Abstract

Several of our readings have indicated that we live, now more than ever before, in a time where we are surrounded by sounds – sounds that are constantly new and that at the same time can’t ever really be new. Sound recording has become part of our everyday lives, and it is safe to say that the majority of music consumers listen to recordings far more than they do to live music. With this in mind, it is somewhat surprising that these consumers embrace the relatively recent format of mp3, even though it comes at the – possibly hidden - cost of sound quality.

In my paper I want to briefly explore this loss of sound quality and to what extent it is hidden (related to this: much of today’s listening time is spent on low quality headphones and – worse! – fm transmitters in cars, making it easy to blame the lower sound quality on these instead of the format itself). I then want to talk about the implications this holds about today’s consumer in general (who apparently picks convenience over quality, and not only in the area of sound production), as well as about the industry: did the CD format take it as far as it could? Was a new format necessary not just for the consumer, but also for the producer, in order to open up a whole new area for improvement?
I would also like to compare the purchase of an mp3 album to a CD album, which can sometimes be very similar in price. However, with a CD purchase, we receive a physical object, as well as a protective case, cover art, a booklet, lyrics and other writing, photos, dedications and thank-yous, etc. I want to talk about how the relationship between listener and artist has changed; I argue that with the purchase of a CD in, say, the mid-90s, the listener feels/felt more connected to the artist, privy to information not (as) easily available to others: even reading the lyrics while listening to the CD changes the listening experience and thus makes it different from that of someone listening to the same song on the radio. Today, anything found in a booklet can most likely be found online, but the experience is different: anyone can google for lyrics, there is no “value” to knowing them anymore. In Sound Unbound, Jonathan Lethem makes the difference between a gift and a commodity, and situates music somewhere in the middle (a commodity that still feels more like a gift?). With the rise of mp3, music seems to be becoming more of a commodity for many people: you get exactly what you pay for: “only” the music. Nothing more, maybe even less.