I bought two CDs today: 'Rockferry', the de luxe edition of Duffy's lovely take on Dusty and Aretha and all that 60s emotion (immaculately assembled by the great Bernard Butler); and Amadou & Mariam's exquisite 'Welcome to Mali', as challenging a cross-over album as you're likely to hear this year (and I do mean 2009).
Enough of the rave reviews. My real point is as follows. I paid a tenner each for these at HMV. I just checked, and I could have bought each for eight quid on iTunes. For my extra four pounds, I got sumptuous CD packaging (posters, photos, beautifully textured boxes etc); tangible physical objects which can engage my senses of touch and sight without going anywhere near a bloody computer; and most importantly, CD audio sound quality rather than that depleted MP3 I'd have got from the download versions.
Downloads, MP3 and iTunes have their role, obviously - I use them all the time - but they won't kill off the solid music media just yet.
(Vinyl's even better...)
I agree! I have Christina Pluhar's CD right here on the desk and the cover is a work of art in itself. Medieval musicians, schooners and wild sea animals, and it has an extra CD showing the musicians recording and fooling around. Can't get any of that in a download.
ReplyDelete