream music even have such things as album concepts these days?
"ipods are $300!!!!! imagine how much money these corporates have made off of all these sheep...when was the last time these people spent $300 on cd's in one shot? not often believe me...I am a distributor and work with so many others that do, and its very rare to get $300 from anyone for cd's...yet these people are paying that kinda cash for a walkman that plays inferior sound quality...mp3...is not a CD!what the hell is wrong?"
Ok, slow down for just a minute and let's not be misleading.
The iPod Touch (nearly indistinguishable from the iPhone) ranges in price of $300 - $400
iPod Classics run about $250
iPod Nanos run roughly in the ranges of $150 - $200
iPod Shuffles run about $75
We all remember when the CD mediums first came out...a CD discman was unheard of. When those first started hitting the shelves, some models and brands ran in excess of $200 and the bad part was, you had to be uber-careful with them. Now, even the lowest quality CD player has anti-shock and is a bit more durable than those of old. Long before I could even THINK about affording a CD stereo for my room, I had to work a solid week of busting my hump washing cars, slinging tires and handling oil in the most unforgiving conditions (this included inclement weather and inclement customers...namely every backward-ass fuck on the face of the planet) and even then, after that week, I barely had enough for two CDs PLUS the stereo...the CD Walkman was the absolute LAST thing on my brain. I just made tapes of songs I liked from what few CDs I had and went on my merry way...and this was back in the mid-90s. Since then, I've gone through a succession of tape decks (my fave will always be that $50 Aiwa with the AM/FM radio...GODDAMN I miss that thing!), CD discmans (And I had some GREAT ones) and even CD Boomboxes (the new one I got makes CDs sound like you're listening to them through a tin can).
More on this point later.
"The companies are banking off all the people and taking them away from the cd's and the record labels as they make billions and the artists who they are taking from are becoming broke, and have to find new ways to keep their livelihood going as they are not making royalties off their records/cd's anymore.I know this..I am in this position with my label and my band...and yet we get thousands of e-mails from fans and supporters each week that love the way we all sound, but they don't buy anything...cause they have the free downloads from somewhere or they bought a few online, or they are too busy with their own "new project" as everyone has a project in this scene too."
And this is a sad fact. Sadly as well, it's also one of the symptoms of the iTunes/Napster/Rhapsody illnesses.
"Sure, I know what the "haters" are saying right now..."the artists get paid from the downloads"....very naive...I bet you believe there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq too?"
So...I think that answers my question about George W. Bush claiming that we kept the receipts for those. Figures.
"I don't know of any bands that have made any kind of signifficant cash from downloads at all..if you call $10.00 for thousands of downloads a paycheck, I would like to say, how about we do that to you at your job? $10 for 1000 hours? cool...we'll submit the forms to get that going for you too, so you can live like all of us "well off musicians"...."
I actually got the same argument at my own job when a major was attempting to pound a sense of duty into our heads when they addressed how important it would be to the institution to have us there in the event of an emergency. He also added in, "The money was never part of the deal."
I called up every bill paying department that I could find a number to and told them I'd no longer be paying them as I'm fulfilling a duty. In my mind they stood and cheered but on the phone they threatened to cut me off. I later sent that major a letter, with all due respect, informing him that, unless they've found some miracle that allows bills to pay themselves, the money IS part of the deal or he can find others that are far more naive than us. This point? VERY Understood.
"I talk to record labels as well, and most of them are not making much at all off of this...its not helping, its just hurting as society becomes "done with the cd format"....for an inferior format of mp3? talk about going backwards just to be a lazy fuck who doesn't want to stack any cd's in their house.. jeeez..."
Note: There is a slight loss in sound quality. While it may be unnoticeable, when you read the meters in a program like Adobe Audition, you can actually spot it in the waveform. In this case, there isn't a debate over whether MP3 is an inferior format, I simply think that, rather than overemphasis of how inferior the format of MP3 is is useless. Rather than that, should we not go with just how superior .WAV format is?
"The corporates have pulled the wool over society's eyes again...yeah, many of the so called glamourous rebels are just sheep in peoples clothing as they try to act so "industrial" or so "sub culture" yet they are just feeding the corporate society and making Bill Gates kinda people all the more richer. while killing the bands, the labels and the people who really DID care about the music, and now really have to go to other things just to survive because of the downfall of the support system for an ACTUAL MUSIC PRODUCT!!
its like people don't care they are not getting a product for their cash when it comes to downloads..they are that blinded by all this.. they are paying for a cheezy mp3(like a cassette tape), and getting no physical product for all their cash...the mp3's can always crash or your system can have failure and you lose them all...unless they are all backed up..whatever..."
