Physical Media, where do we see it in 20 years.

[flak monkey]

Really, what’s all this good stuff? The 80s for me was one of the worst decades for music.

I'd say the 90s was worse, with digital recording and bad mastering creating the start of the loudness wars we see today. At least in the 80s they were still primarily analogue masters on 1" or 2" tape.

And I guess some of this depends on whether you can appreciate a good recording whether you like the music or not. ACDC, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, and many others put out some brilliantly recorded work in the 80s, often both digital and analogue. But it's not everyone's taste.

Like everything related to music or it's reproduction, it's all down to personal preference. I have a very eclectic music taste, from classical through to black metal, hip hop, and electronica. Which is good for me as I discover all sorts of stuff. Even if the artist isn't one that I'd say I'm a fan of.

 

[StingRay]

I'd say the 90s was worse, with digital recording and bad mastering creating the start of the loudness wars we see today. At least in the 80s they were still primarily analogue masters on 1" or 2" tape.

And I guess some of this depends on whether you can appreciate a good recording whether you like the music or not. ACDC, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, and many others put out some brilliantly recorded work in the 80s, often both digital and analogue. But it's not everyone's taste.

Like everything related to music or it's reproduction, it's all down to personal preference. I have a very eclectic music taste, from classical through to black metal, hip hop, and electronica. Which is good for me as I discover all sorts of stuff. Even if the artist isn't one that I'd say I'm a fan of.

I was talking about the music more than the recording/mastering. I agree the 90s was not good either. Not a fan of any of those artists you mention although do play Waters on  rare occasions. Yes there’s the odd decent group, I like the last few Talk Talk albums for example. REM and Talking Heads are not too bad but it’s nothing like the 60/70s.

A lot of 70s albums were pretty awful on cd, someone gave me a Tull cd is appalling. Good job Steve Wilson has remastered some of them.

 

[Idlewithnodrive]

My money is on Vinyl and band lead digital download / distribution sites such as Soundcloud and Bandcamp.

I also love the Cassette medium, but that's me.

 

[tackleberry]

I’ve said it all along and maintain it, there will be a cd resurgence as with vinyl. As for players, there will also be a market.

 

[DomT]

There's some brilliantly mastered popular stuff from the '80s. George Michael, Michael Jackson, Prince, Def Leppard, Bryan Adams, Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac and many others. Indeed the original release of Love Over Gold on CD is one of the most common reference/test albums, released about 10 years after the original vinyl/analogue release in '82.

Some early CD mastering was a bit duff while they were figuring stuff out, but a lot of it post '86 is fab.

Michael Jackson? Well if you like really bright mastering then ok! 

 

[DomT]

I’ve said it all along and maintain it, there will be a cd resurgence as with vinyl. As for players, there will also be a market.

I think that the problem with CD is that streaming will be so pervasive that there will be few CDPs on sale, and those will be very cheap and very very specialist and expensive, and so if there are not decent players available it will limit any resurgence in physical media. 

 

[Nativebon]

On my hard drives. Simples. 

 

[flak monkey]

Michael Jackson? Well if you like really bright mastering then ok! 

Some yes, but some not. Personal preference and system dependent. If you have a system that's very bright then I can see it might be an issue. Sounds alright on my AE2's. But then something like Bruce Springsteen's Terry's Song will soon show if that's the case...

 

[rabski]

He could be right. Those CDs from the 80s dont sound very good today do they ?    Maybe it was just the sh*t music I was buying in the 80s though ?   

I am right

It's a known issue, but at the moment it only affects a relatively small proportion of CDs. Nevertheless, CDs are actually only officially rated for a certain life. You can buy 'archival' quality blank CDs for that reason, but they are still considered unsuited for long-term archival data storage.

The US National Archive classisfies CD and DVD as suitable only for short-term storage (5 to 10 years). Bluray has a quoted longer life, as they're made with an additional protection layer. There is a form known as M Disc, that uses specific metals and protective layers and claims a usable life of up to 1000 years.

