CD Extinction

[dyn]

See my latest post, I think $2 is pretty generous for creative content. Given that Naxos generates a higher volume of sales than most labels, it might be $0.50. But the musicians receive, comparatively, very little.

i believe industry standard rate is roughly 7 cents per CD. don't put down a payment on any private islands just yet.

[Brian]

I'd be interested in a streaming service that offers me the ability to hear new composers or new performers, so I can decide if I'm actually interested in them, or lets me hear music I like enough to want to hear every so often, but don't like it enough to actually want to buy it for my CD library.  But (although I don't actually take advantage of them) we already have that capacity in rather basic form, through Spotify and similar services.

This is why I love Naxos Music Library. It's very clearly built by and for lovers of the music, with features like pages listing every recording of a single work along with the work's date, instrumentation, publisher, and other critical information. There's even a track timing search specifically built for conductors who need, say, a seven-minute overture.

If NML had truly CD-quality audio, I'd probably never buy any of the CDs it contains, but there is some compression. As is, I have a fixed list of NML content I am allowed to buy: they must be truly premium productions (Alpha, BIS and Chandos SACD hybrids, Zig Zag) or recordings I find myself needing to hear once or more per month.

Of course, there is the problem of cost. NML costs $300/yr for good audio, compared to, say, Netflix costing $96/yr.

[Fafner]

This is why I love Naxos Music Library. It's very clearly built by and for lovers of the music, with features like pages listing every recording of a single work along with the work's date, instrumentation, publisher, and other critical information. There's even a track timing search specifically built for conductors who need, say, a seven-minute overture.

If NML had truly CD-quality audio, I'd probably never buy any of the CDs it contains, but there is some compression. As is, I have a fixed list of NML content I am allowed to buy: they must be truly premium productions (Alpha, BIS and Chandos SACD hybrids, Zig Zag) or recordings I find myself needing to hear once or more per month.

Of course, there is the problem of cost. NML costs $300/yr for good audio, compared to, say, Netflix costing $96/yr.

I was looking at NML and it looks great, but $300/yr is really quite expensive. I subscribe at the main Naxos site (naxos.com) for $20/yr. It has none of the frills of the NML and a much smaller collection (mainly the catalogue of Naxos itself, Macro Polo and other small labels Naxos distributes: Ondine, BIS, Capriccio et al.). The main drawback is the fact you have to play each track separately (but even that can be solved with a little bit of creative client-side scripting)   

[NJ Joe]

What's VHS?

My older sons grew up not knowing what vinyl albums are.

My younger children are growing up not knowing what VHS tapes are, and barely knowing about DVD's, CD's and CD players.  Music is something they get off of the computer and put onto their iTunes playlist and iPod.  Movies are something we order on demand, or stream from Amazon or Netflix.

[NJ Joe]

In terms of space and my economic situation, digital downloads are a blessing.  I live in a small house, and simply no longer have the space to store vast quantities of CD's.  As I can't afford to buy a decent stand-alone sound system, most of my listening is done on the computer or on my iPod.  We have a 10 year old Bose surround system in the family room with a Blu-Ray player attached, and I can occasionally listen to CD's this way (like late at night, when the family room isn't in use).  I can also plug my iPod into the auxiliary jack on the Bose and listen that way. But most of my listening is relegated to headphones.

All of my boxed set purchases are physical CD's, but many individual discs are purchased as downloads.  Everything gets loaded into iTunes, and backed up on an external hard drive. Multiple disc sets are manipulated to be a single entity, which is convenient.

I also recently splurged and bought a separate iPod just for classical music!

[Bogey]

My older sons grew up not knowing what vinyl albums are.

My younger children are growing up not knowing what VHS tapes are, and barely knowing about DVD's, CD's and CD players.  Music is something they get off of the computer and put onto their iTunes playlist and iPod.  Movies are something we order on demand, or stream from Amazon or Netflix.

Yup.

