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Funeral for a friend
Stereophile magazine laments the passing of physical media (exhibit A) and discusses the problems with the music streaming. Yep, there’s a connection.
There are plenty of reasons to worry about this, even beyond the purely sentimental. Mostly it comes down to a loss of control. You control what you own—what’s on your shelf—but a favorite (or even acceptable) streaming service could end at any time, for any number of reasons. The biggest streamer, Spotify, has so far been profitable intermittently and has yet to offer lossless streaming. The financial health of other streaming services, including audiophile favorites Qobuz and Tidal, is largely unknown.
Think about that Machine Head reissue: Now that Dweezil’s stereo mix exists, will you still be able to access the original mix, by Martin Birch, years into the future? If you own the LP or CD, the answer is yes—but what if you’re dependent on streaming?
If you own a CD or LP, you know exactly what you’ve got—or at least you can know, with research. When your music is streamed, you can never be sure what you’re listening to and it can change at any time without your knowledge. Did the streaming service choose the ’95 remaster? Is it the version that originally appeared on LP? Is it a special version created for the streaming service (à la “Made for iTunes”)? Why are the drums in the left channel instead of the right, as they are on the LP?
Read more in Stereophile.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Buy physical media. Problem solved.
July 16th, 2024 at 20:11A sobering read, ouch. I put the lion’s share of my physical collection on hard drive (losslessly) and you know what? I never ever listen to it there – it has no value for me in that form. Instead I had new shelves for my still growing CD collection built! 😂 One day my kids will be standing before these shelves and say: “Now how the hell are we gonna get rid of dad’s junk here?”
The day DP will no longer release their newest album in the CD format, I’ll be in a state of crisis. Wait until I’m dead please. 😑
July 16th, 2024 at 20:15We’ve gotten spoiled with all the technology. It has its place, for sure, but look at the other side of the coin, too. As Jimmy Page says, you lose the physical sensation of touching the product, the artwork and a lot of the personal aspects with digital media. You lose the personal touch when you can’t call and request a song be played on your favorite radio station because there is nothing but flashing lights from computers in the studio – no disc jockeys. One person in Florida might be voice-tracking the same “liners” and song intro’s for 150 stations, and feeding it into a computer network. No bodies in many radio stations; they’ve been replaced by computers. Was it Musk who recently said ALL of our jobs will be replaced by A.I. soon enough. Is that progress? There has to be an intelligent balance between the new and the old. Kudos to Purple for putting out old-fashioned albums. Kudos to people like Tom Cruise putting out actual movies for the theater rather than straight-to-TV or streaming platforms.
July 17th, 2024 at 01:29Just a detail of the aspect of the end of humanity, not just of music. Decadentism and immense sadness.
July 17th, 2024 at 04:53I suppose every cloud has a silver lining.
https://www.noise11.com/news/ed-sheeran-crowded-the-streaming-king-20240716
July 17th, 2024 at 07:14I make good se of it now when I wamnt some random background music in the vein of … you might like this … section. But I would never rely on it. A lot of the stuff I like to listen to isn’t even available.
July 17th, 2024 at 07:32Ah, and it’s useful to check out albums to see if they’re worth having at home of course.
July 17th, 2024 at 07:34Valid points, all. This is the result of companies switching their market output from the goods (which the customer ends up owning) to the services (which the company can stop providing and take back at any moment). You may also recall the fact that Boomer musicians, which are by far the most commercially successful generation in history, sell their catalogues to the best bidder. We may as well end up losing the opportunity to listen to our favourite tracks altogether, let alone choose between different versions of SOTW.
Owning a CD or an LP is nice but they tend to wear off, too. My solution is ripping as much music into MP3 files and/or lossless formats and storing it locally. At least, storage is cheap these days.
It’s nice tho, that the Stereophile uses the MH as an example. That’s a sign of recognition!
July 17th, 2024 at 09:21right all makes sense they want to kill the best format, must be government control ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ?
July 17th, 2024 at 11:55Sibylline Herr MacGregor @5: I don’t get it, what’s the sliver lining? The article is all about streaming’s impact on the charts.
July 17th, 2024 at 14:54Wandered why Bananas – Abandon – are not on Spotify-
July 17th, 2024 at 15:52Truth is told!
With Uwe – what are my kids going to do With a wall of CDs
July 17th, 2024 at 15:54Can’t stop buying them!
It strikes me as a bit coincidental (and appropriate) that this excellent article of “Funeral for a Friend” was posted on July 16,2024, which is the 12th anniversary of Jon Lord’s passing. Just saying.
July 17th, 2024 at 17:58I continue to buy my CDs and vinyls. I intend to do this until the end of my days. And speaking of which: I’ve already made it known that I want to be cremated along with my “Made in Japan” (my first Deep Purple that I received from my father in 1974 when I turned 10 years old).
July 17th, 2024 at 18:07Spotify, which is incredibly convenient, has never had Abandon or Bananas, and now doesn’t have Shades of Deep Purple, except for Hush. Who knows what will disappear next?
