Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Tony: I am wondering whether you think that artists might routinely go from studio direct to download in the foreseeable future.

While it is understood that many big businesses have everything to gain by keeping the current system in place, with the mp3 market growing by leaps and bounds I have to imagine that the standard music shop, as we know it, will be extinct within a generation.

Perhaps we are headed for Download Studios.

One day Peter, but not yet. The quality is just not good enough yet. There are always some that will find it good enough, but thankfully, the recording industry at the moment seems still very much quality based & goes to great lengths to try & maintain high standards. One day, this sort of technology may well become available at the right sort of quality, but I can't see it for a while.

I believe that a lot of this technology will have a serious end, but for the moment, it is 'playtime'.

Tony: While I would think that the days of the Download Studio may be a ways off, perhaps not as far as one may think.

I note that the consumers today, particularly those who listen to mp3s almost exclusively, are not troubled about the difference in quality between .wav and .mp3 formats.

I don't think that the mp3ers would blink at the idea of a Download Studio and further I think the huge queue for downloading will convince the record companies in a hurry.

It is an interesting point about quality awareness Peter, but I think that this has always been the case. For instance, cassette tapes are dreadful, but for a time, were the most listened to format in cars & walkmans & in fact at home, but it didn't stop the industry from striving to improve quality & going to great lengths to achieve it.

I believe that your average person is not very aware of quality differences (sad to say that this includes many musicians in my experience) & will put up with pretty poor sonic quality (all you have to do is go down to your local hi-fi retailer & see what people actually buy). I am not trying to degrade peoples individual standards, but it has crossed my mind on many occasions that the industry seems hell bent on achieving better & better quality, just to satisfy the people who actualy work in the industry. If that is the only thing that keeps quality high & improving, then long may it continue!

IMO, those that work in the recording industry have a duty to try to do the very best & most professional work that is possible. If we lose that, then we lose a profession & gain amateur status.....& you know what half the channels on satelite TV are like!!!!!