Buffalo Boy's Blog
Giving You More Than Just My Two Cents
The End of Hard Copies?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071012/ap_en_mu/irrelevant_record_labels
The above article is huge on so many levels. Radiohead was the latest artist to say goodbye to major recording label and give its new material out online as a download allowing the listener to download it for a cost that they saw fit.
Madonna is also eliminating major record labels for her next contract. Prince has done the same and others may be to follow. Could music be headed towards an age where it is all online? I hope not.
Im one who if I like it I want to go to a real record store and purchase a hard copy with all the CD art to go with it. It wouldn't be fun anymore to just go online and download a bunch of songs with nothing tangible to go with them.
Would U2's the Joshua Tree have been the same without the album cover to go with it? Would The Hip's Trouble at the Henhouse be the same without the cover art? What about my favorite album artwork of all time the cover for Rush's Hold Your Fire?
Not to mention all the hidden goodies you can find in album artwork and reading the liner notes. It would be a sad day for a true fan of collecting music if the tangible CD/album artwork disappeared in the years to come with the explosion of online media killing the major label industry but for some reason thats the feeling I get when I read this article. What do you think?
In total agreement with the BB! Purchasing an album can be so much more than waiting for a download to finish just so one may move onto the next. Physical album artwork, liner notes anticipation of the purchase, struggling to open the seal as quickly as you can....I am sure people who agree with this can continue the list of accompanying pleasures. Not so dissimilar to the argument back in the early eighties with the shrinkage of the cover art from about 12 inches to only 5! Long live the vinyl!
On the other point, funny how financially strapped bands are hoping for a record deal/label, as financially successful bands are looking for ways to part with them. Record labels will always be present and needed in a capitalistic society.