The way we listen to music has changed a lot over the last decade. The iPod was only introduced in 2001, hard to believe in this world full of MP3 players. Many people even listen to music on their mobile phone. But do we still recognize quality?
I have a nice set of speakers and a good amplifier. It is great to be able to listen to music without being distracted by too many technical shortcomings of the system. But then I play back an MP3 I just bought on eMusic or an AAC I bought on iTunes, and somehow it doesn’t feel right. It sounds fine, but I know I’m missing out the details and dynamics of the original recording.
So I started ripping CDs in the Apple Lossless format, and buying uncompressed albums from online shops like bleep.com. You lose the benefits of smaller file sizes, but the quality you gain is worth it. Not many online shops sell uncompressed music though, so buying CDs and ripping them is the best solution most of the time.
Here is a thing I miss about the pre-digital era (no it is not the cassette tape): Do you remember going to the record store, excited about the new album you were going to buy? Then cherishing it like an artefact and listening to the tracks over and over again, while reading the lyrics in the enclosed booklet?
We used to treat an album the way it should be treated: as a piece of art. Next to the higher sound quality, most records we bought had a high emotional value. And because of its uniqueness we gave this piece of art the chance to grow on us. Some music just doesn’t ‘get you’ the first time around.
Last week I bought a CD player and, for the first time since years, some new CDs. It does not send data to last.fm, but I do not care. And I found myself playing the albums over and over again, enjoying the uncompressed sound quality.
Some people might actually be better off with the functionality things like iTunes bring us (like genius play lists), but I like things to be simple. I actually listen to an album from beginning to end. Do you?
Photo by: The Artifex