beatport downloads. wavs vs. vinyl

[subterFUSE]

That is the real downfall of digital vs. vinyl.


With vinyl, you might see 1000 copies of a particular song cut worldwide. If you found it, the liklihood of others getting it was slim.

With digital, any yahoo can get anything now. The people who put in the effort to find gems no longer maintain the exclusivity.

That sucks, as far as I am concerned.



But.... i can't argue with getting so much more music for less money.

[mg75]

What's the problem of purchasing and using both?
There is something special about going record shopping at an actual record shop. Shopping on-line is not as exciting, but you can get so much more music for a lot cheaper. Getting digital files is also good in the sense that they never skip or scratch so you can make 1000 clones and backups. Having digital files lets you remix and re-edit tracks on your computer which puts a unique twist on your set. You can produce something in the morning and play it out at night.

I use both and also started using Serato Scratch Live which is an amazing program (much better than playing CDs).

I will always shop for vinyl. If it's good, I'll buy it.

[supster]

In 15 years, vinyl DJ's and the respect for them will be a thing of the past. Like the tape deck DJ's before them.

I don't think so. It may die for those DJ's who are only interested in playback, but the turntable has moved beyond merely a way to playback music. It has evolved into a musical instrument.

I can't think of any instrument that, after acheiving the popularity of the turntable, just died, even over the course of centuries, let alone a decade and a half.

yes i totally agree with this, the only problem is they are going to stop printing as much vinyl if any very soon ... few years, before you know it

so all the vinyl there is will be all you get, except for maybe specialty turntablism genres and niche markets. probably cost more cause more rare.

more than likely you will see more control surfaces for digital that mimic the decks
.

[dirtystudios]

Well, perhaps your right.

Hey, with the upcoming scarcity, it'll be a good investment then

k

[Marquis]

Very interesting (if not entirely originally) debate.

Digging through the shelves at home, pulling out records with a particular colour, picture, or whatever, smelling them, feeling them in my hands, noting the thickness of the vinyl, remembering the tune in my head before I've played the record... that is a ritual for me that I don't think can be replaced by the process of opening a file and clicking on warp markers.

I guess (and many of you will think I'm nuts for saying this) I associate the mood of the music with the more tangible aspects of the record rather than just the name of the track and artist. It will be a long time before I get the same buzz scrolling through a folder/list as I do flicking through my crate.

I also think there's an art to packing a crate before a gig/tour. You have only limited space, so you need to think ahead of time what sort of vibe you want to create. I often spend hours upon hours packing a crate, for only a one hour set! I think the on-the-scene, during a set "err, what should I play next" is becoming much more common, and through that, a lot of the flow and soul and emotion of a DJ set is lost.

All of that said - I accept that digital is the new age.

So I'm using both forms.

I think the warmth of sound from vinyl, the feel of it in your hands, the mood it evokes is above and beyond the digital realm. And it looks (to me), from a performance persepctive, way more interesting than a dude working a laptop, or even cd decks. Which is why I think stuff like Serato Scratch Live or Final Scratch is a very happy medium. Has the look and feel of the vinyl, with the benefits of the digital world.

I'll rock up to a gig with a laptop bag AND my record crate. And even if I have Track-X digitised, I'll play the vinyl in preference if I can... Best of both worlds, really.

[forge]

With physcal things, there is always a limited supply, hence there is always the notion of worth, be it great or small. If you remove the laws of physical reproduction, like you do in the digital realm, suddenly the supply is unlimited, and the basis for worth needs to be found elsewhere. ....
k

the supply is not unlimited at all, people still have to make it

I meant the actual purchased unit. People still need to record the album, but the actual unit sold is no longer bound by the physical laws of reproduction. When people buy a CD or some vinyl, the instinct is not that they are paying for the recording costs, or for the artsist trouble in making the album. The instictual thought is that you are buying this individual CD. I'm giving the clerk money, and he's hading me a CD, that the transaction. Sure, if people give it a little thought, then the other aspects of how that CD came to be come into play.

is the actual production of the music not worth anything in physical value?

This new distribution methods admonishes that initial reaction to a trade. That's why value needs to be shifted from the CD itself, to the process by which the album came about.

the fact that there is a music industry at all is testament to the fact that people are willing to pay for something intangeble

But up untill this point, when you bought an album, you got something tangeble, so I don't think it's a testament to that at all.

