Will CDs be blown out in a TIDAL wave?
In 1999 I ripped my CD collection to “CD quality (!)” 128kps MP3. There was no option for storage, then, so I copied the files, laboriously, to CD-R – and subsequently, in 2001, to a 100GB hard drive. In 2008, I re-ripped my, now vastly expanded, CD collection to apple lossless (not flac – about that in another post). At this point, I have about 3TB or so of (legal) music files. Unfortunately, due to a series of hard drive failures, I have come close, several times, to losing the lot (the worst was a 4TB WDSHARESPACE RAID which completely died on me forever denting my belief in single backup storage). Now, in addition to the network streaming drive, I keep 2 backups (I think I have spent more money on storage than on music in recent years). A couple of weeks ago, for no apparent reason, my most up to date music backup drive died and I had to copy everything back from network to USB HDD. I took 10 days. In the process files got lost, files failed to copy, files got corrupted etc. Then, of course there is the problem that due to it’s 68,000 file limit – half of my CDs (and all of my 24 bit music) cannot be played on my Sonos system. So, one of my major jobs for the new year has been to thin out my shared music folder and remove enough stuff so that I can fit in the best music of 2014. This is strangely sobering. Suddenly one questions those 50 CD box sets of classical music, jazz or blues. The 8 CD set of the Velvet Underground – or the 24 CD set of King Crimson’s “Red” album. Even the bonus disc that comes with Deluxe Editions may need to be jettisoned. All in all, there are a lot of CDs in a box in the attic that are doubly superfluous: not even good enough for the Sonos library.
Another strange phenomenon concerns vinyl. I decided a couple of years ago to buy new release vinyl rather than CDs. Sounds great, but when I finds one of these records in a pile – while looking for something to play – my attitude is – do I really want to commit to 20 minutes listening to one side of this mediocre record, knowing that I will have to get up off my ass to either change it over or switch it off?
So, it seems to me that I am buying too much music about which I am utterly ambivalent. I sometimes wonder if I am keeping the music industry alive, single handedly. Perhaps I need to get over my generation’s attachment with physical products. My brother, 12 years my junior, has no books, CDs or records – and seems to keep his whole life in cloud storage. He can travel around the world like Jack Reacher, only carrying a tablet and access and stream everything over the internet. I spend my life worrying where I am going to store all my media and books!
I have spent the last few years in a semi love affair with Deezer (I didn’t really take to Spotify). But at the back of my head there was always the feeling that the sound quality was only ok, not hi-fidelity. Now that delusion is shattered – TIDAL has arrived in my neighbourhood, and they are streaming in 1411kbs Flac: essentially what I have on my server, except – instead of a 68,000 track library – they have 25 million tracks.
So, how is it? First things first – TIDAL is up against the really excellent Deezer mobile and Sonos apps – which work brilliantly – and costs me €9.99 a month, TIDAL is €19.99 a month (although they claim that they pay the artists more). The iPAD and iPhone apps worked well, but – no Sonos app. I spent, literally, hours trawling through the internet – specifically the TIDAL and Sonos websites, looking for the app and couldn’t find it. It appears that the app has not been even beta released in the irish version of Sonos. I had better luck with bluesound. TIDAL connected, eventually, to my Bluesound account and I was able to stream. I listened to the new Waterboys album, sounded good, and ran through a few old favorites. Overally, TIDAL looks like a winner. No sign of Deezer Elite here yet – so, if TIDAL fixes my Sonos connection, it will be goodbye to Deezer (for the time being at least). The big question for me follows: if I can stream CD quality music, as part of a subscription, then why buy CDs? I decided a decade ago to stop buying CDs when Rhapsody arrive, along with SACD and DVD-A. But, as 24 bit was not ready for primetime, then, there were few releases, and offline playing of Rhapsody was poor. Everything has changed now. Virtually all new releases now come out in desirable vinyl, many are also available in 24 bit. The CD, usually cheaply packaged now in thin cardboard, without bonus or interactive content, seems – archaic. Importantly, when “push came to shove” in my own library – most of those “Original Artist” series CD multipacks got jettisoned.
David Epworth is famous for saying that most bands only release 12 good or great songs (all in their greatest hits collection). I would argue that most bands only release 2 good albums. Luke Haines states that you have 10 years to write your first album – it needs to be brilliant – and then only 6 months to write your second. Hence, few of the OAS sets feature more than 2 CDs that you would be bothered to listen to twice.
The artwork on CDs, as opposed to vinyl, has never been worth the purchase price. In the near future, in addition to streaming full resolution files, your iPad screen will feature the album art, front back and gatefold, the lyrics, reviews, editorial content, music videos, interviews with the artist, historical context, chart placings and other trivia. This material is already there, it just needs to be consolidated. Physical formats, with the exception of Vinyl, will be dead forever.
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