Does any one know whether Apple Music or Amazon Music are better for Purple?
July 17th, 2024 at 18:15@ All, All great observations/comments.
AndreA @ 4,
Your statement is as cogent as it can be in these ever darkening days….
Social Media beyond part and parcel of the continuous decadence and decline of humanity.
“Money, so they say, is the root of all evil today.”***
*** Roger’s hypocrisy, however, is blatant as reflected straight away from 1973.
Check out the Piers Morgan interview with him. Cringeworthy at best. Rog, Stay on the path!!
Shame on me for an attempt at some levity. Shame on me and let’s leave Roger be. He is a child of God.
Peace!
Ted
July 17th, 2024 at 18:42Wot? No Shades Of, Abandon or Bananas? Back in the day that would have meant —> Ostfront, aber schnell!
Vee haff ze vvvays to make you offer DP’s complete oeuvre!
Don’t Amazon offer everything they have as CD on their streaming service as well? They always send me messages with whatever album I buy in physical shape that I can also now stream it for free, but of course I never do and I never have. I then get mails à la “You are not using an Amazon Service available to you …”. 😂 I’ll drive them mad eventually.
Right now, I’m happily listening to my PHYSICAL EDITION of the Hughes Turner Project ‘Live In Tokyo”. It’s been ages since I did and I don’t know how much it has been doctored, but it kicks butt. It’s weird hearing Glenn play bass to Rainbow material – he of course does what he wants as opposed to playing it the way it was recorded. Turner’s and Hughesy’s voices actually mesh well, as good as Glenn and DC in their prime. Glenn is a better Rainbow background singer than Roger, let’s put it that way (forgive me, Roger!). 😎
July 17th, 2024 at 20:56Fernando @14: Re your funeral specifications, no need for cremation (unless you want “Burn” blaring in the background to it which I have thought about), I’m pretty sure that taking the vinyl with you in your cold, grubby hands will be ok for an earth burial too from an ecological view: It’s plant-based if you just go back long enough.
https://donglutsdinosaurs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Yale-Zallinger-Tyrannosaurus1-1000×700.jpg
July 17th, 2024 at 21:05@ 2- ” Instead I had new shelves for my still growing CD collection built! 😂 One day my kids will be standing before these shelves and say: “Now how the hell are we gonna get rid of dad’s junk here?” Yes but they leave home eventually Uwe. It is your wife you have to think of, how can she put up with all those cd’s everywhere. Show some compassion. I can hear the Judge in a court of divorce preceding’s ‘Why do you need a divorce good lady? Uwe’s wife – ‘Your honour with all due respect, have you any idea how many cd’s my husband (soon to be ex) has & he just won’t stop buying them’ Judge – “Divorced granted on compassionate grounds’.
July 17th, 2024 at 23:14I’ve already heard: “This is the last extension of shelves ever, there is no other space for it. You should stop buying CDs several times over or start giving the old ones away!”
Kid’s leaving home? My daughter left home when she was 18 (she’s now 32, married and lives in Brussels) and my son left home even earlier, when he was 16 (setting sail with a glam metal band as their guitarist for London), he’s 30 now and lives in LA. I wasn’t one of those late fathers!
July 18th, 2024 at 00:53Apple Music has most of the DP catalog EXCEPT for the MK I stuff, Abandon, and Bananas. Now What you have to search up. Amazon is the same except they do have MK I’s ” Deep Purple.”
July 18th, 2024 at 05:13Interesting note. I found a rap song called “Deep Purple” by a gent named Wink Loc. listen close and you can hear Purple’s “Child In Time” in the background. Ian’s ooooos. I hope the boys are getting paid for that.
Sounds to me like there are issues with the rights to Abandon and Bananas?
July 18th, 2024 at 09:43Wasn’t DP between labels when Abandon was released and it was released on some label that doesn’t exist anymore or has du IOUs ownership these days? It must be something because it is also the only album not available on vinyl?
As EarMusic seem to have the spending pants on (is that even a saying outside of Sweden?) and want to spend a lot of money on the band, they should buy all Morse era masters (multi tracks if available) and secure them for future projects. There are big anniversaries coming up, or just passed, for those releases.
July 18th, 2024 at 10:12I looked for Wink Loc on YouTube and his videos there – which do not include DP – seem to have been downloaded about 3,000 times each.
Found it on Sound cloud – 10,000 plays.
He may do better on other platforms, but the royalties on those numbers would not pay for a lawyer’s letter.
July 18th, 2024 at 10:42@ 20 – but surely as your children left home back then that would have freed up two more rooms to fill with cd’s? Or have you already accomplished that? Cheers.
July 18th, 2024 at 11:46Uwe @18, Burn is a great idea too. I will change the will soon. hahahaha
July 18th, 2024 at 20:33Peace Love
The doubtful linguist @23, para 2: Don’t know about our Anglo-American friends, but we in Deutschland know all about “die Spendierhosen anhaben”!
July 19th, 2024 at 02:29