music formats

[johncomic]

I just read an article about how the CD is dying thanx to digital downloads, and it was also going on about how vinyl is making a comeback. Ostensibly this is on account of vinyl's superior sound quality.

Speaking as one who grew up on vinyl and remembers its scratches and crackles and skips... as one who was there when the CD came in, and we compared vinyl and CD versions side by side and were blown away by the CD's vastly superior sound quality [e.g., Queensrÿche's Operation:mindcrime -- listen to the vinyl and CD back to back, no comparison!]... I gotta say WTF??!!??

Comments

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

now, creators only need to make something good and stick it on the Web

...whereupon, those who find it and want it, download it -- and share it.

And the money for the creator comes in... where, Mr. Gaiman?

[ginsu.livejournal.com]

You might ask him at his site:

http://www.neilgaiman.com/feedback/?to=neil

Here is the quote I'm talking about:

http://www.consumingexperience.com/2008/11/neil-gaiman-on-piracy-vs-obscurity.html

"Now, there is no gatekeeper. There really isn't. You can get your writing in front of the world by posting it. All you have to be now is incredibly good and interesting and readable, which is a different challenge."

Now, what exactly he means by this is unclear.

Possibly he means "you can develop a following, receive no money thereby, but leverage the following to get credibility with conventional middlemen such as record labels and publishers, and from them, you can eventually obtain a career involving money."

His own solution, in the eighties when he was unknown, was much simpler and more conventional: He cozied up to successful people such as Douglas Adams and Alan Moore to get connections, and then he leveraged those connections.

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

Possibly he means you can develop a following, receive no money thereby, but leverage the following to get credibility with conventional middlemen such as record labels and publishers, and from them, you can eventually obtain a career involving money.

Sounds like a feasible explanation -- maybe the only feasible one.

I doubt that Eclipse would've published their one issue of Dishman had I submitted it to them cold. They came to me once I had established a following on my own... same general principle of credibility with conventional middlemen?

[ginsu.livejournal.com]

Even there, I think he is a bit mistaken, though.

Consider an example from your field: XKCD. Can't think of a more successful Web-based comic strip. Huge audience. And... it has not gotten its creator a lick of respect from the syndicates and certainly they don't represent it. No, the creator continue to do his own thing on his own platform.

How about money? Well, I don't know, of course, but I would be surprised if it generates even 5% of the annual take of, say, