Help With University Essay...(PJ's use of FLAC)

moho

Ive ot this essay to write for my course, Music technology. Basically i gotta argure FOR: “With the advent of the iPod and advances in data reduction techniques, there is now no longer a need for music to be distributed in a fixed media format (CD etc.)”

I dont for a minute agree but it's a debate so I have to support this statement. So my argument is that if all music was in a lossless file format like FLAC and it was downloadable from the net either from distributers or directly from the artist one could either burn it to CD or with the advancement in Hard Drive sizes in comparsion to their price have a hardrive instead of a cd player and home audio can become, as standard, downloads but in a lossless format. Where PJ comes in is that If i could get some sorta info on why they decided to distribute FLAC, what they as artists beleive is the advantages of FLAC or why they made the business decicions to make FLAC files available.

So do you guys want to help out? Any chance you could send post some links or info on this?

Bangers_n_mash

Well for one thing it saved the effort of having all the cds pressed and sleeves printed, estimating numbers of sales, etc.

The advantage for fans was the immediacy of the process, having bootlegs a few days after the shows.

What course are you doing? It's an interesting topic.

moho

A Music Technology degree, the module that this particular assignment is for is Recording Techniques.

hrd2imgn

Flac was an option way cheaper than producing Cd's like they used to. Less waste, less cost, faster turnaround, all the same quality of a CD. Better profit, less pollution, and a lot less bitching by the die hards.

now that being said, the idea of actually owning something is getting lost with the digital age. As spin the Black Circle so beautifully points out, there was something special and still is about pulling out a big ass album pamphlet in 12 inch by 12 inch size out of that LP sleeve. Sure cd's have puny little booklets, and digital has a PDF, but having that big book is a experience many younger fans never had, and don't know about. With all the instant gratification of this era people don't want to wait for the beauty of a real black and white photo, not a digital print, or hear the warmth of vinyl since it is a pain in the ass and hard to take care of.

The demand for PJ bootlegs has always been very high since the days of trading tapes...eventually into CDR, now into FLAC and torrent sites. It is certainly easier and cheaper than ever to get a copy of a live show with amazing quality (that is an awesome aspect of the digital revolution) but the experience of owning an album, the concept it had that the album art enhanced or was essential in relaying is a list thing for most nowadays. We know it as a digital file, not a song from an album, hell most don't even care about the concept of an album, a grouping of songs meant to be heard together. Ipods and mp3s have almost made that extinct....but wait vinyl is making a comeback, the people are speaking up against the fallacy of digital music, and are seeing the light one more time. Us old fuddies who used to trade tapes miss getting the padded mailers in the mail box sometimes. There was a bonding that went into dubbing a tape, putting the time into it and labeling it, making your own cassette art even sometimes. That personal quality is lost to an extent with digital sharing (even if it has artwork). Some of my best PJ friends are my old tape buddies, Chris D and Rick P. Shit I remember so many of the trades and the time spent searching for a good copy of a show. sort of sad, but if you never did it you just won;t understand it

Flac is the best sound we can get with the least amount of sound loss in terms of digital, so it is a good thing, and we fans appreciate the awesomness of Pearl Jam continuing to make copies of shows available for us to obtain for a reasonable price. Late nineties "import" bootlegs were all over colleges and they charged 30/60 sometimes in excess of 100 bucks to obtain a 3 disc set of a bootlegged show. When PJ released their entire tour on cd that first time they were in essence stopping the jags from ripping their fans off with exorbitant prices. For that I thank them as the memories I have are always revitalized when I listen to a show. You'll also notice they always release album artwork of some sort, even if generic in nature.

viva la vinyl, but keep those flacs coming baby

moho

hrd2imgn wrote:

Flac was an option way cheaper than producing Cd's like they used to. Less waste, less cost, faster turnaround, all the same quality of a CD. Better profit, less pollution, and a lot less bitching by the die hards.

now that being said, the idea of actually owning something is getting lost with the digital age. As spin the Black Circle so beautifully points out, there was something special and still is about pulling out a big ass album pamphlet in 12 inch by 12 inch size out of that LP sleeve. Sure cd's have puny little booklets, and digital has a PDF, but having that big book is a experience many younger fans never had, and don't know about. With all the instant gratification of this era people don't want to wait for the beauty of a real black and white photo, not a digital print, or hear the warmth of vinyl since it is a pain in the ass and hard to take care of.

The demand for PJ bootlegs has always been very high since the days of trading tapes...eventually into CDR, now into FLAC and torrent sites. It is certainly easier and cheaper than ever to get a copy of a live show with amazing quality (that is an awesome aspect of the digital revolution) but the experience of owning an album, the concept it had that the album art enhanced or was essential in relaying is a list thing for most nowadays. We know it as a digital file, not a song from an album, hell most don't even care about the concept of an album, a grouping of songs meant to be heard together. Ipods and mp3s have almost made that extinct....but wait vinyl is making a comeback, the people are speaking up against the fallacy of digital music, and are seeing the light one more time. Us old fuddies who used to trade tapes miss getting the padded mailers in the mail box sometimes. There was a bonding that went into dubbing a tape, putting the time into it and labeling it, making your own cassette art even sometimes. That personal quality is lost to an extent with digital sharing (even if it has artwork). Some of my best PJ friends are my old tape buddies, Chris D and Rick P. Shit I remember so many of the trades and the time spent searching for a good copy of a show. sort of sad, but if you never did it you just won;t understand it

Flac is the best sound we can get with the least amount of sound loss in terms of digital, so it is a good thing, and we fans appreciate the awesomness of Pearl Jam continuing to make copies of shows available for us to obtain for a reasonable price. Late nineties "import" bootlegs were all over colleges and they charged 30/60 sometimes in excess of 100 bucks to obtain a 3 disc set of a bootlegged show. When PJ released their entire tour on cd that first time they were in essence stopping the jags from ripping their fans off with exorbitant prices. For that I thank them as the memories I have are always revitalized when I listen to a show. You'll also notice they always release album artwork of some sort, even if generic in nature.

viva la vinyl, but keep those flacs coming baby

I completely agree... cheers for the reply, good and true points. I would agrue the above points if i was debating against the motion, but i am actually debating for it. So i've got to counter those arguments.

But just to state:

I love getting out a vinyl (graceland by paul simon for instance!) and throwing it on, the hiss, the knowledge (and sound quality) of knowing thatt if you have an old enough album that your getting analog all the way from the mics to your loudspeaker. As well as the artwork, the actual physical thing in your hands etc. etc.

man i love vinyl

viva la vinyl!