Finally, something else! - (note: this is a bit old)

I have been writing this blog for almost a year (April 2013 was the start) and I have skirted away from writing anything but music reviews. I have listened to more than a years worth of albums though I'm a little behind in writing-up what I thought about all of them while some albums were discarded because I didn't feel anything in particular about the music (The Bronx, I'm looking at you). I had always been reluctant to buy online because I thought it went against the premise of the blog, that of spontaneity and that different stores may hold different gems.

I saw this report on the ABC about vinyl sales in Australia and musicians digging out their favourites. Just imagine, one day, a few years from now, there will be the next generation of musicians doing the same for compact discs and how the physical purchase of the disc is somewhat superior to the purely digital download.

To be honest, there is absolutely nothing I hear on a vinyl recording of a song that I don't hear on the other formats of that same song. I haven't got the nostalgia of those big black discs because I was born too late, audio cassettes were the thing when I was born and they would slowly be phased out for CD. Vinyl has the kind of charming obsolesce that is built into everything these days and might kick-on for a few years yet.

I have bought online, many times, and this method of distribution has more longevity. The CD shops will not cease to be but there influence has been declining and will diminish further over-time.

There may be nothing 'cool' about a digital download and music needs 'cool' things to happen so it can make lots of money in one place but I, for one, believe that is a good thing. Since the advent of MTV in the 1980's (the old kind that showed music videos and not the new version that just shows a certain type of show) meant that musicians has a visual format with which to promote their songs and they could take a visual style to match their music or promote themselves as a style and then sell that to people with musical accompaniment.