How Vinyl and iPods Ganged Up to Kill the Audio CD

NPR reported that CD sales tanked in 2010, particularly among younger buyers. The trend has continued until now and suggests that vinyl and iPods are sinking the audio CD into the so-called "fidelity belly," where mediocre products go to die.

[Image: Race to Obsolesence, David Lane.]

In his book Trade-Off, journalist Kevin Maney wote that a truly successful product provides either the richest user experience (fidelity) or the greatest convenience. Less successful products fall into what he labeled the fidelity belly, "the no-man's-land of consumer experience," characterized by commercial apathy, insufficient fidelity and insufficient convenience. (See diagram below right.)

Apple succeeds in the consumer computer market by providing the richest pre-sales experience in its retail stores. Dell and HP succeed by providing an ultra-convenient pre-sales experience online. Who is in the belly? Everyone else.

Sinking into the fidelity belly is essentially the fast track to obsolescence. Staying out of the belly is never assured, because customer expectations for fidelity and convenience constantly evolve.

While it may seem that the audio CD thrived for more than 20 years because of high fidelity, what it really offered over its fraternal twin on vinyl was convenience — better robustness, more portability, multi-disc changers, in-vehicle players, random/repeat play, remote control.

In the last decade the iPod arrived to match all the conveniences of the CD, adding small (and ever smaller) player size, ubiquitous portability, invisible storage, and greater (and ever greater) capacity. Nothing can match the convenience of weightless digital audio, now available in a variety of formats at both lower and higher resolution than CD quality (choice is convenient, too).

On several online forums catering to vinyl aficianados, I posed the question, "what is it about playing an LP that appeals to you?" After all, the fundamentals of record playback haven't significantly changed in 100 years. It isn't necessarily sound quality (except among self-described audiophiles). Almost unanimously, the response came back that the real appeal of vinyl stems from interaction with an LP as a satisfying physical object — large format album art, liner notes, even having to flip sides. Respondents were quite eloquent about it.

When was the last time you ever heard anyone wax rhapsodic about interacting with a CD? Has anyone ever considered a CD collectible for its nostalgia value or status as an art object? The audience for vinyl will keep it out of the belly by uniquely defining fidelity for themselves, establishing a multi-sense standard no other physical medium is likely to meet.

Thus the CD has been forced back along the convenience axis by dematerialized digital audio, forced down along the fidelity axis by vinyl, and ultimately swallowed up in the fidelity belly. It is now or will be soon become obsolete. (What to do with obsolete CDs? Here is one idea.) At least one study concluded that less than 10%  of listeners will be buying physical media in 2-4 years; that population will likely consist almost entirely of vinyl buyers, not CD buyers.

Way out in fidelity/convenience space is Maney's "fidelity mirage," a product that can deliver both super-high convenience and super-high fidelity. It is virtually impossible to do this in the commercial marketplace. Companies that attempt to reach the mirage usually fail and sink back into the belly.

But consider a high-resolution digital transfer of an LP, taken on the owner's own equipment, calibrated to his exact specifications, and restored in software to the best possible sound quality. The dematerialized result delivers super-high convenience, the original physical object retains its super-high fidelity. Is the fidelity mirage real?


            Vinyl-to-Digital Restoration #24           

Title: Social Studies

Artist: Carla Bley
Genre: Jazz
Year: 1981



Carla Bley (b. 1936) has composed and performed in a wide range of styles over her long career, including free jazz, jazz opera, political jazz with Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, and one of most beautiful Christmas records ever. But the music that resonates most with me comes from the large ensemble with the ever-shifting lineup known as The Carla Bley Band. Social Studies is a fine example of their work. But, of all my Carla Bley LPs, I really chose to highlight this one here for its cover art still life of endangered physical media.


© 2012 Thomas G. Dennehy. All rights reserved.

Transcending the Grade: Don't Judge an LP by Its Surface

On a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the most damaged and 10 being the least, what is the lowest score you would assign a (used) LP you would consider buying, or playing on a regular basis? How much wear and tear is acceptable to you?

Would your answer change if you only had to play the record once, to capture a high-resolution digital scan, and you could eliminate many forms of wear in post-processing with software and skill? For me, it does.

[Image: "Scar Tissue," Daniel S. Friedman.]


Vinyl record grading is serious business, based on a variety of systems and scales. I was surprised to learn that Good is usually a euphemism for "bad." A record in Good condition "can be played on a turntable without skipping, but it will have significant surface noise and scratches." One has to move up a couple grades to Very Good Plus to get a record "that shows signs that it was played and handled by a previous owner who took good care of it."

Subjective opinion has ecomonic impact. A record graded in Very Good Plus condition is typically worth 50% of an equivalent copy in Mint condition. The value of the same title in Good condition drops to 10% or less.

