I was recently alarmed by one of these future-tech articles published over New Years that explained what trends in 2011 we can expect.
In between the glorification of 3D television sets and iPad tablet competitors, was this notion of music distribution being moved to “the cloud.”
In other words, a shift from even MP3 files you download to own on your hard drive to streaming tunes from cyberspace.
The article pointed out that soon there will be an entire generation of music listeners that have no concept that you could have once “owned” a song or an album, much less the processes by which you once obtained them. It’s a shift we’ve already seen happen with video, with Instant Viewing surpassing DVD mailings over Netflix late last year.
With the rise of similar music services online like Rhapsody, the industry is just bracing for iTunes to step up to the option.
I am and will always be a collector of music and movies.
While other teens made their mad dash for the Merry-Go-Round and Spencer Gifts at the mall, I went straight to the Suncoast and Record Town. As far as the collecting went for me, the VHS were of course replaced by Laserdiscs, the Laserdiscs were replaced by DVDs and the DVDs now replaced by Blu-ray. The Vinyl was replaced by tapes, the tapes replaced by CDs and the CDs… Well, actually the CDs are still around, and the Vinyl keeps coming back into my collection via 99¢ bins.
Putting aside the whole quality debate (which the jury is still out on for audio quality), I’m just not 100% on board with the idea of not actually having some sort of physical box and packaging. I like that bookshelf display and storage of movies and music, and having entertainment that is truly on-demand without reliance on a spotty WiFi during peak Netflix streaming hours. It may be a psychological comfort-zone, and it may be a generational thing, but bring on the packaging.
Bring on the gatefolds and the multi-sleve digipacks. Bring on the box-sets and the collectors-editions.
We may be running out of places to put all this stuff, but man does it look good on the mantel.
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