10 Digital Music Predictions

john eden

male pale and stale
That is interesting, thanks for posting it (and thanks for reading the NME so we don't have to!).

Seems quite driven by apps that they guy knows about, rather than actual trends. Fan-funding is a good development though, I'd love to see that take off and would definitely support it. Cornershop's new album is funded by fans...

Over the last year quite a few people I know or hang around with on the net have started paying or considering paying for digital music, which is something a lot of us swore we would never do. People who used to say "I will never pay for an mp3" are now talking in terms of the how much they will pay and for what bitrate.

As usual I'm more interested in how all this will affect music I like rather than the music industry.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Also I think the more crucial developments will be around "Walled garden" aspects of the net in general (i.e. Facebook, which I am still resisting) and copyright clampdowns on places like youtube and soundcloud.
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
That is interesting, thanks for posting it (and thanks for reading the NME so we don't have to!).

Ha! Luckily, I was sent the link so I don't have to dirty myself too much.

Seems quite driven by apps that they guy knows about, rather than actual trends.

Yeah, but at the same time, with the rise of Facebook, Iphone/Ipad, Android et al, many users of the Internet seem to be using it as a set of discreet walled gardens, so for younger people the Internet just becomes a load of apps.

Over the last year quite a few people I know or hang around with on the net have started paying or considering paying for digital music, which is something a lot of us swore we would never do. People who used to say "I will never pay for an mp3" are now talking in terms of the how much they will pay and for what bitrate.

I was almost tempted by one of those Boomkat comps (one that you mentioned, I think), but still struggle with quality/future proofing/lack of a physical object. The latter is becoming less and less of a problem (inded, I need to get rid of 'stuff'), but the other two are still real.

The biggest change for me this year has been getting a computer that can actually run iTunes at a good speed and the ability to stream iTunes/Spotify* to my stereo. It makes the idea of having everything in a single place pretty compelling.

*Spotify's free service is sometimes of a shockingly poor quality.


As usual I'm more interested in how all this will affect music I like rather than the music industry.

I' m guessing artists will suffer more than the industry :(
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Over the last year quite a few people I know or hang around with on the net have started paying or considering paying for digital music, which is something a lot of us swore we would never do. People who used to say "I will never pay for an mp3" are now talking in terms of the how much they will pay and for what bitrate.

.

i am one of these people for three reasons

1. Cant afford to buy vinyl anymore really (never could!), but I think I will continue to buy old records on vinyl occasionally, just not new releases.

2. Most of the new stuff I'm interested in owning at the minute (UK funky in the main) only comes out on digital

3. I now have a decent digital djing system rigged up with my decks as controllers. Decent CDJs have always been well outside my price range, but DVS is quite affordable, especially if you've got decks already obviously. And I don't have to get rid of all my old records!

I don't feel much affection for digital formats really but I'm now past the point of worrying about whether all this is a good thing, it seems pretty pointless to go against the flow of it all. If you can't beat em, join em!
 
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mrfaucet

The Ideas Train
2. Most of the new stuff I'm interested in owning at the minute (UK funky in the main) only comes out on digital

I think this is one of the main things for me. If you want to keep up with certain kinds of music (UK Funky is a good example) then you have to go digital. There's no other choice really. Cost is also a consideration as you can just get hold of the track(s) you like from a release rather than having to buy the whole thing. That said, vinyl is still my format of choice and I'll still buy the vinyl release of something if I like it enough, but I think I'm going to be buying more mp3s as time goes on.
 

Simon78

Well-known member
I made a lot more that I was expecting on digital sales for my first EP so some people do pay for digital to support the artists/label.

Whatever profit I make goes to the producers so I'm pleased people are willing to pay for them.
 

Simon78

Well-known member
What do you think about getting a special code or whatever for digital if you buy the vinyl ?

Yeah, Soul Motive did that with their first release didn't they.

I think its a good idea but I would have to go to the pressing plant and put a bit of paper in 300 records which is a bit of a pain. I had a few people email me their receipt for the vinyl on the last EP and I sent them the mp3s which was easy enough. That is open to abuse I suppose but I think people know that the margins are really small for labels like mine so are willing to support them.

If you buy the vinyl I don't think you should have to pay for the digital files as well. If I had the money to get my website sorted I'm sure there would be some way of sorting it?

The only problem I would have is I put the vinyl out a month before the digital so I wouldn't want to send a link out before the release of the digital as it would just leak.
 

nomos

Administrator
Simon78 said:
Spooky, Darq E Freaker, mistayif & Splurt - Quadrant EP (Oil Gang 002) out now on vinyl
Fucking'ell - this is great! Just listening on your YouTube. Love that Oddz nod at the beginning too. :cool:
 

wise

bare BARE BONES
I've made the transition myself this year, partly prompted by having a decent income at last, but also from having bought Traktor Scratch Pro.
I had a mind to play my digital files alongside my vinyl collection but it's so convenient playing from a digital record box/harddrive that I found I was never actually pulling out a proper record.
I'm now in the process of ripping my record collection to FLAC and selling it on Discogs (and making quite a bit of money in the process, turns out records were a good investment).
To my ears the FLACs sound just as good as the vinyl, and yes I know that the resolution of vinyl is higher but the FLACs sound great on my rig. Also once they're digitised I can easily remove any annoying pops, etc.
Soon i'll have more money, less physical stuff and a record collection where I can pull up a tune in 2 secs rather than 5-20 mins rooting around.
It'll be a while before I forsake my 1210s for a purpose built controller though...

Also i'll be buying your new digital release Simon, it's by far the best grime 12" i've heard in years, top marks! :D
 

Simon78

Well-known member
Also i'll be buying your new digital release Simon, it's by far the best grime 12" i've heard in years, top marks! :D

Thanks! I'm really pleased with all 4 tracks on the EP.

Back on topic. I seem to be getting sent WAVS instead of 320s at the moment. My hard drive is down to about 250MB (on a 250 GB hard drive) so I think I need to get a portable external drive to use for all of my music and for DJing out with Serato. Any recommendations?
 

BareBones

wheezy
if you can, definitely go for one of the ones that have that protective casing on it - i know too many people who have forked out £60 for a hard drive and then dropped it and broken it!
 

stevied

Well-known member
Wise, what sort of things are you selling and at what prices are they going for on Discogs? Just curious because I sold the remainder of my record collection, more or less, and a lot of cds a few days ago, for 350 pounds. That`s not much at all but I needed to get shod quickly as I'm out the country and couldn't afford the storage costs I was paying at one of those terrible self-store places. It was a little bit sad to see them go but good to get rid of a lot of other stuff that was stored with them. I'm going digital from now. Thanks!
 
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