Actually, I don't think Bill Gates had much to do with iTunes. This fell into more of Steve Jobs' vicinity. However, this point I also concede: When you buy something, wouldn't you rather buy something physical? I liken buying MP3s to the legalized snake oil salesmen called Insurance Agents.
"so I just figured I would bring up some of these points to anyone who wants to read through, and I am not pointing at anyone specifically, or naming names...but I think its pathetic that society has decided that all of us musicians and record labels and distributors deserve a HUGE PAY CUT, because they found some new corporates to make richer and pay for a non-physical product and still expect us all to release music and go broke and lose our own livelihood and house while all these people get their music for free, or close to it, and then stop buying cd's so they can just get their mp3's to use on their overly priced and trendy ipod.
this society is at its lamest and never in my worst nightmares did I dream that it would suck so badly to be in the music industry....baahhhhhh
good luck, anyone in the underground music business will need it...
----TOMMYT"
Ok, so now we come to the conclusion of this where I finally say that, on most everything, Tommy just nailed the problem...and mercilessly so but let me show you how this is not all a broad-stroke, black-and-white problem.
Granted, I've been taking my music with me everywhere as a kid. It was a rare occasions when you didn't see my head stuck in a set of headphones. Though the devices on the end of the headphone cord changed, one thing didn't...the function.
I gave up the tape deck because I got tired of fast forwarding through songs and having to rewind...it broke the groove on a constant basis and believe me, I'm not about to write a book called How Damien Got His Groove Back. Not to mention, tapes didn't last...they'd wear out. I'll never forget the awful tragedy of losing my beloved Anthrax tape to the player when it decided to eat it. I'll never forget how disappointed I was that I'd lost my beautiful Doro Pesch when the only copy of Warlock: Triumph And Agony's pad finally came loose from it's moorings, giving the tape itself no buffer whatsoever. CDs had more of a shelf life. I loved being able to skip over a song I didn't care for with a touch of a button. The only problem was that packing around CDs AND a player was just a little bulky.
I ended up getting an MP3 Player out of convenience. I'd gone through two in particular and then, I bought my first iPod on eBay...Apple didn't make jack shit off me. Why? Because I didn't buy it from them.
"Well, yeah, D, but you still have iTunes!"
How the hell else do you propose I put the music on there. All the music within my iTunes was bought and paid for...CDs (Unless they were generously donated by the bands out there who are helping me to help you, etc) There are a few exceptions but those are individual tracks (much like Cable, occasionally, I have to download to fulfill requests) and the most important part of that is...I don't buy a fucking thing through iTunes. I never have and I never will. I won't go and download an entire indie CD and if I do, best believe that I'm buying it shortly thereafter. If I don't like it, I'll ditch it...no need to take up hard drive space. I can honestly say, though, that I've liked just about everything I've bought or have had submitted.
Now, whatever happened to that first iPod? It got replaced. A friend of mine had told me about the new nanos after he bought a 4GB version. He didn't get much use out of it before upgrading to the 8GB version and then gave me his old one. Do I have an iPod because I wanna be "cool?" Hell no, I figure I'm already cool enough without the motherfucker. I've got it for the following reasons:
1. I'm not always alone at the gym and I don't understand how someone can get amped to R&B or country...I'm not making this up. With my iPod, I can listen to my Adrenaline tracks without someone bugging me. Not just that but the gym I go to on occasion doesn't have speakers and/or a stereo in every room (like their Dojo section where I spend most of my time) and I like the idea that not only can I listen to something to amp me up on my way to the gym but I can work out in any area of the gym without having to stop to turn up the volume or turn it down and I can listen to whatever I have on me at all times...portability case.
2. So far, this thing also plays movies. So, this means whenever I'm sitting down to dinner at a restaurant, I can watch one of my 9/11 documentaries or even those two episodes of Mystery Science Theatre that I have on the computer.
3. Hey, it works as a photo album!
4. I don't have to list the songs in any particular order. I can go by band name, song title, album title or just shuffle through. Personally, I like just going by album and then having total control.
5. I don't have to stop mid-workout to change a CD.
Personally, if I could redesign the damned thing, I would. I'd eliminate the dependence on iTunes as it's a moody fucking program and I'd just give the fucker a drag-and-drop feature. Then again, as of the time of this writing, they probably already have a model like that in existence.
By the way, Tommy, if you ever really want to hear some inferior MP3 sound, pop in a pair of headphones to a newer model MOTORAZR and an iPod will probably sound really awesome in comparison.
At least, I know it does with me.
posted by Lord Genocyde at 10:56 AM
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