The future of your music collection?

[Bogey]

Unfortunately the cd is going to be obsolete in my lifetime, so it's only a matter of time before there is no alternative to musical downloads.  Hopefully by then most downloads will not compromise on sound quality.

And that is what I am hoping for actually Bunny.  Possibly folks will resell their cds, especially ones that have been mastered properly and are not too far, at least with the older recordings, removed too far from the analogue tapes.  It all depends on what format the downloads are made for IMO.  If it is for portable devices, it may be sometime before these downloads will sound as good on a larger system....then again, as you pointed out, maybe they will sound wonderful.  Also, the more that they remaster, the more probable that they become further detached from the original tapes of older recordings that are for the most part, at this point, unusable already.  Either way, I really need to reboot my vinyl days and move on.  I just need a couple more good kick in the pants before this inevitably happens. 

[MN Dave]

You can't resell a download. 

[Teresa]

All of my music is now on my Mac Mini in iTunes.  I have high resolution 24 Bit 96kHz and 88.2kHz music files however most are 196kbps - 320kbps MP3s. 


I still listen to SACDs to give my computer a rest.  However now that my favorite record company Telarc is no longer making SACDs I haven't been buying many SACDs lately.  Most of my new music has been MP3s and high resolution 24/96 and 24/88.2 downloads. 

My favorite recordings are from Telarc, Reference Recordings and Lyrita.  I love Telarc recordings so much I would much rather have a Telarc MP3 than nearly anyone else's SACD!

[drogulus]

      Teresa, have you been to HDTracks yet? They have tons of 24/88 and 24/96 music from a number of labels. You'd go crazy there!

[Teresa]

      Teresa, have you been to HDTracks yet? They have tons of 24/88 and 24/96 music from a number of labels. You'd go crazy there!

Yes I have. My favorites so far are the Reference Recordings especially the Arnold Overtures at 24/88.2kHz.  Most of my High resolution music files are from HD Tracks.  Also I am a digital subscriber to the Boston Symphony Orchestra and get all their new recordings in 24/88.2kHz, it's $50 per year http://www.bso.org/bso/shop/productCategories.jsp;jsessionid=YMBHNY0WQKSE0CTFQMGSFEQ?id=bcat13360032&_requestid=78002

[Grazioso]

The future of my music collection? In terms of format, it's all CD now, and I intend to keep it that way as long as possible. Yes, there are downsides, lack of space chief among them, secondarily some releases that are only digital (I guess some labels just don't want the money I'd otherwise be happy to pay them!).

But there's a heck of a lot to be said for seeing the discs arrayed before you like a library of books: something visible and tangible, something you can skim through, something with physical booklets to read. Yes, the music is the most important thing, just as the text of a book is, but I wouldn't want to forgo the pleasures and benefits of the physical object.

Even if I end up buying downloads at some point, I doubt I'll ever rip all my 1000 or so CD's to a digital format and get rid of the discs, for the reasons described above, plus the huge amount of work involved.

As for the future of my music collection in general, questions of format aside, I've been collecting the complete symphony cycles of a wide range of composers for a few years now and with 100+ different cycles, I've reached the point where there aren't many more cycles I'm interested in hearing, so now I'll shift over to doing the same with other favorite genres, like the violin sonata, violin concerto, string quartet, etc. Other than that, it's just shoring up the bits of the core repertoire I lack (primarily solo piano and vocal music). More music of the Gurnian era  will also be dutifully, diligently, and delightfully added to my collection.

Outside classical, there's a lot of jazz I'd like to explore, but I suppose that's a topic for another forum. (Any interest in having a jazz sub-forum here? I saw a jazz forum that has a classical sub-forum.)

[Coopmv]

I think there is no doubt when the non-physical form of musical albums equals the CD in terms of sound quality and additional information (liner notes, libretti), as well as the possibility to acquire this on-line, store and play back at our homes, that the CD or any other physical format will dissapear.

Before that moment, I won't make the switch.
I'm not going to compromise on any of these points, no matter what the difference in price is.

