The music industry is in financial crisis because of its inability to collect money on digital downloading, MP3s, Napster etc. It also hasn’t managed to launch a successful new format since CD, when everybody repurchased all their favourite albums. So now, to make sure the cash keeps rolling in, relatively more investment is made in safer bets, creating a “super league” of mainstream, lowest-common-denominator artists while there’s a dearth of investment in new, more innovative talent.
CD was launched as the better, tougher, smaller, longer, wipe-clean audio format; Unlike vinyl albums, you didn’t have a 12” square taking up all that room, you didn’t have to look after it and make sure it didn’t get scratched, you didn’t have to cart the ungainly old thing back from the shops and then leave it safe at home cos you couldn’t put it in your car or take it out with you. And unlike vinyl albums you took the music more for granted cos you didn’t have to treasure it or get rid of the static or want to gaze at the cover.
And now when you look at your CD that you find does get scratched and won’t play and the case breaks and you barely glance at the 5” square cover and the band bang on for about 25 minutes too long don’t you think – there must be a better way of appreciating music?
The Solution? The 15” Vinyl Album. The industry will love it because it’ll need new hardware that everyone will buy. Less people will bother copying / downloading it because the beauty and art is in the whole package – not just on a file or a CDR. The recording artists will love it because it’ll look and sound fantastic (good decks can sound better than CDs), the back catalogue will re-sell more records and so encourage investment in new and interesting talent.
And the general public will love it because it’ll cost less than a CD; look better; feel like it’s worth something, having to respect it cos it’s a little delicate; and possibly discover an appreciation of the art, rather than of the marketing plan.-- notripe, Jan 12 2002 Record sales down down down. http://www.salon.co.../19/music_industry/.....and they're gonna keep falling. [notripe, Jan 12 2002] wired article #1 http://www.wired.co...chive/9.10/drm.html [mihali, Jan 14 2002] wired article #2 http://www.http://w...9.10/lifecycle.html [mihali, Jan 14 2002] (?) Marty Feldman http://www.cmgww.com/stars/feldman/Estate of Marty Feldman c/o CMG Worldwide [thumbwax, Jan 16 2002] What universe is this where "the music industry is in a financial crisis"? Despite Napster et al, the middlemen keep making more and more money.
You make it sound like there's a recording executive saying "Oh no... in order to turn a profit we'll have to sell prepackaged boy-band tripe" and breaking down in tears.-- PurpleBob, Jan 12 2002 Almost a lament, and I suspect vinyl-enthusiasts are in an older, album-buying bracket than the single-buying target market, but I'm going to croissant anyway, out of my foolish sentimentality about vinyl and having missed the boat on Punk the first time round. Hey, if ye can't be sentimental about music, what can ye be?-- Guy Fox, Jan 12 2002 I guess I'm not the general public.-- thumbwax, Jan 12 2002 I'm in 2 minds about this one, faceache. I like the oldfashioned vinyl albums. They were all round sensual items and I have not the heart to dispose of mine but they are just collecting dust. There is a lot of collectors value in some of those old records if you know which. rock on. croissant anyway.-- po, Jan 12 2002 It'll be harder to rip to MP3's because few people will have hardware that will interface with the computer.
Bad idea anyway; CD's are tougher <They do get scratched, but the scratches can be removed and are not always catastrophic anyway> and don't wear out, and are much easier to carry around.-- StarChaser, Jan 12 2002 Purplebob - I'm afraid your first paragraph's wrong (see link) and your second is a generalisation. Some record execs are saying exactly that.
Star, I suppose you like your art wipe-clean and easy-to-carry-around? If only Van Gogh had laminated his Sunflowers. Or Rodin had minituarised his Kiss.
The whole point of the idea is that CDs and MP3s, to some degree, cheapen the artform of record-making along with cheapening the format and it's a slippery slope that is proving not to do anyone any good.
It's a problem unique to music - say there were no cinemas and Lynch or Coppola or Scorcese films could only be viewed on portable TVs, don't you think that would diminish their art somewhat?
The idea's trying to halt the dilution of a great art by the modern obsession with gadgetry and convenience, in much the same way as you lot have all been moaning about the plethora of mobile phone ideas.
