The Intangible Losses of the Move to Online Music Acquisition

There is no doubt that online music purchasing or sharing sites, such as iTunes or etree.org, have empowered new generations with unparalleled access to one of the most sacrosanct art forms in history.

• What makes an art form more or less sacrosanct? Are you sure you are using the adjective correctly? I don't know how to differentiate degrees of sacrosanctity.

Lower prices, easier and larger access to diverse genres, and instant gratification are just a few reasons that can be offered for the idea that there is a net gain for individual music listeners. However, I argue that the mainstream discourse concerning the merits of the process of digitalization of consumer music, as found in Rolling Stone and other prominent publications, ignores several intangible sources of loss to listeners.

• As it turns out, you don't mean "intangible," you mean "subjective and personal." The idea of listing things that you don't personally like about change is saved from mere nostalgia only by the analysis that reveals something larger or more significant than mere personal regret.

Sources of Intangible Loss to Individuals

The scope of this paper does not intend to create an exhaustive list nor to address what intangible gains digital acquisition may offer. Instead, it seeks to examine three sources of loss to individual listeners which are easily obscured in the race to embrace music downloading.

• This is apparently supposed to function as a protection against criticism: you weren't supposed to say anything larger than an expression of personal regret, because you weren't trying to be either balanced or comprehensive. Therefore it doesn't matter if you don't say anything.

1) The Loss of the “Record Store”

As the recent closing of Tower Records shows, digitalization is moving the locus of music acquisition from a physical store to a personal computer. Record stores are, however, not just physical warehouses for commercial transactions; they are part and parcel of the musical experience itself.

• Maybe for you. They're not for me. Perhaps the concert hall isn't "part and parcel off the musical experience itself" for you, but it's a goddam sight more musical than Wal*Mart, which as you may know is the largest bricks and mortar vendor of music in this society. You are regretting the loss of the Wal*Mart musical experience?

Movies such as “High Fidelity” and “Empire Records” showcase the value of personal exchanges, such as the sharing of stories or suggestions between patrons during the purchasing process, which give added meaning to the listening experience. Intangible value derived merely from the physical acquisition experience itself is lost due to the absence of human contact through digital acquisition.

• Human contact is a large part of "digital acquisition," as anyone getting their music through MySpace will tell you.

For example, a suggestion from an ex-hippie store owner may not only carry more weight with a rock fan than reading remote message board suggestions, it may be part of enjoying the musical experience itself. Thus, a listening of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963) might be more thoroughly appreciated by a young consumer in light of listening to the hippie’s tales of Dylan’s importance to the political movements he experienced first hand.

• Has it possibly occurred to you that the people who experienced the political significance of Bob Dylan's mid-60s music might be law professors rather than "ex-hippie store owners"? I think the assumption that the guy in the record store is our primary source of social resonance for the music we listen to is about as bogus as it is possible to get.

Similarly, online discussions via message boards might not be able to adequately replace the value of body language in an in-person debate about whether Clapton or Hendrix was a better guitarist. In this sense, it might be hard to replace the record store as the locus for fan related interactions with online forums filled with anonymous personalities behind avatars.

• Give me a break. Where do the discussions with body language of Palestrina and Josquin Desprez go on? Or is this all about "music" only to the extent that it involves rock musicians living or recently deceased?

I concede that many in-person facets of the acquisition process may have online equivalents, but such equivalents, lacking the sounds, colors and textures of a record store, may not preserve the complete musical experience as it stands today.

• The "complete musical experience" seems to be mostly about people talking. Are you sure that's music you've been listening to?

2) Loss of the physical album

The physical act of holding an album differentiates in-person purchasing from internet acquisition. First, finding an item “in stock” on a check out screen or “active” on a peer-to-peer site may not approximate the excitement of discovering a sought after album at the bottom of a bargain bin or finding the last copy of an album on a shelf because of the added sensory perception of touch absent in the online process.

• Woo hoo. The special importance of touching cardboard. Do you read music? Or is having the score not part of the "complete musical experience"?

Second, viewing an album cover online can inhibit a consumer’s ability to have a proper first impression of album cover art. Cover art is usually carefully chosen by the artist and it is, in most cases, meant to add a visual component to compliment the audio portion of the experience to complete one unitary work of art. A consumer only gets one first impression and a case can be made that the shock of walking into a record store and finding oneself face to face with a naked 13 year old girl on the cover of Blind Faith’s self titled 1969 album cannot be approximated by finding a small jpeg image of the same picture on itunes. Further, many commercial websites have strict decency standards which preclude some artist’s album art from being properly displayed whereas many independent record stores do not follow such guidelines.