Q

Agree.  It is too early to think about this issue.  With 4000+ LP's and a few hundred tapes (both open-reels and cassettes), I doubt I will ever finish digitizing them in my lifetime.  Digitizing LP is a very strenuous task unless by the time I am ready to retire there is software that can clean out those annoying pops and clicks in one click of the mouse.  Manual removals are just too painful.  Even thousands of my pristine quality Philips LP's are not immune from these unwanted noises ...

[Szykneij]

But there's a heck of a lot to be said for seeing the discs arrayed before you like a library of books: something visible and tangible, something you can skim through, something with physical booklets to read. Yes, the music is the most important thing, just as the text of a book is, but I wouldn't want to forgo the pleasures and benefits of the physical object.

I'm with you 100 percent, but I think it's basically a matter of preference due in large part to age and experience.

While I prize my shelves of CDs and vinyl, my 16-year old son has a huge amount  of music downloads and no CDs at all. He's happy to have all of his music and related info on his ipod and laptop. That works perfectly for a lot of people, young people especially. Personally, I need the tactile experience that's missing from that situation.

When I'm out in my office, I listen mostly to my vinyl because that's where my turntable and albums are located. In the house and in the car, I listen to my CDs. Whenever I do download music, I always burn a copy to a cdr to have a physical example.

To those of us who love CDs, we'll be in luck if they follow in the steps of record albums. After CDs replaced albums as the medium of choice, most people dumped all their vinyl and it became available to interested people like me for pennies. I can't wait to see huge lots of 200 classical CDs listed on Ebay at $9.95 starting prices.[/font]

[Cristofori]

When and if it gets to the point were I can no longer purchase real physical copies of recordings I'm interested in, I will most likely cease from collecting new stuff altogether, with few exceptions.

Being a Classical music fan, I can afford that luxury, as there are already countless wonderful performances on CD's, LP's, DVD's etc., for me to find and use to last a lifetime.

Barring that, there are always the live concerts I could still attend, and if even that should disappear, then I know that the end is not far off... 

[Cristofori]

While I prize my shelves of CDs and vinyl, my 16-year old son has a huge amount  of music downloads and no CDs at all. He's happy to have all of his music and related info on his ipod and laptop. That works perfectly for a lot of people, young people especially. Personally, I need the tactile experience that's missing from that situation.

The problem I have with that is, there are whole generations of people growing up nowadays that simply don't know what good sound is. They seem to be more then content with listening to inferior MP3 downloaded music with their single ended Ipod headphone when most of them have never listened to a good recording on a good system. If they are happy that's good, but they don't know what they are missing!

When I'm out in my office, I listen mostly to my vinyl because that's where my turntable and albums are located. In the house and in the car, I listen to my CDs. Whenever I do download music, I always burn a copy to a cdr to have a physical example.

When I purchase a real CD or LP copy, I consider it a package deal. I get the beautiful artwork, the notes, lyrics and/or librettos, the quality packaging, and the countless hours of work from professionals and musicians to make sure things go right, whatever that was to them at the time.

To those of us who love CDs, we'll be in luck if they follow in the steps of record albums. After CDs replaced albums as the medium of choice, most people dumped all their vinyl and it became available to interested people like me for pennies. I can't wait to see huge lots of 200 classical CDs listed on Ebay at $9.95 starting prices.

Ditto on that here!

[listener]

I started collecting vinyl as mono was being phased out.  Discs of solo piano music, violin, guitar were being rejected by purchasers because they "weren't in stereo" and they  wanted sound from both speakers.   Mono would go for $1 or $1.99.
  I get out the LP texts when listening to opera CD's - they are so much easier to read and usually have more information.

[Cristofori]

I started collecting vinyl as mono was being phased out.  Discs of solo piano music, violin, guitar were being rejected by purchasers because they "weren't in stereo" and they  wanted sound from both speakers.   Mono would go for $1 or $1.99.
  I get out the LP texts when listening to opera CD's - they are so much easier to read and usually have more information.

Oddly enough, some of these same people who wanted "true stereo" were probably the same ones that caused the plethora of the awful fake stereo versions that came soon after which fortunately, didn't effect serious classical listeners too much.