Of course, to work properly, 15" vinyl will have to be the only commercially manufactured format. Bring it on!-- notripe, Jan 12 2002 //the only commercially manufactured format//
Oh, no. Wait a minute. Bollocks to that. Part of the *experience* of vinyl that lends to its romanticisation was the cheapness and availability of 12" singles when folks of my age (30) and older were first discovering the music that meant so much to them as adolescents. Buying singles or bootleg gig tapes, making up mix tapes for your friends - underground / alternative music like Punk or Garage required that sort of 'convenience'.
CD's and MP3's, I think, lend themselves much better to the borrowing and copying culture that smaller bands and independent labels aimed at a specific 'scene' need to build up a following. The recent burgeoning of the pop-punk scene would never have got off the ground if it was limited to the Blink 182's and such, without cheap sampler CD's from labels like Fat Wreck Chords providing in-roads to better, but less mainstream, bands.
I have no problem with the idea of 'collector's edition' music, but making it the only format available is ludicrous, like having only leatherbound, signed, first edition copies of books because paperbacks *cheapen* the artform. Sod the industry giants. The ability to burn CD's or rip MP3's means smaller labels, without the resources of the Big Players, get promotion and distribution done for them, to some extent, by the fans themselves.
Damn. I may have to take back my croissant now.-- Guy Fox, Jan 12 2002 Guy, calm down, I wouldn't say I was romanticising vinyl or advocating "collectors edition" music. I'm trying to introduce a format that commands more respect for the art contained within (whether it be pop punk or UK garage). When I say commercially manufactured format I mean the finished record - all the copying tools will still be there (cassette, CDR, MP3) but there'll be more of a difference between a CD burn and the real thing. The CD burn will feel like an inferior copy as opposed to now where it makes hardly any difference.
And of course small labels could still have cheap 15" vinyl samplers too. Don't you think there're a lot of kids growing up thinking free music is a perk of their new PC? That's fine to a point - but let's make the original special.
Good point with the books, but bear in mind book sales are a tenth of record sales so how do authors survive? Well when was the last time you saw anyone reading a photocopied novel?
Now can I have my croissant back please?-- notripe, Jan 12 2002 "say there were no cinemas and Lynch or Coppola or Scorcese films could only be viewed on portable TVs, don't you think that would diminish their art somewhat? "
Not at all. You've named three of the worst filmmakers I've ever seen, and making their work harder to view would be a boon.
The reason record sales are down is that few are made and few people have the ability to play them. Only the nuts who think that an ordinary electrical cable has direction really think so.
CD's and MP3s don't 'cheapen' anything. Music is music.-- StarChaser, Jan 12 2002 Wouldn't photocopying a book work out far more expensive than buying the original?-- arora, Jan 12 2002 should I be proud of the fact that I stll own over 500 albums, still have a record player, and have never downloaded any music of any type? ....lord I feel old today.-- Susen, Jan 12 2002 Not really, there's nothing particularly holy about vinyl. Notripe is trolling.-- StarChaser, Jan 12 2002 Star, had to ponder over your 3rd paragraph for a while there (and your 2nd, but never mind). Where I write "record" if you read "album" it should make it all a bit clearer.
And yes, music is music, but when an artist makes a record, sorry, album, it's also about the moment, the artwork, the sequencing. You can make a statement with side B track 1 that you can't with #6.-- notripe, Jan 12 2002 PS for once, I'm not.-- notripe, Jan 12 2002 then to stop them being copied,how about making cds completely unreadable in the first place?-- technobadger, Jan 12 2002 I assume "uncopyable" was meant... There have been attempts with "uncopyable" CDs, but some CD/DVD home/car players and Macs have had trouble playing them.-- thumbwax, Jan 12 2002 -no- thumbwax completely unreadable & unplayable-- technobadger, Jan 12 2002 I don't get it. Are you saying that the value of an artwork depends on the medium in which it's delivered and the difficulty with which it can be copied? I find the appreciation of art to be a personal experience - regardless of the form or medium.-- phoenix, Jan 12 2002 notripe, you say record sales are going down like it's a bad thing.-- thumbwax, Jan 12 2002 Phoenix. 15” vinyl rather than CD or MP3 makes more of a distinction between the original and the copy so they can each be appreciated as such.