Finally, a physical album is a permanent and tangible piece of art. Downloading music does not allow an individual to open an album jacket and view lyrics, liner notes and credits, nor does it protect her from a hard drive crash which wipes out her music collection.

• I'm sorry about that crash. Have you heard about backing up?

3) The loss of the musical album

An album is the product of a careful process of selecting which songs to place in the final product and in which order the listener hears them. Often, the artist’s creation is necessarily dependent on the consumer’s appreciation of the entire entity.

• Excuse me? That's not even a truthful relation of the way things work in the tiny corner of the universe of recorded music which seems to be the only thing you think about when you talk about "music." Arbitrary pressures both technical and commercial have always affected the combination of pieces of music into the collection called "album" (originally meaning a bunch of 78rpm disks, rather than one 33rpm "LP" disk, which is what you seem to be mostly talking about here). Sometimes "artists" have been involved in those choices, sometimes not. Your understanding of the matter appears to be uninflected by research or study, and is not based on a particularly wide experience with listening, either, so far as one can tell.

Taken alone, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” cannot approximate the full experience of listening to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in its entirety. Perhaps the Beatles intended “Lucy” to prepare the listener, sonically or mentally, to appreciate the final, single note of “A Day in the Life,” which lasts for 42 seconds; a feat much harder to accomplish without the benefit of album context.

• Nothing to prevent one from acquiring an entire album as a single data file, of course.

Further, online sources allow individuals to download a single song from a concept album, a work built around a single developing theme, which was expressly meant to be appreciated in its entirety according to the artist. Downloading a single song from The Who’s “Tommy” or Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” is tantamount to watching only one scene from The Phantom of the Opera; it may be fun, but it does not convey the full experience as designed by its creator.

• Is that a moral rights argument against ever separating anything that the artist thought of as a unit? So much for all those idiotic performances of the Hallelujah Chorus without the previous three hours of oratorio, and the anthem of the European Union will now have to be put back on ice while humankind figures out how to preface each performance with the preceding three movements of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Conclusion

Ultimately, online downloading may lead to a net gain, in both monetary and non-monetary terms, for individual listeners. However, the debate over this premise must acknowledge that the art form as it was known pre-downloading might not be the same art form once it is nearly universally acquired digitally. In order to truly understand the ramifications of moving to a download-centric consumer music model, intangible losses to individual listeners must play a role in the overall calculus.

• This wasn't calculus. This wasn't even trigonometry. You needed to check the concepts and the execution both through the lens of skeptical editing. The skeptical editor would have asked, at the outset, whether these were "intangible costs" or "personal regrets." He would also have tagged, for example, the issue of hard drive crash as an unrelated makeweight, a staple of biased argument.

Eben, this is an article just posted on Jambase.com. i feel that it might be an interesting read in conjunction with my argument from above.

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/Story.aspx?StoryID=13522

Record Store Day :: 04.19.08 The countdown is underway to the first-ever Record Store Day on Saturday, April 19. It's going to be an unprecedented event when hundreds of independent stores across the country join forces to celebrate the essential cultural and economic roles they play, both in their local communities and nationally. During these tumultuous times, it's been so encouraging to hear of the widespread support this initiative has garnered from fans, artists and the industry.

Each and every day, independent stores of all shapes and sizes (and the people who own, manage and work in them) bring not only their heart and soul, but also their creativity and their financial investment in the success of the music business. Artist development... customer service... innovative marketing and promotion... the list goes on and on. They have more than earned this chance to step into the spotlight and take their well-deserved applause from an enthusiastic and appreciative audience.

-- AdamGold? - 08 Apr 2008

Adam, having been in a Karma store a few times courtesy of my son (I believe they used to be called Karma Records), I know of what you speak when it comes to the idea that one is experiencing more than just the act of purchasing music when one steps into one of these stores. As you know, you are talking about a well-defined subculture that was formed out of and with rock music from the 1960s on. My suggestion is that you make it clear that that narrow class of music and the way that music was traditionally procured is all you are talking about.

-- BarbPitman - 09 Apr 2008

Fan of "High Fidelity?"

Anyway, I think that one of the biggest problems with online music distribution is Apple's DRM*. (Biggest online distributor) I think many people who have invested heavily into Apple music will have their bubble bursted when they realize that they can't play their music on the next hot non-apple device.

