Wow, "Fall" is indescribably beautiful. Can't wait for these albums!

In an attempt to steer this thread off course yet again...

My wife is a college professor here in Seattle, and she will often talk music with her students (she's so hip for her age!). She and a group of her kids were talking about which CD's they were looking forward to this summer. One of her students nonchalantly disclosed that not only had he NEVER purchased a CD before, but he had never even felt the NEED to purchase one. Dude was 20 years old! (and he didn't download mp3 albums or songs either... only torrent downloads)

Hopefully, that isn't the norm nowadays. Nevermind how disrespectful that is to the artist, think about how sad it is to never be inspired enough to buy an artist's work! To never look forward to a new CD... man I just can't comprehend.

Obviously, downloading is the 'in' thing to do, but is it common for kids to never buy CD's? Please explain this to a hopelessly out-of-touch dinosaur like me.

I'm 22, and I ALWAYS buy CDs of bands I want to support. Although the buying of CDs is probably reserved for that intention these days instead of simply liking the music; when I was in my first year at uni, our contextual studies tutor (the subject that we had to write shit for as the rest of the course was practical) asked us to bring some music we had an emotional bond to and explain why. Everyone brought in laptops, iPods and CDRs, except one girl had a compilation CD. I was the only one there sitting with an actual album, let alone about ten because I couldn't decide before I left home what to play (eventually went with The Greys cause it's awesome and I got to explain the plot of the album with a totally straight face to a room full of hipsters with no sense of humour) Everyone else in the room liked the stuff they played, but they didn't actually seem to grasp the concept of supporting an artist...if anything, I looked a bit weird for having so many physical albums in my hands.

I'll make my debut post here I think! im 16 at the moment and I think me and about 2 or 3 of my other friends are the only people my age I know that buy CDs. Its a shame really, it always feels much more genuine buying the actual CD than downloading it. That said, I don't have the money to buy CDs all the time - I will often download something first and then if I like it buy the CD when I have the money.

Also, Fall is awesome!

We did kind of get off-topic a bit, didn't we? I agree, 'Fall' is beautiful. It's all floaty and spacey, then at the end I was "WTF?" Awesome and unexpected.

The end is awesome, the distorted effect gives it that feel of really old records, reminds of Dev's original vision of the guy alone on his own planet with an acoustic and an old gramaphone. Or I think thats what it was...?

Obviously, downloading is the 'in' thing to do, but is it common for kids to never buy CD's? Please explain this to a hopelessly out-of-touch dinosaur like me.

I download mainly as a way to discover new music. If I end up loving it, I buy the actual CDs afterwards. Unfortunately, as a 16 year old kid, I don't really have my own source of income so I'm a bit behind at the moment...

I have set aside money for Ghost and Decon (as well as Opeth's new album), though.

New DTP song from Ghost 2.

Fall

I'm so tired and this is the best thing right now.

New DTP song from Ghost 2.

Fall

I'm so tired and this is the best thing right now.

For me too - tired, sore, cranky...but this song is like a nice hot bath *relaxes*

One of her students nonchalantly disclosed that not only had he NEVER purchased a CD before, but he had never even felt the NEED to purchase one. Dude was 20 years old! (and he didn't download mp3 albums or songs either... only torrent downloads)

that's a damn shame. i have a few friends that don't buy too many CDs nowadays (if any) but they atleast USED to. Everytime i buy a CD that i already have downloaded, my friend goes "what the hell is wrong with you?" i guess it's just getting harder for people to comprehend the concept of owning something physical, to sit down and look at a booklet while listening to the CD and to support a band you really enjoy.

then again, i refuse to pay for porn when i can watch it for free online.

One of her students nonchalantly disclosed that not only had he NEVER purchased a CD before, but he had never even felt the NEED to purchase one. Dude was 20 years old! (and he didn't download mp3 albums or songs either... only torrent downloads)

that's a damn shame. i have a few friends that don't buy too many CDs nowadays (if any) but they atleast USED to. Everytime i buy a CD that i already have downloaded, my friend goes "what the hell is wrong with you?" i guess it's just getting harder for people to comprehend the concept of owning something physical, to sit down and look at a booklet while listening to the CD and to support a band you really enjoy.

then again, i refuse to pay for porn when i can watch it for free online.

Jumping into the CD discussion... part of the reason a lot of people don't buy anymore (I think) is because they don't get why they even should. As in, they've been raised in a world where music is 'free', for all intents and purposes (you can just download it - what's stopping you?) so when they see someone who actually paid for the music they listen to, they're like 'why would you pay for that when you could have it for free?' Since they were raised in this era, they don't get that, at one time, music was a physical product - something you had to BUY to listen to! You'd have to go over to your buddy's house and listen to his copy with him if he had an album you wanted/didn't have; there was no such thing as ripping files from a CD, or downloading torrents, etc. But since we live in a digital age, now, and media so quickly and easily distributed... the concept of actually paying for something that was once a product is foreign, to them, seeing as they can have it for free now. That's how all my friends see it, at least. If nothing else, just buy any version - physical or digital - just to support the artist in question! How else can they be expected to continue doing what they love, if they don't have the funds? They have to make a living too, obviously, so I'm pretty proud to say that I've gladly paid for every album I own and love... Dev's work included.

