 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I love my physical CDs for tactile reasons, the artwork, the kid in me, etc. And in a practical sense, they serve as another backup to your hard drives.
But if there is one tantalizing possibility of the digital age, it's the idea that online download stores could someday offer the whole history of recorded music. Nothing would be out of stock or out of print, and titles that don't sell well would never have to be deleted from the catalog. It's the ultimate filmscore-lust fantasy-- and it's possible.
But it takes time and money for record labels to create the download version of an album, and that's why so many (if not most) vintage soundtracks are not yet available as downloads.
Do you think we'll ever get there? Which way is the wind blowing for Golden Age and Silver Age soundtracks and vintage film music LPs? Will they all be online someday, or will many of them vanish, because those are the two choices in the digital age.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Jul 28, 2013 - 2:57 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
manderley
(Member)
|
.....General Discussion: Will All Scores be Available Someday?.....
General Answer: No.
Of the scores written and recorded between 1930 and 1960, perhaps 15%.
Of the scores written and recorded between 1960 and 1985, perhaps 35%.
Of the scores written and recorded between 1985 and 2010, perhaps 60%, and dwindling in availability in succeeding years.
Post 2000..... ???
General Reason: Lack of Interest.
Of the people who like film scores today, the great majority really only appreciate those which relate to their own generation. As each generation dies off, the interest in the distant past becomes even more distant to the surviving generations.
The bulk of the older scores (Golden Age, and moving into Silver Age) are now considered archaic, poorly recorded, often dramatically inept, and unrelated to contemporary styles in filmmaking for most current listeners today (and tomorrow). Many genres of films for which scores were written are now outdated and old-fashioned to most viewers, listeners, collectors and that problem carries the scores along as well.
There will always be a few exceptions, of course, but those older exceptions will also become less interesting as time goes on.
I am now 73. When you are young you do not see this inexorable movement of history around you so well. It's only when you are much older---if you survive---that you tend to perceive much more clearly the changes in time, fashions, trends, styles.
You can test yourself easily right here and now:
How many of you follow and have great interest today in regularly hearing and purchasing the music of Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, Dr. William Axt, Sigmund Romberg, David Mendoza, Rudolf Friml, Dr. William Axt, Hugo Riesenfeld, Rudolph Kopp, Herbert Stothart---all recognized musicians in the entertainment field?
How many of you faithfully follow and collect the works of Max Steiner, Victor Young, Alfred Newman, Hugo Friedhofer, Daniele Amfitheatrof---of a later generation?
How many of you follow and are regularly collecting the works of Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, John Williams, Jerry Fielding, Bernard Herrmann......of a still later generation?
My guess is that the numbers of interested parties increase with each of these questions going forward, but decrease going backward.
Finally.....since the process of making motion pictures and writing scores is a commercial business, and since selling those motion pictures on DVD or download, and scores on CD or download, is, to the owners and studios, a money-making process---how long do you think a studio will continue to spend money to preserve and protect these elements if they don't earn that money back.
Just as lesser films from the past are beginning to deteriorate and have less exposure, so will their scores.
Collect what you can collect---what you're interested in collecting---at this time of your life---and listen to it regularly.
The opportunity will not always be there in the future despite the rosy predictions for an infinite library shelved in the clouds. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Even if all recorded music was somehow extant and digitized, what you may be forgetting is the legal element. Recordings (music, movies, TV shows) must be authorized for release by the copyright holder; we're already seeing how that can prove a hindrance in the "soft copy" age. Movies and TV shows have appeared and disappeared from Netflix, songs are available then unavailable from iTunes, etc.
This factor alone will likely keep all copyrighted works from being simultaneously available (even via multiple outlets). Thankfully, the license doesn't expire on a CD or DVD.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Jul 28, 2013 - 5:00 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
|
Even if all recorded music was somehow extant and digitized, what you may be forgetting is the legal element. Recordings (music, movies, TV shows) must be authorized for release by the copyright holder; we're already seeing how that can prove a hindrance in the "soft copy" age. Movies and TV shows have appeared and disappeared from Netflix, songs are available then unavailable from iTunes, etc.
Exactly. Artists and copyright holders are still trying to figure out how they will be properly compensated for all this. In all cases I know of, film and television show residuals are paid out every time a new release window is purchased by Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, or the like. If Hulu buys your show for two years, you get a payment upfront (not a lot, as it is), and if enough people watch, Hulu will want to renew in two years and you'll get another payment. if not, or if the owner thinks he can get more elsewhere, it will disappear.
Also, it doesn't pay for any of these services to use server space on something that virtually nobody is interested in.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jul 28, 2013 - 5:08 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
|
Maybe or maybe not but will you be able to afford them? Digital downloads are fairly cheap right now. Wait 20 years and those scores are going to cost you $50 dollars per album to download.
I suspect as "The Cloud" grows the computer companies will make smaller and smaller hard drives so you won't be able to store all the music on your computer. (If they are smart they will phase out the external drives as well) So add $200 dollars a month for your Cloud Storage.
Edit: Actually as we know they want to phase out Digital Downloads all together like they do physical media.
Solium, if you honestly believe hard drives are going to get smaller, your pessimism is clouding (pardon the expression) your judgement. And if they outlaw external drives, only outlaws will have external drives. Except, of course, that will never happen.
"They" would charge you $50 for an album right now if they thought people would pay it. Of course, they wouldn't, and so they don't. There are economic principles at work here. Just because you believe the powers that be to be evil and scheming doesn't mean that it will ever make financial sense for a label to charge that kind of money (even in 2033 dollars). The phrase "charge what the market will bear" apparently dates back to ancient Greece. I don't see how that's going to change in twenty years.
I don't know who the "they" are you believe wants to phase out digital downloads, and physical media. But let me assure you, the demise (such as it is) of the CD and the DVD was driven by consumers. Just as the rise of cloud-based services is. These things may not serve collectors, but don't confuse collectors (a tiny market) with consumers (everybody). There isn't a music executive alive who doesn't yearn for the heyday of CDs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I agree companies sometimes move regardless of what consumers want, solium, but on the whole we really have more choice now than ever before. We have yet to see a single new media method fully replace an old one: apps haven't replaced print magazines, online news hasn't replaced newspapers, downloads haven't replaced CDs, etc. Heck, the studios can't even get everyone from DVD to Blu-ray.
Yes, Apple has now mostly done away with optical drives (not even the new Mac Pro will have one), but this has been going on for a few years now. A friend predicted at the time all machines would give them up once Apple started, but a quick look at PCs (desktops, laptops) at different price ranges reveal optical drives are still built in. Microsoft itself was just humbled by being forced to release Windows 8.1.
While what you're suggesting is technically conceivable, what we're actually seeing is more choice rather than less. The reason is the dollar, which means the consumer still rules.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
