Pop will eat itself!

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DeafinONEear
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Pop will eat itself!

Post by DeafinONEear » Sat Jul 12, 2003 4:10 pm

So this brought a smile to my face today, though a very sadistic one...

I was at Tower today because I get the discount hookage and I was talking to my friend who says that Tower is going under. Apparently CD prices are getting so high that people aren't buying them anymore. She said this was because Tower orginally was selling at $1-2 under cost and underselling the other outlets. Those other retailers then got together to complain to the distibutors who then came to Tower and said "if you don't raise your prices then we'll just raise the cost price accordingly. Suffice it to say, the last two or so years are proof that Tower didn't budge and now they aren't selling CD's for more than 30% above cost, which isn't much for a retailer. So this means that Tower is going under.
Now let's think about this one for a second. What is really the largest name in pop retail stores? Tower! Now, yes, there are the Warehouses and the Virgins, but Warehouse has been on the brink of bankruptcy for years and virgin doesn't have much of a suburban presence anywhere, mostly present in big citys. What does that mean? That the major labels are going to have an even harder time pawning thier crap to all the little kiddies. So then what happens? Majors either drop the One-Album-Wonders that need too much marketing and development and stick with the solid, quality acts, or they keep all that crappy, multi-mllion-dollar-production-budget artist rep. and continue to push even harder, which is just ridiculous.
OR they could actually start getting more quality on the labels, meaning more previously-ignored acts with talent that wont sell as much, but will have a consistant purchase base. Though this one is kind of far out.
BUT THE ABSOLUTE ABSOLUTNESS ABOUT THIS SITUATION: It's a good time for independant record stores, which is what she was saying.... the local ones here, Aquarius, Amoeba, Open Mind, Mod Lang, etc. are all doing pretty well, considering the economy. And if Towers in all the cul-de-sac ridden, strip-mall havin' suburbs, then it's gonna be a field day for both independant record stores and independant bands and labels!
How's that sound? Ya know, they always say, the state of the arts always raises when a republican is in office, and I gotta say, Shrub, thank ya!

Talk amongst yourselves.....

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trashy
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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by trashy » Sun Jul 13, 2003 12:44 pm

I love Mod Lang. I get teary eyed just thinking about it....
It is a three hour trip, but its worth it. Hit Mod Lang, Rasputins, Amoeba; now that's a road trip!!!

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A.L.
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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by A.L. » Sun Jul 13, 2003 12:58 pm

trashy wrote:I love Mod Lang. I get teary eyed just thinking about it....
It is a three hour trip, but its worth it. Hit Mod Lang, Rasputins, Amoeba; now that's a road trip!!!
See, I work right in the middle of all that in Berkeley. Not good for the pocketbook. I have to say, though, Rasputin's seems well on its way to becoming the next Tower......

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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by DeafinONEear » Sun Jul 13, 2003 5:59 pm

A.L. wrote:I have to say, though, Rasputin's seems well on its way to becoming the next Tower......
Amen! that place is gettin big, but really, regardless of how stupid some of thier staff are, wouldn't you rather there be lots of Rasputins than Towers? I know I would.

But seriously... there's been 22 people looking at this one and this is all you can say? come on!

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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by cassembler » Mon Jul 14, 2003 9:22 am

If anyone's been keeping up with the "What can save the industry" issue of Mix, there's lots of stuff to be said about the thought of selling music.

The one I agree with most: "If $.50 is going to be around the average rate for a downloaded song, wouldn't logic tell us that $6 for a CD makes a lot more sense than $16?"

I dunno about anyone else here, but if brand new CD's retailed for $6, I might actually buy one again. Better yet, stock up on all of the stuff I didn''t buy 'cause it was $15 freakin' dollars!

Anotehr good one: "The market forces will adjust accordingly."

'nuff said.
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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by cassembler » Mon Jul 14, 2003 9:30 am

Now that I think about it, there's maybe three or four bands that I'll buy any new product they sell, which would be, at most, 4 CD's per year for me. Believe me, I've already got enough to listen to. But at $6 a piece, I'd be much more tempted to take that spare cash I [rarely] have and try some new artists...

Keep in mind that we can't only blame the big labels... retails outlets can be just as guilty.
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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by markpar » Mon Jul 14, 2003 1:49 pm

The thing that I can't stand is that all this online music is compressed. Sure CDs don't sound as good as vinyl (to me, anyway), but compressed digital audio just blows. If I could buy uncompressed stuff online and download it, I'd be much more excited about things like iTunes. I've read that their AAC codec is good, but still.....