The form and medium are an integral part of the art and the more throwaway it all becomes (both in physical and artistic terms), the less perceived value it has to the general public. Think of your favourite album. Imagine it in the form of a number of MP3 files on your computer. Now hold your hands 15" apart and imagine holding the cover of your favourite album in that size. The artwork of any great album’s as much a part of it as the first song. Think of Sgt Pepper or London Calling or Nevermind or Velvet Underground and Nico or It Takes a Nation of Millions or What’s Going On or Sticky Fingers or Screamadelica etc
If you drop that 15” vinyl, or spill a beer on it or whatever, it’s not going to sound as good. You may have to pay again to replace it. So you’re more careful with it than a CD. So your perception of that album as a piece is heightened. No?
Thumbwax – of course it’s a bad thing – less sales, less financial commitment to new art, more reliance on the tried and tested marketing plans and the established artists. Boy bands, nu-metal, divas, Mariah Carey ad infinitum.
Christ I’m going back to facetious ideas, they’re not such bloody hard work.-- notripe, Jan 12 2002 Stop press.
Music sales are not falling. Where you get that, I have no idea. Perhaps because the lost-profits uproar that the RIAA keeps yelping about. It's bogus. 2001 was the single most successful year on record (pardon pun) for the music industry. The boy groups and the Britneys have the flyin' out the doors. Stats are easy to find.
I haven't read through the entire idea here. I got stuck on the thought of resurrecting vinyl as the primary method of music distribution. I am continually baffled by those who claim that vinyl has anything whatsoever good going for it. Vinyl sucked. It was all we had at the time, it served its purpose, it's fading. Let it die, good riddance. Never again.
SC, nothing personal, but for me, you just destroyed any credibility you may have had on the topic of good film making.-- waugsqueke, Jan 12 2002 I'm just not sure you ever owned an LP. We used to copy them to cassette just to avoid damaging them. We could still look at the album cover, but the music is why we bought it. Would I worry if I lost the cassette? No. It served its purpose (protecting the original). Same would be true of a CD/MP3 combo. If this is a rant about the decline of album artwork then suggest CDs in LP size slipcovers.-- phoenix, Jan 13 2002 1983: Record companies were having no luck convincing Congress that home taping should be made illegal (as it was in other countries, including Britain.) CBS had created a "spoiler" -- a device in the recording system that when activated by an electronic signal on the pre-recorded cassette or LP prevented duplication -- but didn't dare use it unless legislation required other companies to do likewise. Compact discs were a new idea that many experts in the field doubted would ever really catch on; although no one disputed that CD sound quality was superior to that of cassettes or LPs, the cost of a CD player was prohibitively high at $800-$1,500, while the CD itself cost $20.-- thumbwax, Jan 13 2002 You want uncopyable? Try making an exact duplicate of a cylinder.-- Amishman35, Jan 13 2002 Vinyl's OK. Having been a punk first time round (nyeh! nyeh! to Guy Fox) I've always liked that 'rough' quality that it gives to the sound. Having said that, I think CD's are OK too. I don't agree with restricting 'art' to just one medium. How boring! As regards copying, it's my experience that people will buy what they can afford and the reality is, I suspect (but can't prove), that copying doesn't really cost the music industry as much as they like to claim. If someone came up with as foolproof method of preventing copying tomorrow then all that would happen is that people would be prevented from copying, it wouldn't boost sales by a great amount. If sales are down, as notripe's link implies, then I would suggest that it's because the big companies are churning out a pile of crap that nobody wants or can afford (we are in an economic recession remember and little luxuries like music are the first things to get the chop when it comes to belt tightening). Right, I'm off to go and listen to some scratchy old singles!-- DrBob, Jan 13 2002 Notripe: I said 'record' because I meant 'record'. As in 'vinyl record'. 'Album' used to refer to the books of records one got to cover an entire performance, before the technology improved to contain all of it on one record.
Music is music. Does it make a difference if it's coming from a radio, or from the exact same speakers from a CD?
