Hiya Rammie,
You are a really nice guy, who is very positive. That's so great to see/read. I hope that you're correct, but the evidence and truth points in the opposite direction. The sustainability, and value of any format is judged exclusively on sales, which is the ONLY THING that drives availability.
(There's a very famous and funny story where A&M recording artists Deep Purple were backstage tearing into the Carpenters while the Carpenters were on stage. They were really all over them. But little did they know that Herb Albert was standing right there, not knowing who he was, they were really laying into the Carpenters. Finally, Herb Albert pointed out that he was indeed the "A" in A&M records and that it was that very band that they were making fun of that made it possible for Deep Purple to make records, and indeed, even be there that night. Of course, today, this would never happen. All "labels" in that previous sense will soon be gone. And, the few that remain, can never afford to have a Carpenters support a Deep Purple. Now, it's all Diana Krall and Nora Jones and whitewashed and unchallenging and unchallenged American Idol schlock, 24-7).
1. Computer based, digital files for music playback shows no evidence of "devolving:" - only growing, and at amazing rate. The designers and manufacturers in the high end audio industry are finally starting to shift their emphasis toward this fact: took them long enough. I guess that it took ga-billions in sales.
2. Vinyl is just as dead as SACD, and the redbook CD is not far behind. Significant drop off in sales of ALL physical formats continue at an amazing rate. Again, we are not seeing millions and millions of copies of GoldFrapp, Lady GaGa, Justin Timberlake, and any of those country & western whatevers, being run off. SACD and Vinyl are complete labors of love for the few who amount to a few collectors discs being run for a few friends, and us geeks, and the rare among us. Vinyl, is much cheaper, but is much lower quality than redbook CD.
3. People just aren't making new music, (under the old radio-physical product, industrial model), anymore, and being in a music "group" is not sustainable. Radio play, the 11 song album/1 hour album, the 2 million recording budget, the marketing campaigns, are just not sustainable to the American Idol audience, who wants to hear how well your next door neighbor sings that "b" Neil Diamond song: as if any of his schlock is not.
4. These new SACDs are made for the Japanese audience who has never liked new music. They're interested in paying "MORE" for everything as it's a status symbol for the extremely wealthy who buy very expensive Rolex watches, very expensive Halcro, Nagra, Airtight, Accuphase, stereos; and play horrible muzack made by beautiful Japanese teenage prodigies.
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