-mark

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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by cassembler » Tue Jul 15, 2003 11:07 am

Anybody else notice that 90% of what they play in bars these days is .mp3's?
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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by cassembler » Tue Jul 15, 2003 11:19 am

markpar wrote:The thing that I can't stand is that all this online music is compressed. Sure CDs don't sound as good as vinyl (to me, anyway), but compressed digital audio just blows. If I could buy uncompressed stuff online and download it, I'd be much more excited about things like iTunes. I've read that their AAC codec is good, but still.....

-mark
Agree. I think that this is "just a phase." Think about it: ITunes sells 100 million songs, then, POP! A better, higher-fidelity codec! All of the sudden, .mp3's go the way of the 8-track and people will rave at how "warm" and "natural" they sounded, whilst re-downloading their entire collection at $.50 a pop.
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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by markpar » Tue Jul 15, 2003 1:30 pm

I'm waiting for the 64-bit remasters, myself.

-mark

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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by doyoudigworms? » Tue Jul 15, 2003 7:15 pm

Tower in new orleans is a bit weird. I havent been in there in a while, but it used to be the place to get "new" vinyl records... I think the last thing I bought there was the Pussy Galore repressings. Then they tore out the vinyl bins to make room for their cd singles. so fuck 'em. Its evolution baby. oh yeah... i just quoted Pearl Jammy Jam. The independents got it made here. I was recently in Virgin and there wasnt anyone in there rocking to the Duran Duran video monitors... has anyone tried that Virgin soda pop?

The good thing about the small shops is they'll let you go to the bathroom and play the records for you and cut you a deal if you buy a stack of them. Thats good customer service, but then again wal-mart does most of that shit too, but I prefer to buy my Toby Keith somewheres else.

on a another tip, a friend made me a compilation that had a Lovin' Spoonful's "do you believe in magick?" mp3 on it... It sounded like the shit had been recorded through a vocoder.... it mustve been 96khz maybe it was a Mantronix remix...

PUT THE NEEDLE ON THE RECORD>

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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by cassembler » Wed Jul 16, 2003 2:45 pm

markpar wrote:I'm waiting for the 64-bit remasters, myself.

-mark
That reminds me... Anyone seen a 32-bit soundcard??? NO! They don't exist, and I urge anyone to be skeptical when it comes to anything over 24 bit AD converters. Reason being that, from what I've read (from reliable sources: the Principals of Digital Audio; fantastic book) is that a converter working at more than 22 bits or so would have to be an near absolute zero temperature... Which means that even 24 bit converters are really only working at 22 or 23 bits, tops...

Now, 32 bit processing is a whole different story...

And yes, I could be wrong.
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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by DeafinONEear » Wed Jul 16, 2003 2:51 pm

cassembler wrote:Reason being that, from what I've read (from reliable sources: the Principals of Digital Audio; fantastic book) is that a converter working at more than 22 bits or so would have to be an near absolute zero temperature...
you wouldn't mind explaining that, would you?

when was this book made? if it's processor power that would be the hold back, power has *jumped* in the last 3 years, so perhaps this book might be a bit outdated....

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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by DeafinONEear » Wed Jul 16, 2003 2:54 pm

cassembler wrote:Anybody else notice that 90% of what they play in bars these days is .mp3's?
are you kidding? I haven't heard this... though it makes sense...

jesus though.... could you imagine having to look through 3000 song titles to find I walk the Line?

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Re: Pop will eat itself!

Post by cassembler » Thu Jul 17, 2003 11:50 am

DeafinONEear wrote:when was this book made? if it's processor power that would be the hold back, power has *jumped* in the last 3 years, so perhaps this book might be a bit outdated....
It's called the Principals of Digital Audio by ?Ken Pohlman? revised 2001 or something, probably since then. You should be able to find it at a good library. Someone recommended it to me from this board and I vote that's it's ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL READING FOR ANY AUDIO ENGINEER.

But no, I think the reason was the discharge of certain analog devices (like caps and resistors) that are in the sample-and-hold circuit. This book goes into explicit detail on this particualr topic.

[and now that I think about it, it might have been another source, but this book would probably say the same thing... VERY comprehensive]

As far as the mp3's in bars goes... Just listen to the high end. It's blurbly in an obvious way, at least in most of _my_ local bars. Those little digital jukeboxes? They get their catalog via download... Do the math.

But I could be wrong on any or all of this.
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"Man is doomed to perpetually fluctuate between states of extreme boredom and extreme turbulence."

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