I think any of us that have been a music obsessive long enough to watch the MP3 age rear up and take hold will have a strong opinion on the topic of what was gained and what was lost with that new burst of technology. Sasha Frere-Jones wanted to present a variation of this idea to Jonny Greenwood on his blog for the New Yorker, in which they discuss the MP3's effect on audio quality levels and implications that stem from that. Here's an excerpt of it, but I would highly recommend checking out the rest of the interview by clicking the link below. It's a good read and an interesting concept to think about. Do we care that we get more music, but the sound quality can be sub-par? Is that a valid trade-off? Is better quality, actually a concern to most people? Think about it.
SFJ: What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of the MP3 age?
JG: The downside is that people are encouraged to own far more music than they can ever give their full attention to. People will have MP3s of every Miles Davis’ record but never think of hearing any of them twice in a row—there’s just too much to get through. You’re thinking, “I’ve got ‘Sketches of Spain and ‘Bitches Brew’—let’s zip through those while I’m finishing that e-mail.” That abundance can push any music into background music, furniture music.
Link for the article here
Via GrandGood