I think the Library of Congress still states that vinyl is the longest-lasting methoid for long-term storage, though it is of course more likely to suffer wear from use.

 

[flak monkey]

I am right

It's a known issue, but at the moment it only affects a relatively small proportion of CDs. Nevertheless, CDs are actually only officially rated for a certain life. You can buy 'archival' quality blank CDs for that reason, but they are still considered unsuited for long-term archival data storage.

The US National Archive classisfies CD and DVD as suitable only for short-term storage (5 to 10 years). Bluray has a quoted longer life, as they're made with an additional protection layer. There is a form known as M Disc, that uses specific metals and protective layers and claims a usable life of up to 1000 years.

I think the Library of Congress still states that vinyl is the longest-lasting methoid for long-term storage, though it is of course more likely to suffer wear from use.

Blank discs are a different issue to prerecorded though. The issue with blanks is the dye used on the data layer breaking down. Can often be seen visually. They are definitely not suited to long term storage or backup of data.

With early CDs the issue is more the metal data layer oxidising as the bonding wasn't great on a very small percentage of them.

 

[tackleberry]

What determines disc breakdown, simply that it won’t read?

My discs range from a year old, to thirty five, none of which have any issues playing.

 

[flak monkey]

What determines disc breakdown, simply that it won’t read?

My discs range from a year old, to thirty five, none of which have any issues playing.

Yep, they either work or they don't. Some just need more error correction effort. The amount of damage a disc can take before being unreadable is pretty significant.

 

[audio_PHIL_e]

They are different, just personal preference. I can think of several albums that sound better on CD than vinyl and vice versa. There was an awful lot of cheap, rubbish vinyl produced in the 1980's that ruined otherwise well recorded albums.

I can't say that I'm a fan of all those examples either, but I do know good production when I hear it, even if I wouldn't class myself a fan of the actual music.

Yes, I think you are right: the industry had to convince folk that CD was better in order to get them to abandon their investment in vinyl and one way to do it was to press LPs onto wafer-thin vinyl that flaps in the breeze and is covered with snap-crackle-pop.

I think CD is better because it will last for up to an hour then just click off at the end. This makes for a much better relationship with your cat.

 

[Rockchild]

I use to have a pioneer CD recorder, very few of the recorded discs play well now. 

 

[bigrod]

There are crap and great recordings on all physical media , if stored correctly will still sound great when I’m gone . And personally that’s just long enough .

Put a quality recording of any format , physical or digital on quality well made and matched components it can sound fabulous.. 

I’m pleased I still have a choice.. And there’s more than enough music I haven’t heard out there already recorded to last a hundred lifetimes ..

 

[Jason P]

One thing I do know is that barring flood or fire my LP collection will be still going strong, sounding good (whilst probably looking tattier!). A factor to take into account will be the acceptability of plastics and the availability of same - if anyone comes up with a foolproof way of recycling old LPs and CDs for new production I reckon they'll be quids in. Downloads and streaming are more acceptable in that way, so long as you don't look at the carbon footprint of the servers that host them...

 

[Mickdale]

20 years….

think most music will be pulled from a cloud or server

people sitting in living rooms listening to two stereo speakers through dedicated hifi will be a much more niche pastime. 

just my 2p worth

 

[JTW]

Either

-most music will be streamed with very few consumers of physical media other than the usual suspects for vinyl and maybe CD

or

Only 78s will be playable (on a wind up gramophone) due to the collapse of civilisation meaning that the internet will be a thing of the past as will the National Grid. (there may be some diehards with generators and stockpiles of fuel but not many).

 

[It Cost How Much!?!]

As the owner of a large amount of music media, my kids 20s and 30s also have physical media as well as streaming. Video on demand has almost killed DVD/Blueray now. 

CD and vinyl will survive. 

 

[sktn77a]

I think physical media will die along with the baby-boomer generation (your 20 year timeline).  None of my kids (in their 30s) have any physical media and I don't know of anyone else their age with any.

'Nuff said!