David Byrne: Who needs music labels?

[method77]

At SXSW, David Byrne gave a presentation in which he details his predictions for the future of the music industry: digital downloads will be the norm, and labels will either be reduced to marketing firms or will focus only on megastars. Oh, and the article drops this little nugget: '[bryne] said he buys most of his music online via eMusic, or obtains it illegally, due to the file constraints on files sold on iTunes.

Link (via BoingBoing)

[Hex Orchestra]

At SXSW, David Byrne gave a presentation in which he details his predictions for the future of the music industry: digital downloads will be the norm, and labels will either be reduced to marketing firms or will focus only on megastars. Oh, and the article drops this little nugget: '[bryne] said he buys most of his music online via eMusic, or obtains it illegally, due to the file constraints on files sold on iTunes.

Link (via BoingBoing)

At the conclusion of the article was the comment from someone attending the Byrne discussion at SXSW who stated that the downside to downloads was the sound quality as compared to CD. We all have heard this before. What no one seems to discuss is the fact that low quality MP3's exist simply because they take less time to download on low bandwidth connections. Even with a 56K connection people can download a 5MB songfile in a "reasonable" amount of time. However, we are living in a new age - one in which 2Mb connection speeds are the norm and many ISP's are now offering up to 16Mb. This is the fastest growing area of ISP's and at these rates we will easliy witness Mr. Byrnes prediction of digital downloads outselling CD's by 2012. I think it will be sooner than that. Especially if DRM issues are put to rest. But there is another benefit to all this - the low quality MP3 will be replaced by higher fidelity file formats that are now not widely offered because of the time it takes to download files formatted at 16/44.1 or higher. But just as downloads will be the norm and CD sales will decline so poor quality audio formats will be replaced by file formats that will equal or surpass current CD quality. By the time 2012 rolls around we might be looking at even fast connection speeds enabling customers to download multi-channel formats as well. The future is bright!

[DudeAsInCool]

I think the music quality of digital downloads is gonna improve quicker than we think. Nonetheless, retail still accounts for 2/3s of indie band's revenue from cd sales, according to this article

[Excrement_Cranium]

I want my cake and eat it, too.

Good quality, good compression.

FLAC is great encoding for quality, but man are the files huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge.

Though, when my buddy that works at Staples gets me a 200gig external HD for 25 bucks, I guess I shouldn't whine too much about space.