Reply to post: Re: Hmmm...

Return of the audio format wars and other money-making scams

Alien8n

Re: Hmmm...

The problem really is that MP3 killed the value of music. You look at a £25 vinyl record and state it's overpriced, that CDs are less than half the price. Now consider that in nearly 30 years the cost of that CD has actually gone DOWN in price. Taking inflation into consideration we should be paying at least £20 a CD, this is the real reason that the music industry is in so much trouble. It used to be that you'd save up for an album, it was expensive and treasured. Now you just load Spotify and away you go, as much as you can listen to for a tenner a month. For consumers this is great, it's a good thing, but for bands it's literally killed the chances most have of ever going fulltime as a band.

So when one of my favourite musicians brings out a limited edition vinyl that with postage will cost £27 then yes, I'm willing to pay that. Because that's what it's truly worth. Not a share of my tenner a month to Spotify, not £10 for a CD that will just get ripped onto the PC so I can stream it to the car stereo. It's worth that £27 to me because it's limited to 300 copies. It has artwork, a lyric book, even comes with a CD copy. It has value. And it's this value that kids today are rediscovering.

I love the fact that my kids are rediscovering the true value of music, and in so doing have discovered the joy of collecting vinyl. That instead of being just something in the background as they play video games they're discovering the joy of simply listening to something for the sake of listening. My kids are lucky, I get to take them to a lot of concerts, often for free. That doesn't stop them paying to see bands I wouldn't go and see though. I've encouraged them to explore music, whatever the genre, so they've grown up to listen to everything from Fleetwood Mac to Slipknot.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon