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There are dozens and dozens of examples out there of fans and artists interacting in a much more personal way than they ever could (or would) have before the internet. Like THIS, for example.

I’m sure a lot of people use MySpace for things other than discovering music, but the fact remains that MySpace is one of the best places to find new artists, if you so desire. I know quite a few bands who put more effort and energy into their MySpace pages than their official websites; some bands’ “official” sites are just redirect pages to their social network profiles! MySpace seems to understand the strength of their system as they’re currently pouring money and time into their MySpace Music system, in the hopes that they really will be able to lock down the #1 spot in the race to become the new portal for fans to discover artists (they made quite a statement in their acquisition of the iLike platform – sticking it to Facebook in the process).

I may be a little “doom and gloom” when it comes to physical media, but I think the transition to all-digital is inevitable. If the recording industry was really fighting to sustain physical forms of music media, don’t you think we’d have heard about a Blu-Ray equivalent for recorded music by now? Some sort of high-def music platform? The technology exists, and there’s no reason not to release super hi-def versions of albums on DVDs or something – unless everyone sees the writing on the wall. Trying to push the public to a new hardware platform would be DEVASTATING at this point, since most people who aren’t downloading music now might be swayed by the idea of needing a new and expensive device to get their favorite band’s new hi-def album…

I do hear from a lot of people (my drummer, for example) that they’ll never switch over to digital albums because they love the tangibility of a physical CD and all the benefits therein. It’s a funny thing though – we’ve got pretty short memories. By far, the biggest period in the history of recorded music sales was the 80′s – the heyday of the stadium rock tours – and most of those millions and millions of albums were sold as cassette tapes. Don’t try to tell me that people bought cassette tapes for the artwork – they were paying for the music, and if the transition to digital had been straight from cassettes instead of CDs, I think you’d see a lot less opposition.

The truth is, artists can bundle a TON more content with digital releases than they ever could with any physical product, because digital media (once it’s created) has ZERO overhead. If I can release an album online, and include in the digital bundle 10 tour videos, a making-of short, alternate mixes and a hundred photographs, who could honestly say they’d rather have some tiny-print lyrics and a few thank-you’s to random industry people?

To people who say that physical albums will never go away, or be overtaken by digital sales (although that happened over a year ago) I like to point out that this Christmas, for the first time ever, Amazon.com sold more E-Books than real ones. If people are willing to go digital for their BOOKS, CD booklets don’t stand a chance in hell.

Insightful piece. Not only are music sales and television going digital, but more and more folks are listening to radio that way, too. The explosion of people using Pandora and Last.fm speak to that. Last.fm is where I discovered ETH, through Seven Nations radio “station”! In a society fueled strongly by instant gratification, digital media provides the opportunity to stumble upon something you love and immediately add it to your music library with just a few clicks.

And while I concur there is oodles of talent to be had on myspace, the sheer volume is daunting. Though I take pride is listening to quality musicians most, if not all, of my close friends haven’t heard of previously.

Even though you’re Canadian, I wondered if you had any thoughts on the United States Congress’ proposal to pass a bill that forces radio broadcasters to pay royalties to performers for the music played on the airwaves?

Cheers,
Alissa

Everything you say sounds very reasonable and logical. However, a part of me is still thinking “But I like having a little CD booklet with lyrics to look at, when I first listen to the album…” That’s something I’ve really been missing, as I’ve started buying more albums online.

Sitting on a sofa, putting my computer on my lap to read online postings of lyrics while listening to the music (from the same computer?) is not a feasible option, nor are looking at any of the digital “bonus materials” bands are releasing… Though just as I was writing that, I realized something: you don’t have to do that! With all the new smartphone technology (and “smart” wi-fi-enabled technology like iTouch) out there– and the imminent launch of the iPad and the inevitable flood of copycat devices– I’ll be able to read the lyrics on my device (as well as check out “bonus content”), sitting comfortably on a sofa!

Well, I initially started replying to refute some of what you said, but I think I’ve started to see the light. With that said, I also feel that the focus on physical packaging will still come to pass (for folks like me and James). But hey, if I get a nice enough “smart device” (I don’t have one) and bands start releasing enough nice “digital packages,” then hey, I could change. Storage of physical media would cease to be a problem. Digital backups, however, would start to become even more of a concern…

One more thing: interesting point about how the music industry isn’t pushing a new “Hi-def”-like technology on us, though you say “We have the technology.” That’s a good thing… I’m already riled up enough about Blu-Ray’s introduction.

With the extreme popularity of portable MP3 players, I think industry types realize that selling a device to play “hi-def music” wouldn’t go over too well.

I read an interview with Owen Pallett (the artist formerly known as Final Fantasy, (I liked that name…)), and he talked about how much he stressed over the production values of his latest albums. He was trying so hard and making such a big deal out of track layers, sound quality, and all that other technical stuff I don’t know about. But, he realized that most people wouldn’t appreciate all that work, as they’ll listen to his music on MP3 devices or desktop computer speakers. He apparently made himself quite sick over those concerns…

Here’s the interview: http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/story.cfm?content=173144