And I think aside from old collectables, vinyl's days are numbered - it just wont be at all viable to press it up before long so the only vinyl DJs will be playing old stuff, everything new will be digital

I think we may see a decline, but there will always be a market for tangable goods, and there will always be DJ's who spin wax.

k

It's not that I dont think there will be any demand, just not enough to make it viable for small dance music labels to keep it going

I've already been on the receiving end of this when a well respected label who put out 2 of my tunes had a 3rd one signed to them for 2 years and it never got put out because they have gone under - just cant do it any more

If people are going to want to keep paying to press vinyl for themselves and can afford to then fine, but labels wont be able to make money from it so they wont be able to carry on using it - not when everyone else around is doing it online for next to nothing.

CDs are a different matter, I think they have a bit left in them yet, I just think the nature of how vinyl has been kept alive largely by the dance music industry, which is largely made up by smaller independant labels, they wont be able to afford to any more - and even the bigger ones supported by majors - majors are not interested in doing things there's no money in

and when you now get BIG name DJs even forsaking their vinyl in favour of laptops of CDs I just cant see how vinyl will have a future.

[dirtystudios]

CDs are a different matter, I think they have a bit left in them yet, I just think the nature of how vinyl has been kept alive largely by the dance music industry, which is largely made up by smaller independant labels, they wont be able to afford to any more - and even the bigger ones supported by majors - majors are not interested in doing things there's no money in

I think you may be right. Though it's odd; you'd think that if any physical medium survived, it would be the one that most embodied the romantic idea of a physical medium, that being vinyl. CD's do next to nothing for me when it comes to the ideal of physicality. There's just nothing romantic for me about a CD at this point.

k

[olafmol]

That is the real downfall of digital vs. vinyl.


With vinyl, you might see 1000 copies of a particular song cut worldwide. If you found it, the liklihood of others getting it was slim.

With digital, any yahoo can get anything now. The people who put in the effort to find gems no longer maintain the exclusivity.

That sucks, as far as I am concerned.



But.... i can't argue with getting so much more music for less money.

plain snobism

good music needs to be heard by as many people as possible... remember that dub-plate elitism in D'nB land where a hot new record was only played by 2 or 3 bigname DJ's from dubplate for over a year, and when it was finally released everybody was sick of hearing it and moved on.. This is not good imho

Olaf

[inis]

That is the real downfall of digital vs. vinyl.


With vinyl, you might see 1000 copies of a particular song cut worldwide. If you found it, the liklihood of others getting it was slim.

With digital, any yahoo can get anything now. The people who put in the effort to find gems no longer maintain the exclusivity.

That sucks, as far as I am concerned.



But.... i can't argue with getting so much more music for less money.

I wouldnt worry about it. Many labels are thinking about ways to make this happen digitally. Either by only selling so many copies or have subscription services you pay for in order to have access to certain tracks months before everyone else.

[djadonis206]

Good point - the beauty of seeing your favorite dj blow up is being up in the booth and he drops a JAMMMM

You're like what is that? He shows you and you spend the next month or 2 diggin - only to get a copy at some obscure gig in Montana at the local record shop (happened)

Now there's something magical about that

there's nothing magical about

Good point - the beauty of seeing your favorite dj blow up is being up in the booth and he drops a JAMMMM

You're like what is that? He shows you a CD-R and says he got it on beatport.

granted you have access to something those in the know know about and those that don't know, just don't know is pretty dope, but there is some magic around finding that one elusive jam you've always wanted

Still Beatport is SICCCKKKKK!

a

[forge]

there's nothing magical about

Good point - the beauty of seeing your favorite dj blow up is being up in the booth and he drops a JAMMMM

You're like what is that? He shows you a CD-R and says he got it on beatport.

not sure I agree with that adonis, how many sets do you already see from DJs with "cdr" in their tracklist? Sure they mostly come straight from the producers CD burner, but how does the average punter know that - it's just a CD-R!

The whole Laptop Jock thing is different anyway, like the lines between DJ and Live PA have been blurred so if it's just on your hard drive it could be yours, or if not, if a tune is good then who cares what format? If I felt moved enough to go up and ask the DJ I wouldnt care what format it was, just artist-title.

[djadonis206]

You just have to be in the booth and ask

let me sort of re-phrase

I guess I could say back in the day when I played gigs with dj's like Terry, Dan and Donald they always had these records you'd only hear them play. They'd just tell you what it was and I'd go on a mission to track the tracks down

kind of like Electronic Battle Weapons before 2004 - extremely rare and hard to get - I heard rumors only like a couple hundred would get pressed and only given to the top jocks - Now Platinum has them all and it's not the same...walking into a club and hearing some "wanker" playing "It doesn't matter" all wrong

So now, yeah they're rocking the CD-R's - and they'll still tell you what it is, but now-a-days you can just go home and download the track or ask them to send you a copy via email.

It's not the same, no.


make sense?