Home » Audio » Source » Going physical in digital era (Are physical releases still necessary?)
Going physical in digital era [message #91457] Tue, 18 February 2020 10:33 Go to next message
Taurus is currently offline  Taurus
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My friend is an enthusiast of Korean music. She buys physical albums of her favorite artists, which come with lyric books, photographs, photo cards, posters, and so on. They are cute but don't affect the music experience in any way. At the end of the day, she mostly listens by streaming anyway.

Artists are competing for numbers, selling concert tickets bundled with albums or doing other tricks I can't imagine, but I only have one thought in mind. Is there still a point in having these physical releases?
Re: Going physical in digital era [message #91476 is a reply to message #91457] Thu, 20 February 2020 12:32 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Leot55 is currently offline  Leot55
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Whether your friend listens to it or not, the band still got paid when she bought the physical release. I'm sure their ROI is high enough to encourage these physical releases or it wouldn't happen. Is the band Blackpink, BTS, or another group that she's crazy about? I have kids who are into K-pop. A physical album with some extras like you mentioned would make a good gift. I've never seen something like that. Maybe it's not sold in the United States though. Or maybe I'm just bad at hunting.
Re: Going physical in digital era [message #91488 is a reply to message #91476] Sun, 23 February 2020 15:16 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gofar99 is currently offline  gofar99
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A good question. However...I have long been wary of music that is only in digital format. It sounds great for sure...but do you really own it and what exactly are your rights to using it. Particularly if it is on a cloud server. What happens if it fails, goes bankrupt, or compromised. What happens if your down loads on your player get corrupted, or you lose it. With a physical format these are not issues (except stolen or damaged). Just food for thought.

Good Listening
Bruce
Re: Going physical in digital era [message #91497 is a reply to message #91457] Wed, 26 February 2020 11:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
sawyer25 is currently offline  sawyer25
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Like @Leot55 mentions, musicians would opt out of the physical formats if there wasn't any ROI. All the same, there are many ways in which a band or musician can make money. They are not as limited as they were in the past.
Re: Going physical in digital era [message #91577 is a reply to message #91488] Wed, 18 March 2020 09:14 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Taurus is currently offline  Taurus
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Leot55, as far as I know, that's how she always gets her albums. I can ask her about how to get those if you want.

gofar99 wrote on Sun, 23 February 2020 15:16
A good question. However...I have long been wary of music that is only in digital format. It sounds great for sure...but do you really own it and what exactly are your rights to using it. Particularly if it is on a cloud server. What happens if it fails, goes bankrupt, or compromised. What happens if your down loads on your player get corrupted, or you lose it. With a physical format these are not issues (except stolen or damaged). Just food for thought.
The same argument can be made against physical releases. You can lose the copy or damage the record when you're being careless. We also need to be sure that we have a player for them (like my old laptop which didn't have a CD ROM). Digital files can be re-downloaded and transferred easily, but I understand what you mean as it doesn't really feel like we own anything (even though we probably pay for the platform).
Re: Going physical in digital era [message #91579 is a reply to message #91577] Wed, 18 March 2020 10:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
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Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

I used to always prefer physical copies of media. And for the material that's most important to me, I still do. In fact, I sometimes like to have multiple copies of the same material - Vinyl, CD and (mp3 or other) File. For video, I always try to find a BluRay copy of the material. I do this both for quality and so that I can have the liner notes and artwork. Having the datafile copy of the material is largely a convenience thing for me. It's easy to push it over a network or put it on a puck (which is what I call USB flash drives).

Now days, however, I sometimes find myself getting movies without media in a pure download form. Sometimes I don't even actually download the file, leaving it on a cloud server, usually Amazon. I only do this to save space, and I only do it with movies that I like enough to own (and think I or someone on my family will watch more than once) but I don't "love" the movie and so I don't want to take up space on my shelves with it.

I haven't started doing that same thing with music though. If I have a digital download of an album, it's because I bought the music on Vinyl or CD and it came with a free digital download. I have a ton of that kind of material on a puck, and I often use that in cars.

That's just how I do it these days.
Re: Going physical in digital era [message #91602 is a reply to message #91488] Sun, 22 March 2020 08:27 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Leot55 is currently offline  Leot55
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gofar99 wrote on Sun, 23 February 2020 15:16
A good question. However...I have long been wary of music that is only in digital format. It sounds great for sure...but do you really own it and what exactly are your rights to using it. Particularly if it is on a cloud server. What happens if it fails, goes bankrupt, or compromised. What happens if your down loads on your player get corrupted, or you lose it. With a physical format these are not issues (except stolen or damaged). Just food for thought.
Remember when that happened to Walmart music? You probably shunned it, but it was popular for a while. They sold digital singles for .88 each, then they stopped the service. So yeah, you could download them one last time, but that was a big warning to me that maybe I shouldn't entrust my music to iTunes (that was the next big thing at the time).
Re: Going physical in digital era [message #91606 is a reply to message #91602] Mon, 23 March 2020 01:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Taurus is currently offline  Taurus
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Leot55 wrote on Sun, 22 March 2020 08:27
gofar99 wrote on Sun, 23 February 2020 15:16
A good question. However...I have long been wary of music that is only in digital format. It sounds great for sure...but do you really own it and what exactly are your rights to using it. Particularly if it is on a cloud server. What happens if it fails, goes bankrupt, or compromised. What happens if your down loads on your player get corrupted, or you lose it. With a physical format these are not issues (except stolen or damaged). Just food for thought.
Remember when that happened to Walmart music? You probably shunned it, but it was popular for a while. They sold digital singles for .88 each, then they stopped the service. So yeah, you could download them one last time, but that was a big warning to me that maybe I shouldn't entrust my music to iTunes (that was the next big thing at the time).
I've never heard of it! Thank goodness I only use music-specific platform; though there is no guarantee, at least I think they are more likely to last a long time than things like Walmart music. That's a good reminder of the danger to digital files, especially if you don't save them on your own accounts. I still think the convenience wins over such issue, though.
Re: Going physical in digital era [message #91616 is a reply to message #91457] Tue, 24 March 2020 15:01 Go to previous messageGo to next message
sawyer25 is currently offline  sawyer25
Messages: 169
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With the physical copies, a music enthusiast can have them for a long time, depending on their quality. How is it to still have them now with more and more musicians churning out single after single?
Re: Going physical in digital era [message #91759 is a reply to message #91457] Sun, 26 April 2020 15:05 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Kingfish is currently offline  Kingfish
Messages: 555
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I'm old school, so physical copies are the best. Back in the day, gate-fold art, posters and lyric books made the listening experience more personal because you got involved by way of those extra items.

Digital music is as impersonal as it gets, and art should not be an impersonal experience.
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