Speaking of myself - I buy physical copies of everything; I've never downloaded anything. Youtube and free streams (when available) more than do the job for me, if I'm looking to preview something; I don't feel right downloading the actual music (knowing it's... well... illegal) even if I wind up buying the album. Primarily, I pick up CDs; I'd go for vinyl in a heartbeat, but I enjoy having the digital files too - I like to be able to have both physical and digital copies of what I listen to. I have a Zune (yeah, I'm such a rebel!) because I'm a freak about audio quality, and I like to be able to put my headphones on and listen wherever... something I'm sure pretty much everyone here can relate to. For me, nothing beats the anticipation of previewing a track or two online, falling in love with what I hear, waiting for it to show up in the mail, and finally listening to the record in question and having my mind blown when it arrives. I love the really elaborate packaging some albums come in, too (those digibooks Kscope releases come in are gorgeous; that's how ALL CDs should be!); but I'm very well aware that I'm not the norm. Maybe it's just because I've grown up in a household where my folks have over 800 records on vinyl, 500 something on CD, and a ton of 'out-there' stuff in that collection like Zappa and King Crimson and whatnot, that I've grown up into what I am: someone who appreciates music as an art form, not to sound snobbish or anything.

It's everyone else's business, how they perceive music, but the whole downloading thing... it's sad, really. Steven Wilson can be very pretentious, at times (suggesting that there shouldn't be portable music players?) but he had a point in saying that it's sad how physical copies of albums these days are often pretty mediocre. CDs and vinyl aren't the main way of selling and distributing music, anymore (if anything, they're be becoming novelty items for people who want them) so why not make them a little bit more SPECIAL for the people who actually care to buy them? When all you get is a plastic case with a disc and booklet, and then you look at something like Porcupine Tree's Lightbulb Sun reissue (once again, in a beautiful digibook format) all your other albums just kind of... pale, in comparison. How music should be released, nowadays (I think) is for there to be two standard formats - digital, and elaborate physical. Digital as in file downloading, obviously; physical as in an expanded package that's a little bit more expensive, but with a LOT of thought put into it - in other words, a high-quality product that actually feels like it's worth it's price tag to the people who actually care to buy it. It'd kind of being a way to say 'thanks' to the people who still buy physical... and giving them (and others, too) more of a reason to consider buying physical. Make it look like a product; put MORE into it than what you can just download online, and you might see people start to become attracted to that format a little bit more...

...on and on...

On that note, some bands are starting to make physical copies of the CD more special or unique. Trent Reznor sold some pretty cool stuff for 200 dollars or something, and it was just some bonus stuff, and it all of them got picked up, as well as the cheaper packs, too. Radiohead recently did something similar. Along the same vein, Foo Fighters put a bit of mastertape in with their latest album, so if you bought a copy of the album, chances are you have a couple of milliseconds of Everlong or soemthing in there in the case, which I thought was pretty cool.

[Octillus]

I did some research on this the last semester at uni, and it seemed like the age span of entitled downloading is around 16ish or so to 25, whereas kids who are younger just have no idea that they're even stealing, and honestly most of them don't download, they mostly listen to things on YouTube.

This is almost entirely confirmed by my 11 year old brother, who has bands he loves (namely the Aquabats) and he was so entirely stoked to get a CD and a tshirt for his birthday. These are artifacts of things that he loved from YouTube in a permanent form, so he's so much more appreciative. Don't know if it's entirely the norm or anything, but locally it seems to be that way.

[The Dev]

these darn whippersnappers...why, when I was a boy, we had to walk to school...uphill!!...both ways !

um, yeah.

As long as it's heard, I'm stoked.

Ziltoid TV is the future!

these darn whippersnappers...why, when I was a boy, we had to walk to school...uphill!!...both ways !

Oh you! "Back in my day..."

[Octillus]

these darn whippersnappers...why, when I was a boy, we had to walk to school...uphill!!...both ways !

um, yeah.

As long as it's heard, I'm stoked.

Ziltoid TV is the future!

Only when it can be beamed directly to my mind.

these darn whippersnappers...why, when I was a boy, we had to walk to school...uphill!!...both ways !

um, yeah.

As long as it's heard, I'm stoked.

Ziltoid TV is the future!

I loved the old days, though. When I was a kid my parents would give me lunch money for school, but I'd just stash it away and mooch food from my friends. Both of my parents worked, so when I had enough money saved I'd ditch school, go down to the record store and buy a new album or two, then go home and just play them over and over again. I'd sit there with the stereo as loud as I could stand and the album cover in my hands just studying the artwork, the lyrics, and shit, even the credits. My friends would give me shit because I could tell them who mixed what album, who produced it, where it was recorded, who wrote what, who did the cover art/photography, who they thanked, etc.

The sense of pride one feels holding those albums, and the reverence one felt for them is a feeling that so many kids today will never know for themselves. I still feel that way when I get a new CD, and I feel the same way about books.

A kid could read this post, and they just wouldn't get it, because it is just something they have never had the opportunity to feel. It's something that can't be explained. Everything from the anticipation, the purchase, and then that first listen with the album cover in your hands is just a thousand times more special than any download could ever be. I'm glad I grew up in the 70's and 80's just for those experiences alone.