This was the first ever music feature I ever wrote, and it was based around a speech I did in Budapest at a Hungarian music business conference, I was asked by a former intern I had at World Circuit to do a talk on record labels producing physical product in a digital age. Don’t worry, they get better as time goes on….
Did you get any music for Christmas? If you did I’m hazarding a guess that like the bulk of our readers what you received was an actual CD or LP lovingly covered in wrapping paper. This is what the majority of us think of when we think of getting an album for Christmas, but for the (predominantly) younger music fans, this could just as easily have been an itunes voucher.
Whilst these might be the first albums some kids have ever bought, surely it’s unlikely that they’ll remember their first download purchase in years to come with the same fondness those of previous generations remember the first time they bought a record, tape or CD. Ask most people of a certain age and they’ll be able to tell you where, when, and what they bought, and some of them may still even have that album.
Food for funk
Growing up before the days of itunes, MP3s, file sharing, and general instant accessibility to an astounding amount of music (often free), to get a new album was something special. My childhood was full of saving up pocket money and sometimes not spending my lunch money so I could afford to buy records and tapes, or as I now grandly call it ‘giving up food for funk’
I still recall certain experiences, the excitement of travelling to the record shop, looking through the racks to see what cover captured my attention, the big decision on what to buy, getting it home, taking the vinyl out of the sleeve, then the excitement of putting the needle on the record, I’d listen to it over and over again, pouring over the sleeve notes and singing along with the lyrics. I often wondered about my compulsion to buy new albums all the time, but it wasn’t until I started buying records again in my late twenties that it came flooding back to me, the same rush I had as a kid. The phrase vinyl junkie is completely accurate; each time the needle hits the groove it’s like trying to capture the same rush you had in the beginning.
Black Moses
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not just some Luddite technophobe, I use my ipod all the time, discover new music on Spotify and listen to podcasts regularly, but to this day I still prefer and see the need to have my music as a physical item, something tangible. When I visit someone’s house for the first time my eyes are always drawn to their CD/record collection, and if I get the chance I love to look through them no matter how big or small, I find it absolutely fascinating. I’m unable to think of an itunes library as a proper collection.
There are plenty of albums where the packaging is as memorable as the music: the zipper on the front of The Stones Sticky Fingers, the classic cross fold-out gatefold of Isaac Hayes Black Moses, the bonus 7” single with Steve Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, the elaborate drawings on the Parliament-Funkadelic albums, Francis Wolfe’s iconic photography on numerous Blue Note albums, to name but a few.
Vinyl is the only format whose sales are continually on the increase over the past few years; even MP3s have seen some levelling off in the current economic climate. USB turntables will sell in large numbers this Christmas, allowing people to keep or expand their vinyl collection as well as having the music on their ipods. The simple fact is that vinyl is cool, good artwork becomes great as a 12” square. It’s not just the older generation or DJs that are buying records, 7” singles are very popular with the indie kids.
A desirable item
I still see the importance of the physical item, I believe that it’s good for the industry; it makes money for the labels and artists, and allows them to invest in new talent and less obviously commercial projects. The internet is a great tool and has given exposure to some artists, allowing thousands to hear their music without the expense of producing demo CDs. Of course most people that discover acts this way will then look for their album, and ironically most of these internet sensations will sign a record deal as soon as they can. More fundamental than this is the fact that records and CDs sound better than MP3s, and if you want to you can transfer to MP3 if needed. As a music fan I like the labels that go the opposite route from MP3 and invest more in packaging, sound quality, notes, and cover, to make their albums a desirable item, in other words, something to hold onto.
P.S. As we go to press it has just been reported that overall album sales, including digital, are on a downward trajectory. Ironically, we’ve gone one step forward and two steps back – almost mimicking the early days of rock ‘n’ roll when the single was dominant (and disposable) and the album as an art form was deemed to be for the elite.
feature originally appeared in Leither Magazine, January 2011
noisy little words 