Paying for digital music

 A little over three years ago, I wondered if I had bought my last CD.  I knew the likelihood was small, but more importantly, the roadmap was there.  Shopping excursions were becoming ever more infrequent, and could eventually stop, at which point I would hear new music exclusively via streaming services or blogs.  

Since writing that post, I have bought enough CD's to confidently declare that the format's demise vis a vis my spending habits was exaggerated.  My purchasing frequency did drop, but purchasing variety reached a twenty year peak.  With a mix of new, used, and bargain discs, and an increased breadth of genres (including classical, a genre I hadn't bought in significant numbers since the mid-90's), the end seemed nowhere in sight.  

And yet, I've been down this road before, where a peak turned out to be a last hurrah, bringing on a sea change in my purchasing/downloading/listening habits. 

I participated in the first wave of Napster, binged regularly on music through Kazaa and Soulseek, and had never paid to download music.  Until now.  It only took twenty years, but I finally paid to download music through iTunes.  What was the history making purchase?  Osmo Vanska's Complete Sibelius Symphonies with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. When it comes to the frozen Finnish winter interpretation of Sibelius' music, Vanska can't be topped.  It's a classic cycle that came at a great price.  And given the difficulty in buying non-bargain bin classical music on CD, it seems that iTunes and other music services give me the best opportunity to hear the exact performances I want.  

My Roland DJ505 came with a three month subscription to BPM Supreme, a record pool site offering tracks and tools for DJ's across numerous genres.  I browsed through it, downloaded some solid tracks, but decided it wasn't really for me.  But then I found myself discovering more and more great music through the site.  I also became accustomed to the convenience of searching for tracks on a whim and catching up on years of great dance music that I hadn't been exposed to because for years, I have been listening via albums and podcasts, rather than individual artist EPs or single tracks/remixes. Of course I have known about Beatport and similar sites for ages, but didn't have the proper motivation to spend money there.  With two small kids at home, my mixing has been stalled, so I might just cancel my BPM Supreme membership and re-sub later when I'm ready to devote more time to it.  

This may be how the CD will finally die out in my collection.  The randomness of CD shops will be replaced by digital services offering niche versions of songs in the genres that I'm currently interested in.  

Phil Spector is dead

Spector was a brilliant record producer, perhaps the best ever. His influence is immeasurable.  He was also a spectacular failure as a human being -- and that was before he murdered Lana Clarkson.  

For me personally, Spector indirectly inspired me to start writing about music.  I had thoughts about comparing his productions with the dense, layered guitar music I loved in the 90's.  I picked up a pen (literally, there were no blogs at the time) and the rest is history.   

Rather than size up his complicated legacy (which I've already looked at in other posts over the years), I think I'll shine a light upon CNN's horrible excuse for an obit.  

Starting with the headline: "Grammy-winning producer and convicted murderer Phil Spector dies."  His Grammy win was inconsequential to his career, Phil Spector was not famous for winning Grammys.  It's a small footnote in any proper bio.

"Spector, who was originally from Bronx, New York, produced recordings by stars including The Beatles, Ike and Tina Turner, Cher and the Ramones".  When George Martin died in 2016, did the obits read "he produced records by Elton John, Neil Sedaka, and Gerry and the Pacemakers"?  

"Creator of a production style that became known as the "Wall of Sound," the influential producer formed the Teddy Bears and recorded the group's only hit, "To Know Him is to Love Him," while he was still in high school."  These are two unrelated factoids linked in the same sentence, not to mention that the implied timeline is reversed.  

"Spector's approach to record production -- the layering of instrumental tracks and percussion that underpinned a string of hits on his Philles label -- was a major influence on popular music in the 1960s."  This is easily the most benign and meaningless description of the Wall of Sound ever written.  There is nothing of substance in this obit, not even the slightest attempt to produce an informative piece of writing, it is clickbait, content for the sake of having content, and nothing more.