Trouble is, grading systems only assess the quality of the install disc—the atoms. They cannot assess the quality of the digital music image that can be fused—the bits. Tools and technology exist to capture a near-mirror image of Mint vinyl. Good technique — much of it automated — can often elevate the merely Good to Very Good or better.

In the course of ephemeralizing my own LPs and processing titles for friends and family, I've seen and corrected many forms of surface abuse. Very little scares me now. And that enables me to approach less-than-pristine LP titles in bargain situations (e.g. estate sales) and think with confidence, "I probably can't make you a great [recording], but I know I can make you a better [recording]." (All That Jazz)

Ask youself again, how much wear and tear is acceptable?

            Vinyl-to-Digital Restoration #18            

Artist: Elton John

Title: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Genre: Rock
Year: 1973

GYBR was Elton's John at his songwriting peak. Despite the age of the material, this title has only been in my dematerialized library for a couple months, purchased at an estate sale for $2. The physical LPs may only be in Good+ condition, but the bits extracted are Very Good indeed. I know it is possible to purchase a pristine 24-bit/96KHz FLAC download of GYBR, but this digital recording more accurately recreates the copy that was lost when my brother's basement flooded.

© 2012 Thomas G. Dennehy. All rights resserved.

Technology Can Make Virtual Goods Feel Physical. Is Physical Relevant?

You've ephemeralized all your LPs. You've ripped all your CDs. Once you've captured your entire music collection as bits only, are all those leftover atoms relevant?

A study conducted in Norway, Denmark and Sweden by Aspiro Music and Norstat reveals that a majority of music fans still value their physical past, even as they look toward the ephemeral future. Only a handful have banished the past entirely. And a significant minority have taken the first step toward banishment, though they can't quite let go.

[Image: Library den Haag.]


In a survey of 1000 people in each country, 60%-70% of responders (varying from country to country) said they still displayed their physical music collection. 1%-3% had already sold it, donated it, or trashed it. And 20%-30% said they had relegated the collection to bulk storage (basement, garage, etc.).

Technology has made at least part of my dematerialized music library — the part installed from LP — seem physical by preserving the sonic quality of vinyl. The physical discs themselves thus don't have much present value. They may have future value in the event I have to re-install the music in some disaster recovery scenario. But I want them out of the way, along with their fraternal twins the CDs. So I stand with the representative  25% of Scandinavians that have chosen out-of-sight storage for physical media.

Significantly, there is no specific provision in my estate plan covering the disposition of my physical media collections. But I do specifically designate that the dematerialized music collection be donated to my local municipal Library, reflecting my estimate of its lasting value.

The Aspiro/Norstat study concludes that fewer than 10% of respondents believe they will still be buying physical media in 2-4 years. There should be a cool way to show off your collection once completely dematerialized. Probably an app for that. Will you continue to display physical media collections in the future?


            Vinyl-to-Digital Restoration #16            

Artist: The Clash
Title: London Calling
Genre: Alternative
Year: 1979



At this point in my life, London Calling is not a title I would deliberately listen to start-to-finish. And as an LP, that would be my only listening alternative (at a minimum, listening to one side). Freed from its physical boundaries, each track now has the opportunity to mix and mingle with any other track in the library — offering a continental counterpoint to Jamaica in reggae playlists; or played opposite Big Audio Dynamite, Ellen Foley (see below) or even Johnny Cash. Some dismiss this playback style as aural wallpaper or lazy convenience. But how can illuminating and exploring musical connections be a negative?

            Vinyl-to-Digital Restoration #17            

Artist: Ellen Foley
Title: Spirit of St. Louis
Genre: Rock
Year: 1981



Some combination of Ellen Foley co-starring with Meat Loaf in Paradise by the Dashboard Lights, her TV/film acting credits, and the production presence of Mick Jones of The Clash (obliquely credited in the liner notes as, "Produced by My Boyfriend") convinced me to take a chance on this title. And, even after all these years, it does not disappoint.


© Copyright 2012 Thomas G. Dennehy. All rights reserved.

Metadata For Miles and I Still Can't Sort My Music Autobiographically

Metadata indexes and catalogs your music library.

The care and attention required to prepare and "plate" an LP digitally forges an intimate bond with the material that is hard to duplicate with titles acquired on CD or by download. That bond should be reflected in the completeness of your metadata.

These are hard-won bits. After you've carefully repaired old wear-and-tear, meticulously isolated and labeled all the tracks, and studiously supplied metadata, it's hard to dismiss your newly-ephemeralized title as just another entry in the library.

In contrast, ripping a CD is a mindless task. There are now robots available to do it for you, stacks of discs at a time. Downloading titles has become so easy their arrival has little impact. After purchasing Kate Bush's 50 Words For Snow on high-resolution download, I had to remind myself a week later that the bits had yet to be played. I can't imagine that kind of detachment after finishing an LP transfer, just as I feel more invested in a meal prepared from scratch than I do ordering takeout.

