Januar 2010

Q: “What is it, that makes digital music inferior to physical sound carriers in your opinion?”
A: “Well, you know… I’m a haptic person, I need something to hold in my hands and stuff.”

Bull-Shit! I am so intangibly sick to death of hearing the same old argument over and over again. YES the CD is an obsolete medium. And YES artworks and lyrics are an essential part of almost every album. But cross your heart: How many times do you actually go to your CD shelf, pick out the album you want to listen to, throw it in your stereo, sit down and hold the booklet in your hands? That’s right…

EVERYONE uses iTunes (or one of its few noteworthy peers) and has a mobile mp3-player. That’s the way we consume music in 2010. The funny thing is, that even though we are talking about “11111s” and “00000s” all the thought, passion and hard work bands put into creating a great album consisting of all three, music, lyrics and artwork, is still momentous and most of all available.

Notwithstanding I am one of those old school digital immigrants, my CD rack has been collecting dust for years now. I own over 1000 CDs, basically all my favorite music, but I would rather buy an album a 2nd time in iTunes before I listen to its physical equivalent. I know I am not alone and I allege that the time we spend with our digital music library by far exceeds the time we are actually listening to physical CDs. People spend hours and hours to organize, rate, rename or update their media libraries. And guess what, they love it! They stare at their “cover flow” and feel proud of the great record collection they grow.

iTunes is the new CD shelf. The cover-flow is the new visual AND haptic (most mp3 players support “skipping” through your cd collection with two fingers or other multi-touch gestures). And almost every songtext that has ever been written is available on the internet. But this is just the beginning. Think of iTunes LP, the new album-format that not only includes mp3s and a cover image but also videos, pictures, multimedia content and interative gimmicks of your favorite band. Think of large multitouch displays in your living room. Think of new multitouch gestures that allow you to skim through a virtual booklet. Think of animated album covers that uncloses an artist like Jake Bannon a complete new dimension of expressing his band CONVERGE. Or think of a “mood” button that shuts down the lights in your living room, projects an animated cover on your wall and allows you to dive deeper into your favorite album than you have ever dreamed of. Some of these ideas might still sound very futuristic but others are just a stone’s throw away and might decorate YOUR living room in a few months already.

See, I run a record label and I still print my releases on CDs. I know that there is a market for physical sound carriers left and my urge is not to devaluate or diss compact discs. I just want to call up all those Luddites who have not recognized yet that the digital age of music consumption has already reached their own personal lives years ago. Wake up! And check your habits… and haptics.