Waugsqueke, how is random images that seem to be totally disconnected from each other <Lynch> or people yelling 'Fuck!' and shooting every three seconds <Scorcese> good? Coppola I really have no opinion on, he's done no movies that had any interest for me at all. The 1992 Dracula was a yawner with cheesy effects-- StarChaser, Jan 13 2002 Blimey, you lot really are starting to scare me now.-- notripe, Jan 13 2002 DrBob: Yeah, but I was six at the time, so nyeh nyeh to you, ya old fart. *Ahem*. Anyway. I agree. Way I see it, smaller labels are actually thriving, and those who are being hit by the burning/ripping culture (if they are, indeed, being hit in any serious way) are just the ones who've succeeded in exploiting the need for large-scale promotion and distribution. Now that the fan-base can do that for themselves, I say let the giants fall.
notripe: //when was the last time you saw anyone reading a photocopied novel// I read an unpublished photocopied novel just last year. OK, that doesn't really count because it was for a friend, but there's an established tradition of samizdat circulation of underground writing even in the democratic UK or US. Then there are the countless small press magazines, pro-zines, semi-pro-zines and (often photcopied) fanzines. These are all ultimately cheap and disposable, and reliant on word-of-mouth rather than big publishing companies. The advantage of something being disposable, like a tape you make of your vinyl album, is that you can afford to lose it to your mate, or to the mate that he lends it to, or whatever. The music is still cherished, perhaps _more_ so because it's a shared experience.
I don't think the format cheapens the art at all. Whatever medium you hear it on, the first time you hear *that song*, the one that grabs you by the balls and never lets go, you're hooked; you'er a junkie for the sound, and the recordshop's your man. It could be vinyl that gets you, or cassette, CD, MP3, minidisc, radioplay, internet-stream, or cylinder. Might even be a live gig (the only *true* way to appreciate the art, of course<g>). I know I'd want to buy much of my original music on CD though, just for the clarity of the sound, and for the fact that I can take it home, stick it on the stereo, and pogo like a mad thing without worrying about- *click* worrying about- *click* worrying about- *click*... damaging it.
Anyhoo, I'd hate to see music-lovers turn into those collector types who never remove their comic / toy / whatever from its packaging because it's far too delicate. Music shouldn't be *precious*; it should be throwaway, giveaway, ruffty-tuffty and able to take care of itself in the big wide world. I think it is. Always has been; always will be. Power to it.-- Guy Fox, Jan 13 2002 Oh, and:
//add more noise pollution to an already cacophonic world//
Yay, cacophony!-- Guy Fox, Jan 13 2002 One thing I enjoy about downloading from a legal site (emusic.com - U$ 10 a month) is the fact there are over 900 independent labels. Many of those Independent labels (whether they, their subsidiaries or labels they bought) used to ream the performers. With the arrangement set up like it is, they can't do that like they used to. Many of the artists are deceased - If so, then their families receive royalties. Many people don't realize just how badly these guys got screwed. Imagine the shock when The Rolling Stones arrived at Chess Records because that's where their idol was signed - first person they saw was in fact, him in the flesh -Muddy Waters - except world famous Muddy wasn't recording that day for next to nothing - he was painting in order to make some money. The Man had good reason to sing the blues.-- thumbwax, Jan 13 2002 Noise, noise, noise is for heroes. Leave the music for zeros!-- DrBob, Jan 13 2002 'Boned for the failure to take retail stores into account. Unless retail is getting a major cut of all this, why should another format take up costly shelf space?
Also, I don't know about anyone else, but I'd hate to lug around 15" vinyls with me in the car. That would make one hell of a visor case!-- Lucky_Setzer, Jan 13 2002 The reasons CD took off are that it was perceived to be of higher quality ('It's digital so it must be better than vinyl'), it was thought to be more robust ('You can spread marmalade on CDs and they still play'), and most importantly, the margins are far, far higher all round. They take up less warehouse, truck and shelf space, and they cost far less to produce than vinyl. Added to the fact that the public was prepared to pay more because of the perceived higher quality, record companies had an enormous incentive to switch the market from vinyl to CD.-- angel, Jan 14 2002 There's something vaguely comforting about the sound of AM radio while driving late at night. It's a childhood thing.