[Expresso]

I grew up listening to music from a cassete player or the radio. I rarely miss those days 
Technology kept advancing all those years in the right way. CD's, SACD's etc.

I work in I.T and i'm not a technophobe.
Nowadays we have streaming music which is not 100% availiable. Streaming data packets could be lost or damaged.

I'm not against digital downloading. I just expect much higher quality. Better and more advanced than SACD's and not more limited or compressed 
Small sized mp3's are better for the music industry, because they need to pay less money for storage servers.

[mc ukrneal]

Looks like the cd will be with us a while longer - at least in Japan!

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cd-loving-japan-resists-move-003123863.html

[Bogey]

Looks like the cd will be with us a while longer - at least in Japan!

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cd-loving-japan-resists-move-003123863.html

It because they make quality pressings that are worth ten times as much as the ones in the states.  Just sayin. 

[Mookalafalas]

It because they make quality pressings that are worth ten times as much as the ones in the states.  Just sayin. 

  Worth ten-times as much or just cost ten times as much?  Are their 1s and 0s better than ours, or do you mean after US pressed discs have cracked or mildewed, the Japanese pressed ones will still be good?

[jochanaan]

A factor to consider: Many groups, including several major orchestras, are getting away from the big (and increasingly irrelevant) recording companies and producing and distributing recordings on their own.

I would love to see the day when any recording functions as a "teaser" whose primary purpose is to entice folks to come to live performances.  But, as a performing musician without a major recording contract, I am seriously prejudiced.

[aukhawk]

A factor to consider: Many groups, including several major orchestras, are getting away from the big (and increasingly irrelevant) recording companies and producing and distributing recordings on their own.

It's so easy now - hardware that cost 1,000,000s (name currency of choice) is now emulated by software costing costing 0 - 100s - all that remains is to acquire the skills to make the best of it, which is not so difficult to do.

[Bogey]

  Worth ten-times as much or just cost ten times as much?  Are their 1s and 0s better than ours, or do you mean after US pressed discs have cracked or mildewed, the Japanese pressed ones will still be good?

Maybe both.  It truly depends on the pressing.  Some are better, some you need the ears of a keen wolf to pick up the differences.  Ah heck, scrap my last post. I will play it safe and just grab the vinyl version.

[71 dB]

I just expect much higher quality. Better and more advanced than SACD's and not more limited or compressed 

In what way better than SACD? What are the limitations of SACD regarding human hearing?

Higher sampling rate?
SACD is based on DSD bit stream at 2.8224 MHz = 64 x 44.1 kHz. The frequency limit is about 100 kHz.

Larger dynamic range?
SACD has a dynamic range of 120 dB withing the frequency range of human hearing (20 - 20 000 Hz) thanks to noise shaping and dithering. That is significantly more than what CD can offer (theoratically 98 dB with dithering). The dynamic range of SACD is comparable to a 20 bit PCM format. 24 bit PCM formats provide much more dynamic range, but the question is whether the end user really needs more than 100 dB of dynamic range. In music production larger dynamic range is beneficial.

More audio channels?
SACD has support for multichannel sound up to 5.1. One could argue that more channels (7.1) should be supported.

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People often think more is better. Often this is the case, but not always. Higher sampling rate isn't an easy answer to better sound quality. AD- and DA-conventers have their time constants. The lower sampling rate, the more accurately conversions can be carried out, because converters have more time to change their state according to each new sample value. Furhermore, audio amplifiers are not usually designed to work optimally at very high ultrasonic frequencies so it might be good to restrict the audio to the bandwidth of human hearing. If CD was developped today, I believe the optimum sampling rate would be 60 kHz and the bit depth perhaps 18 bits. I believe more is not necessory for consumers.

[The new erato]

There is no way a redbook CD can sound better than a SACD however the CD is produced or what materials are involved. The only way it can be better is if a better mastering of the original is used in the production of the CD. But that is an altogether different matter than the quality of the media and formats used in the physical carrier.