Metadata are the fields —  Artist, Title, Genre, Release Year, etc. — that enable media players to  index and catalog a music library automatically, providing constant-time access to all songs, no matter how large the collection. Virtually all CD ripping software has access to an online metadata source to supply the basics. In ephemeralizing LPs, the job of completing metadata falls to you, and the necessary time investment pays off.

In addition to the basic fields, jazz aficianados routinely complete the Contributing Artist field for a song (not universally available in online metadata sources) to track the dynamics of musicians moving from combo to combo. Enhanced metadata libraries with many extra fields for classical music are becoming available. Using metadata, collections can be sorted along any of the fields.

Yet, armed with all this information, I still can't sort my collection autobiographically — chronological by acquisition date. That information is deeply personal and uniquely revealing.

Imagine being able to go back and revisit your purchases, deduce what prior purchases or other factors influenced each decision. Did you buy artist B because s/he previously played with artist A on a title you liked? You could see exactly when particular artists came into your consciousness, or left it. An animated graph of the top 5 genres in your collection over time could show how your tastes evolved. The autobiographical sort would reveal more than any other slice through a person's library.

I'm sure there is someone reading this who has kept that information. In what personal ways do you catalog your music collection?

              Vinyl-to-Digital Restoration #13              

Title: Elaborations

Artist: Arthur Blythe
Genre: Jazz
Year: 1982

How did this album find it's way into my library? It would be a complete mystery unless you study the metadata. Most likely I sampled Arthur Blythe as a bandleader because he recorded as a sideman with Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition. Mr. DeJohnette, a 2012 NEA Jazz Master, is for me a trusted source due to his long association with Keith Jarrett and Gary Peacock in the so-called Standards Trio. But Mr. Blythe's presence in the library was "one and done," so Elaborations clearly didn't suit my taste at the time of acquisition. It may be a better fit now.

             Vinyl-to-Digital Restoration #14            

Artist: The Rolling Stones

Title: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll
Genre: Rock
Year: 1974

It wasn't until I ephemeralized this title, a birthday gift long ago in high school and long out of heavy rotation, that I realized that it contained the song, "Time Waits For No One." As an amateur creator of WDET-FM Music Head playlists, — which connect the metadata dots among songs — and restricting said lists only to content in my own library, I long sought to make the leap from artist Tom Waits to title, "Time Waits ..." And now I can.

© 2012 Thomas G. Dennehy. All rights reserved.

LPs and CDs are Just Install Discs for Music

Rather than being crushed as a relic of the past, vinyl can be an active participant in the digital music future. Let me explain.

Before I embraced my inner Detroit-ness and got into the automotive business, I worked for a CAD software company.

When I started, our products were mostly delivered as "shrink-wrapped software"—a sealed box containing a CD and a manual. You used the CD to install the software, then put it in back in the box and stored the package in a closet never to be seen again (barring the need to re-install after disaster).

In later years it became more common for customers to download an installer and purchase an authorization key to enable use. Today many software products have now been replaced with cloud-based software services, requiring no local installation.

The parallel to music is obvious. The industry has evolved from physical media to digital downloads to cloud-based streaming.

Now that dematerialized play is the norm in my house, my preferred delivery mechanism for music is a download in lossless format. If a lossless download is not available, I reluctantly purchase a CD. The CD is used exactly once, to "rip" its content to the Library, then stored away in a cabinet never to be seen again.

Basically, the audio CD has been reduced to an install disc for music.

If you enjoy the sonic characteristics of vinyl but want the cool features of dematerialized play, the LP can just as straightforwardly be a music install disc for a given title, using a high-quality digital transfer process. For me, that covers all music purchased before 1985 or so. But an LP can be used to install new releases from artists like The Black Keys, She & Him, Leonard Cohen, Wilco, and the late Amy Winehouse — all available on vinyl.

While ripping a CD is a mindless install operation — a background task — the LP install process requires your full attention: recording at high resolution, carefully repairing old wear-and-tear, meticulously isolating and labeling tracks for export, and studiously suppying metadata. An LP is "decidedly invonvenient, which is the very reason it appeals." (Eric Felton)

Another example of how CDs and LPs are fraternal, but not identical twins.

               Vinyl-to-Digital Restoration #2              

Title: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Artist: Vince Guaraldi Trio
Genre: Jazz/Christmas
Year: 1965

There are two CD copies of A Charlie Brown Christmas somewhere in my house. But when it came time to install this title in my dematerialized Library, I decided to dub the old LP copy rather than ripping a CD. Like the homely Christmas tree selected by Charlie Brown, all the LP needed was a little love to make it shine.

© 2012 Thomas G. Dennehy. All rights reserved.