Good doctor, you have a valid observation. Vinyl as a medium does not detract from the sound quality when the quality is limited to begin with. :)
SC: I'm not about to get into a pointless debate about this. I was just caught off guard at your total dismissal of what I consider to be three of the greatest directors of our age. There's no hope for you with Lynch, so nevermind him. Scorsese: may I recommend "Kundun", "The Last Temptation of Christ" and "The Age of Innocence". And "Godfather"'s I and II (stay away from III), and "Apocalypse Now" by Coppola, then we'll talk.-- waugsqueke, Jan 14 2002 [waugskueke] I wouldn't say vinyl's perfect but I, like DrBob, like its sound though. What does irritate me (and I know this isn't what you're saying) is when people hold up the perfection of CD sound against all the compromises of vinyl, not recognising that CDs just have a different set of compromises, some better, some worse.15" vinyl - why stop at 15"? - why not 6' vinyl?-- hippo, Jan 14 2002 The fact that many people listen to music on vinyl, cassette, CD, minidisc, mp3 or whatever else, regardless of the quality of recording or packaging, is a sign that people are keeping on loving music. True, a lovingly thought-out sleeve can add that certain something to an album, but at the end of the day it will stand or fall on the quality of the music.
That said, something doesn't have to be big to make you want to treasure it. Take the packaging on some of the Spiritualized albums for example; in particular, their album "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space", which came in a medication blister pack (with prescription leaflet and all). It hurt me to break the foil on that one, but it was worth it for the music inside.-- -alx, Jan 14 2002 The most obvious compromise of CD is the 44.1KHz sampling rate. Why not 64KHz? Surely it wouldn't have cost *that* much more. Doesn't MiniDisc use 64KHz?-- angel, Jan 14 2002 anyone who believes the music industry's whining about falling sales due to mp3's and the like, should read the articles to which i've linked.
as for the argument about album artwork and music, how about .mp3's linked to a .jpg of the record cover? then you could stare at the screen (in my case it approximates a 15" cover) all you want while listening to your favourite tunes.-- mihali, Jan 14 2002 Ah, 6' vinyl. Now you're talking hippo. If they carried a large enough battery and had speakers attached, you could play them on Guy Fox's gyroscopic umbrellas!-- DrBob, Jan 14 2002 Oh that's better, there're loads of good points now. I didn't have a good argument for enhanced CD singles (with the video on) which you're getting towards cos they're a great idea (except promos tend to be pretty crap for the most part).
Spiritualised - absolutely right - one of the only bands to really work that CD packaging. "Pure Phase" is amazingly done too.
Hippo - 6" singles - great plan - luvvit - someone should release a single every 2 months, starting with 3" CD, then 4" CD, 5" 6", 7" and 10" vinyl with them all compiled on a 12" 6 months later.
44.1 and 48 KHz : the "oh you can't really hear the sub bass and top end frequencies" argument just seemed like a handy compromise for all the wrong reasons.
And I suppose the idea does lament the art-of-making-the-album, which always seemed in full flight when there was 5 tracks each side, genius artwork and an inner sleeve full of great lyrics so you could sing along. Double vinyl / gatefolds always have a nice hefty feel too.
But the really big irritation is the "super-league" of artists that are developing (in the same way as UK football) which widens the gap between the huge mainstream artists that all the money is poured into because of the quick fix sales wise (and I include compilations in this) and the increasingly lower amounts spent on developing artists. Who's the next Oasis or Radiohead or REM or U2? Very few bands get to their 3rd album these days because of the quick fix market trends - but then I suppose that's just 21st century commerce.-- notripe, Jan 14 2002 I think that you misread hippo's annotation, notripe. He wrote 6' (that's six feet). Of course, it could just be a typo. You know how slack he can be with that sort of thing.-- DrBob, Jan 14 2002 As 44.1kHz is PAL compatible (Rods mention), so is 48kHz (and 32Khz) sampling compatible with NTSC in that the samples can be evenly divided into the duration of each TV field (59.94Hz) and will not accrue sync error over time.-- bristolz, Jan 14 2002 UnaBubba; I like a little bit of everything. The recent gangster movies I find boring.
Waugsqueke: It has long been my opinion that things that are popular are not necessarily the best available, or even good in themselves. Picasso didn't paint as well as a second-grader with broken crayons for the most part. Windows sucks. Talk shows suck. Just because they're popular doesn't make them good.
I generally don't pay attention to who directed a movie. It makes no difference to me. Still don't understand what difference the director makes anyway, shouldn't the person who wrote the thing be the important one? The only director who will ever make me consider seeing a movie is Mel Brooks; and he writes much of them himself.
I've seen Apocolypse Now. I'd forgotten it, as a generic war movie.-- StarChaser, Jan 14 2002 Dr Bob - I did misread it! Hippo, COOOOOOOL 6 feet! wicked idea!!
