Coincidence?


I just recently purchased a stash of The Abso!ute Sound issues from previous years ('74 to '93) and am partaking in enjoying and reminiscing in the "style of the day", insightful wisdom, and old arguments.

Anyway, while reading an editorial letter by Pat Ramsey in the April 1984 issue (vol.9, no.33), I find an "ah ha" moment.

Mr Ramsey sais, "Despite our efforts to defend ourselves from the digital beast, I'm afraid we are doomed... The record company gods on hight, who see the digital encoding and pressings as the savior from lost revenue due to illegal bootlegging... ...high tech digital will stop this loss of revenue."

As we can see, historically speaking, Mr Ramsey is speaking of the 1984 impending CD replacement of Vinyl as being the standard of music playback and profitability. (and he is referring to unlicensed vinyl pressing as bootlegs)

I find this interesting because it reminds me as to our current day transition.

Today we see the industry pushing the new "computer audio" medium at us and, as it turns out, the record companies, again, find themselves in a revenue downturn. And again they have commented on the bootleg piracy, of course, now it's CDR piracy and MP3 piracy and so forth... Oh, and lets not forget that this new "computer audio" medium is a monumental "up grade" in sound quality -- kinda reminiscent of "perfect sound forever".

Coincidence???

What intent does the industry really have... perfecting music reproduction quality /or/ continuously selling to provide profitability ?

hmm...
128x128grateful
I, being really old, can remember those days and reading the "doomsday" from Absolute Sound. Don't worry.. eventually they gave in. Some really oddball stuff back then.. but no worse than now. I particularly enjoyed Enid Lumley.. She gave us cable Risers...
=================================
Back then, 1984... the music industry did not know it was in for a fantastic couple of wealthy years... Every fool bought thier entire collection of music all over again on CD.. Too bad the Music Industry thought it was supposed to last. (that in a nutshell is the recording industry's problem.. they are locked in the years of fat, and cannot accept any years of lean. they are jerks.)
Have to laugh at the tiny "bootleg" LP industry... the bootleg download industry must be a 100,000 times bigger.
Industry and companies wanting to be profitable ....... What a concept ......
not to get off topic, the TAS of past was a fabulous mag when it was pocket size and full of great reviews and setup tips. I occasionally when I am at B&N look at the new offering of TAS and find it's equiptment reviews ridiculas and music reviews uninteresting.
"What intent does the industry really have... perfecting music reproduction quality /or/ continuously selling to provide profitability ?"

Given the trends in compression, and yes the artists bear blame as well, I would submit that perfecting quality is at best in the back seat. Personally, coming from an industry that was and continues to be destroyed my bootlegs, I see no issue in the artists and industry making a profit. Frankly I welcome it, given a free market.
Hello,
I agree with you all - I expect a company/industry to be in business with an expectation (or hope) for profitability... Myself, I don't go to work for free.

My statement, "What intent does the industry really have... perfecting music reproduction quality /or/ continuously selling to provide profitability ?," is intended to make a point.

My point being, the industry continues to come up with new media NOT to best the old media but only to SELL it.

But we, as audiophiles, love to buy into and debate which media is superior and sounds better; Vinyl versus CD, tape versus CD, CD & vinyl versus SACD, SACD versus DVDA, computer digital versus etc... When the simple fact is, each media has it's own positives and negatives which stand individually as truth - NONE was ever intended to be superior to the senior but only to be what it is in it's own right - simply and only a new item to sell.
More to discover