Relative Pitch: Hey Hey, My My Wed, Feb 1, 2012
So Neil Young shoots out some theories at D:Dive Into Media and the musical landscape goes all-a-flutter.
Let’s get a few things straight:
1. Neil is awesome. A rock God.
2. He’s also one person’s opinion.
3. He’s also old and has already made a ton of money selling music.
Now everyone is entitled to their opinion. Especially someone as revered as Neil. But, let’s just relax and not get all carried away is all. I’ll leave it up to the pundits to tackle all the points of Neil’s interview, but the one area that mosts interests me, or more aptly where I strongly disagree with him is the sound quality debate.
It’s tired. Technology won. Get over your vinyl-loving self.
Bear in mind I’m someone who is perfectly happy with 128K mp3s. In other words, I’m no audiophile. The thing is, neither are 99% of music listeners. I can see why someone of Neil’s musical stature would be bothered by sound quality. He’s poured a lot of time and sweat into a recording. The listener? They don’t care so much. They want ease. They want access. They want portability. And the market gets what the market wants.
About six years ago I ditched all my CDs. Ripped them to iTunes and never looked back. And in the last year I’ve even ditched that. I’m 99% streaming (I’d be 100% if the NYC subways had wifi). Do I lose quality in the process. Yup. I do. Do I mind? Not one bit. I’d argue the vast majority of music listeners would agree. And that’s the main takeaway. Artists and purists can opine for higher quality recordings all day long, but if an audience doesn’t care and more importantly won’t pay for higher quality why push for it? You’re just going to get frustrated in the process. Instead of sitting back, pressing play and enjoying a plethora of great music.