Waugs - don't worry about Star, he's obviously trolling.-- notripe, Jan 14 2002 Not so. There's a lot of that mentality around, that a movie is good because of the director, or a musical performance is good because of the conductor, or a pop song is good because of the dancing. 'Apolcalypse Now' *is* just a war film; it may be a well-directed one, but it's still just a war film. A good director cannot make an inherently bad film good, as witness 'Waterworld'.-- angel, Jan 15 2002 //don't worry about Star, he's obviously trolling//That would be a first - Been here 16 months, never seen the man troll once.-- thumbwax, Jan 15 2002 [DrBob] That's right, 6' does mean six feet. The disc would either be mounted on the ceiling like a ceiling fan, or would be placed on the floor in which case the stylus would be on the underneath of a small battery-powered car which would zoom round and round.-- hippo, Jan 15 2002 The director can make a hell of a difference to a film. It depends on them to take a screenplay written on paper and transform it into a visual medium in a fitting way. This is especially evident with films directed by someone with a unique sense of style, say (love him or hate him) David Lynch, or my favourite at the moment, Darren Aronovsky.
When you watch a well-made film enough times, you really begin to appreciate the amount of care and attention poured into every frame (I'm thinking the Coen Brothers here, incidentally). Most of that is not placed there by the writer, unless the writer also happens to be directing.
Besides, who thinks that AI would have ended up the way it did, for better or worse, had it been directed by Kubrick rather than Spielberg?-- -alx, Jan 15 2002 AI may not have ended up as it did, but it may have been a badly-directed good film, rather than a well-directed good film. More likely, it would have been a differently-directed good film.-- angel, Jan 15 2002 On the second page of tinfoil.com they have a link that talks about a 5' "Brutus" cylinder. By the way I like being able to hear my favorite song without batteries or electricity. Long live mechanical representations of sound!-- Amishman35, Jan 15 2002 What do you think the 'crinkly bits round the fjords' are for? High frequency test signal.-- angel, Jan 15 2002 Egg-zackly-- thumbwax, Jan 15 2002 Mel Brooks!? <convulsive shuddering ensues>
All I will say: yes, popular does not mean good. But the reverse is often true.
Total concurrence with -alx. The director can make or break a film. Particularly those with unique styles.
A.I. was a failed experiment. Kubrick would have done a much better job (he's pretty much the God of Directors in my book). I applaud Spielberg for trying, however, he should have lost the last 20 minutes on the cutting room floor.-- waugsqueke, Jan 15 2002 StarChaser doesn't troll; he restlessly paces.-- bristolz, Jan 15 2002 Maybe the restless pacing is brought on by the ever-present unconscious fantasy of being part of Mel Brooks "finest" moment, the campfire scene.-- notripe, Jan 15 2002 don't push your luck, faceache.-- po, Jan 15 2002 Po, come on - in saying Star was trolling I was handing the chap a dignified getout to his moment of madness with the the //Mel Brooks = good, Picasso = bad // statement. Let him take it for gods sake - I'm sure he wouldn't want to dwell on that all day.-- notripe, Jan 15 2002 in saying don't push your luck, I mean StarChaser is one of the most respected halfbakers at this site and he certainly does not need my lame assistance in explaining his views about anything at all to you, no doubt he will do that himself. As to a "dignified get-out", the man is dignity incarnate. I hope you get out of this one alive and we can remain on speaking terms.-- po, Jan 15 2002 I don't care if the music industry starts recording on sponge cake. As long as there are still bands out there making good music, I'm happy as Larry. And he's pretty happy.-- KevinK, Jan 15 2002 so I am your friend then?
OK OK I'm sorry starchaser, I was trolling. Picasso - of course he's like a kid with a crayon. A dim kid, a retarded kid even. If only Blue Nude had the raw emotion of Spaceballs. If only The Old Guitarist had the form and vigour of Robin Hood:Men In Tights. If only Pablo had the chance to paint Marty Feldman, he may have dragged his shoddy career from the morass. I bow down to the blindingly obvious. Once again, I apologise.
alright po?-- notripe, Jan 15 2002 Please don't any of you use sarcasm on this site. That would wreck it.-- bristolz, Jan 15 2002 po, I am.....
bristolz, in keeping with the spirit of it all I'll try not to.