*(I realize that Apple now offers SOME of its music DRM-free. )

-- JosephMacias - 09 Apr 2008

Barb, thanks for the great suggestion. I am going to work on it a little this weekend to see if i can make the scope a bit clearer. Great to meet a fellow fan!

-- AdamGold? - 10 Apr 2008

Hey, Adam -

I like your essay. While I don’t like the tone of Prof. Moglen’s comments, I think they are very helpful here. For the most part, I agree with them.

Here are my additional thoughts on the “three sources of loss” you talk about:

1) Loss of the Record Store

While your point makes some sense in theory, I don’t know if it comports with experience. In Wal-Marts, Virgin Megastores, and other place where music is sold along with video games, TVs, and other cool stuff, the employees aren’t required to have any musical knowledge. I can’t remember the last time they helped me with choosing an album. And in smaller stores, my experience is that the workers are often too much like the characters in High Fidelity: possibly knowledgeable about music, but not particularly helpful—sometimes downright unfriendly—to customers. While there’s probably a fair share of musical snobbery online, there’s no shortage of places to get recommendations from knowledgeable people without the snide comments.

2) Loss of the Physical Album

I think this loss is more important than (1), and Prof. Moglen’s “piece of cardboard” remark will sound sillier if you develop this point. The artwork “experience” is one thing, but there’s also liner notes in physical releases. These liner notes play a very important role in various genres: classical, jazz, and blues, among others. The notes provide line-up information, recording dates, studio details and other information that (I’d think) is more important to the average jazz or classical listener than the average Clapton or Hendrix fan. While you can find much of this info online, it’s not typically linked to the recording itself. This could result in serious problems: you might be reading about the Sun Sessions’ version of “Blue Moon” and end up downloading some Fat-Elvis-era version instead. Unless you know where to look online, there tends to be a bit more reliability here with a physical release.

There’s also much higher quality sound quality in CDs than in mp3s. Vinyl also has some sound advantages. Although FLAC and other digital formats rival or exceed CD sound, they take up more hard drive space and aren’t as practical for the average listener as mp3s. With most people our age downloading mp3s instead of buying CDs, the average listener is probably getting a lower average sound quality. Maybe they care, maybe they don’t, but it might be worth bringing up.

Prof. Moglen’s sarcastic remark about “backing up” is unnecessary and probably unhelpful, as I’m sure you’ve heard about backing up, and probably do it now.

3) Loss of the Musical Album

Like Prof. Moglen, I’m skeptical about how much creative input most artists get to put into song ordering or selection on an album (or, for that matter, into production, engineering, instrumentation, or anything else). Also, I’m guessing Beatles releases are probably among the works most downloaded as whole albums. It’s the albums of smaller artists with less of a name that probably get overlooked: who wants to take a chance on buying (or even downloading) an album from a no-name band when you’ve only heard one song you’ve liked? This might be more of a good thing than a bad thing, but it’s another angle to develop.

I agree with the comments that your points might be strengthened if you broadened the musical areas you covered a bit. Your points have better application to some genres more than others.

Overall, I think it’s a hard essay to write, even if you just want to point out some “intangible losses to individual listeners.” From my perspective, the fact that downloading allows more people to access more music at a lower price makes any intangible losses seem very, very minor. But still, there probably are some, and I think you did a nice job at addressing them.

-- ChristopherWlach - 12 Apr 2008

I did not realize my comment was that long. Sorry...

-- ChristopherWlach - 12 Apr 2008

Chris, don't worry about the length, your comments are much appreciated.

I plan to develope my ideas a little more clearly as soon as I get a chance. I agree that these sources of loss seem very minor compared to the major benefits stemming from online downloading. (side note: music is my life and I am one of the foremost advocates for online access.)

I felt compelled to raise a few issues that most people seem to neglect in terms of discussing the advent of itunes etc.

As for my first point, I think i should narrow the scope or, at least, explain my premise a little better.

As for the second two. I am sticking my by guns here. With the decline of the big record companies and all, independent record labels are springing up like hot cakes thereby giving new artists, and ever established artists, exceedinly larger input regarding production and distribution. Bands like Pearl Jam or NIN have recently gone independent and have enjoyed much freedom from overarching label execs as an example.

As the the physical album concept - No original copy of the Lez Zeppelin II album is mere carboard!!

Thanks a lot again and I look forward to implementing some of your suggestions

-- AdamGold? - 13 Apr 2008