Music: Digital Vs. Analogue

The discussion about copyright and the matter of illegal downloads got me thinking about some other aspects of music that get lost through the mediation or digitization of online downloads through the web. I, myself am an analogue freak, and especially when it comes to music I like the good old way of consuming my favorite bands albums - through the analogue format of the Vinyl record. You know, those big round, usually black plastic disks that require the archaic use of a mechanical piece of equipment to play them on. Well, they are making quite a comeback in today's world of digital everything. Many artists stress the importance of the vinyl record, its a direct, tangible piece of work that you can hold and interact with, collect and sell - something you can't do with a digital file that is stored on iTunes or another media player. Its quite a hobby to collect records for some people (including me), just walk up Queen Street to Real Groovey to see at times many avid collectors of the ultimate physical medium of a bands work. Many records include quirky aspects that break the normal conventions of the stock vinyl record, making them a collectors item as they are often pressed in limited numbers. These include multi-colour discs, picture discs (album art printed onto the actual record), unreleased bonus tracks, etc. Jack White, guitarist of the White Stripes and owner of Third Man Records is a strong influence in pushing the vinyl medium in the ever-increasing digitized world with many vinyl exclusivity's.

Music plays a huge part in our social and cultural identities, it always has and probably always will, but it feels that with the increasing amounts of downloads, we are treating artists work as a disposable effort that has no true value, an opposition to a physical product. I myself also use digital versions of bands work when listening to my iPod, much of which comes from a free download card that is issued with the LP, giving you the best of both worlds, music on the go and music as a collector piece. The life of compact disc is dying out with emergence of the download but there is also a strong revival of the Vinyl record that could be seen as a reaction to loss of real world translation of a piece of art that is otherwise lost somewhere in cyberspace or somewhere in your computer.