blimey, can't a man be earnest around here?-- notripe, Jan 15 2002 am what? spit it out!-- po, Jan 15 2002 //Not a word against the Feldman. What an unsung genius. Rods Tiger, Jan 15 2002//Amen to thatMarty Feldman died December 2, 1982. Funny, funny funny man. If humo(u)r is a sign of genius, then Marty Feldman was THE genius who hit his marks every time. His picture takes up the real estate which is my 'desktop background'. One of these days, I'll go to his final resting place, as it is nearby. Regardless, I'll toast Marty on December 2 2002, 2003...-- thumbwax, Jan 16 2002 hear,hear thumb. the sketch where he leaves his wife in bed and goes off and wows some other woman half a world away and does all sorts of brilliant james bond stuff and comes back and she is still moaning on and on and on and not missing his absence - hilarious. the world was sold short by his death. sorry if I am rambling!-- po, Jan 16 2002 did you see the sketch of university challenge where the answer to everything was : Pork, Pork, Pork, Pork.
oh the man was a saint and I loved him-- po, Jan 16 2002 Hey [po]: If you want to get rid of your vinyl, I'll send you my address. Whattaya got?-- snarfyguy, Jan 17 2002 Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Elvis, Crickets, loads of early american rubbish-- po, Jan 17 2002 Gene, Eddie, Buddy - daaaaaaaaaaayuuuum-- thumbwax, Jan 17 2002 Trolling again, notripe. I didn't say that Brooks was better than Picasso. I said Picasso was bad at what he did, although he did have some things that didn't look like they were done by spastic crack monkies, and that the only director who will make me want to see a movie BECAUSE he's the director is Brooks. I did not compare the two.
Rods, they've actually found some ancient pots that act as recordings of the sounds around when they were being made.
The guy pushing the theory is a nutter, though, so I don't know how serious it was...
And Marty Feldman was great.-- StarChaser, Jan 17 2002 CDs were accepted by the public for a reason. They were better than those god awful audio tapes. The tapes (as i'm sure you know) have terible quality and are extreemly fragile. So why were they accepted? Portability. It is a very important thing to consider when making a new music format. A 15 inch vinyl disc wouldn't even fit on most of my shelves, let alone my pocket. The core of this idea is good, but i think that mp3's can accomplish something different, but equally good. By taking the profit out of music, (and I know this is not the case now, but eventually it might be) it will get rid of people who sing for the money. Poof! No more pre-fabricated boy band tripe, because if you think they write those songs because they have a deep meaning or they love the art form, you are nuts.-- mephisto, Jan 18 2002 Of course, if you think the millions of boy-band fans are spending all that money to experience either deep-meaning or musical art, you are nuts.
I think if you take profit out of music, that is to say all music is performed for free, you will not have much music to worry about.-- bristolz, Jan 18 2002 Yeah, but WMAs sound soooo good and they're small. I think it is a superbly engineered format. MS was trying hard on that one.-- bristolz, Jan 18 2002 Aaahahahaha VINDICATED. I'd be a very rich man now if I'd done this then. Artisan vinyl, damn was ahead of the curve, and its still wide open. If anyone wants to come in to manufacture the hardware and/or an arm extension adapter for 12" decks please leave details. I've already patented it so we're good there (apart from the standard chinese rips).-- notripe, May 10 2019 You're a patient [man/woman/other please delete as applicable], [notripe].
I think one of the big problems with album artwork is the squareness of the format. What's really needed is a 1.6:1 landscape or portrait sleeve. Obviously the record itself would need to be elliptical, but I don't think that would be a major problem. Either the drive mechanism would be elliptical (ensuring constant linear speed past the stylus), or the track could be arranged so that the best bits were in the slow-moving, higher-fidelity parts of the vinyl.-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 10 2019 On the contrary, I think one of the big problems with images other than album art is that hardly any of them are square. I feel like maybe even Instagram doesn't do square pictures anymore. Earlier, I was thinking about the square monitors in 2001: A Space Odyssey and wishing I could have square computer monitors these days. 4:5 is pretty close, but not quite. I don't know why that aspect ratio exists, actually. Why don't they go all the way and make it 4:4 or 5:5, or even 16:16?-- notexactly, May 16 2019 // I've already patented it //
Really? With Google Patents, I was unable to find a single phonography-related patent filed or published since 2002- 01-01. That was quite a surprise, actually.-- notexactly, May 22 2019 random, halfbakery