Posted on 10/20/2005 9:02:07 AM PDT by sitetest
About 25 years ago, I struck up a conversation with a visionary, slouched across from me on an L.A. bus. The guy was in his early 20s, but he spoke with the wisdom of age as he addressed the digital revolution that was then in its infancy.
"One day," he said, "you'll be able to have music delivered right to your home through your telephone line. It will all be done through little computer chips. All you have to do is just call up the record store and place your order."
He was partly right. Today, you can receive music through your phone line, but without calling the record store. Just log onto the Internet (the visionary couldn't have imagined such a thing back then).
This is the era of downloading — of iPods, iTunes and other I's. All of this may boggle the minds of old, technology-deprived classical buffs (like me), but the ability to obtain recorded music at home, store it and play it back through a computer or a private listening device smaller than a deck of cards has energized the music business.
The digital revolution seems to be geared toward young music fans — those who prefer their tunes in two-minute chunks and who aren't bothered by the complexities of downloading songs.
Not too many of us old folks would dare enter the world of gigabytes, compression formats and such. Heck, I'm too nervous to burn a CD for fear of setting the house on fire.
That said, I was stunned when reading an article on the Andante.com Web site (yes, I do know how to use the Internet). It reported on the success of an offer last summer by London's BBC Radio 3, allowing listeners to visit the station online and download, for free, all nine Beethoven symphonies.
A staggering 1.37 million responded.
According to the Andante article, the BBC believed it tapped into two markets: classical buffs who overcame their fear of digital technology, and young folks who overcame their fear of classical music. The station is planning a similar promotion with the complete works of Bach just before Christmas.
With the invention of the portable digital player, and the success of Apple's iTunes and the tiny iPod that will play back a zillion songs, the recording industry is recognizing the new way to access music.
Alas, the technology is geared toward the quickie world of the radio-friendly pop song. Large files required for Mahler's huge symphonies have presented some problems. And let's not even think about Wagner's 18-hour Ring cycle.
Expect that to change as digital continues to dominate our lives. A spokesman for Napster reported that a classical expert has been hired and a deal struck with Universal Classics to carry larger works and offer a greater variety of music.
Another issue that needs to be addressed is sound quality.
"They've got to increase the resolution," said Chris Breen, senior editor at the online Playlist magazine. "The files are just too big — one minute of music equates to 10 megabytes. So, a symphony would have to be compressed. Right now, Apple is not interested in bringing up the quality of sound."
If, as Breen suggests, "downloads are the future," it makes sense for classical labels facing declining CD sales, to get on board. Particularly since the overhead is so low.
"This is all pure profit for us," said Mark Berry, national publicist for the budget classical label, Naxos. "There are no post-production costs — no booklet to print, no (disc) pressing costs, no jewel case costs.
"And really, it hasn't hurt our CD sales. People out there look at the price of a download in a different way. This is disposable music. It's a way for them to sample something without making a large investment. They'll pay the 99 cents for one cut and either decide to try the whole album or not. If they like it, they'll maybe go out and purchase the CD."
Naxos has a deal with iTunes in which a track that lasts longer than five minutes, or an entire CD, will cost $5.99. Anything less than five minutes is the standard 99 cents.
Major labels also will sell "songs" (individual tracks) for 99 cents, with complete albums going for $10 to $30 or more (for multi-disc sets).
Evidently, price is no object. Despite Naxos's low cost, Berry said that the latest stats from iTunes lists the label's highest-ranking recording on its classical list as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, at only No. 21.
Naturally, we're not talking huge volume here: According to Berry, classical downloads account for only about 6 percent of the total of all music downloaded on the Internet.
Still, the commitment is there. Naxos offers educational podcasts through its own Web site and through iTunes. The label also has hooked up with online distribution groups to get the music out there.
Another respected label, Chandos, allows downloading directly from its Web site, pricing individual tracks as low as 75 cents, with albums going for $9.
Since this concept is still in its infancy, the system does have bugs. Some of them are good for a chuckle, too. I located a recent Naxos collection of symphonies by composers of the 19th century, which listed one of them, Anton Bruckner (1824–96), as the conductor.
Then, navigating through iTune's "Music Store," I considered various genres — choral, orchestral, Medieval, etc. I selected "Romantic." That normally refers to music of the 19th century: Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, etc.
But iTunes had a different idea. In the "Romantic" subgenre, it listed, in succession, conductor Charles Munch, Frank Sinatra, Hector Berlioz and that old softie, John Philip Sousa.
Copyright 2005 Scripps Howard News Service
(I know, I know - too obvious.)
Classical Music Ping List ping!
If you want on or off this moderate volume list, let me know via FR mail. Thanks!
Add me to the ping list please.
Will do!
It's not just Classical that's hard to find, but a lot of sixties, seventies and eighties music simply isn't there either. It seems like most of their library is geared towards idiotic 13-21 y.o. hip-hoppers.
I don't know if the music industry will ever catch on. 99¢ is obviously way less than a dollar but is still exorbitant, especially when you consider the restrictions placed on the use of something you have supposedly purchased. Ever read one of those license agreements or try to burn one of those tracks you 'bought' to a cd? Let's get it down to a reasonable price and drop the restrictions so that it makes more sense for me to buy it than to download it for free. I'm more than willing to pay a dime per track if it's mine. These record company types are nuts if they believe they'll stop file sharing with DRM and high prices.
Here's more info on this: Counting the Freeloaders
Dear KarinG1,
"I don't know if the music industry will ever catch on. 99¢ is obviously way less than a dollar..."
LOL!!
"...but is still exorbitant, especially when you consider the restrictions placed on the use of something you have supposedly purchased."
Well, I suspect that once we get past the "early adopter" stage, sources will increase and prices will fall.
But I doubt that they'll fall to a dime a track. I'm not sure that would cover all the royalties involved.
I think it's more likely that as broadband gets broader, music quality of downloads will increase, and prices will fall to perhaps half the rate, or a little less, than they are now.
Just my guess.
sitetest
Thanks!
But in order to hear classical music properly, you need a higher bit-rate than CD offers. Such files would be truly enormous. SACD is 2.8 Mbps, which is about 2.5 gigs per hour for stereo, and more for multchannel.
Dear proxy_user,
My cable Internet is currently 5.4Mbps. They've begun installing the lines for FIOS (Verizon's fiber-to-the-premises - FTTP). For $50 per month, I'll get 15Mpbs down, and if I want to really go all the way, for $200 per month, I can get (when FIOS becomes available in my neighborhood - probably a year or so) 30Mbps down.
Give it a few more years, 50Mbps or 100Mbps down will be available at competitive prices.
sitetest
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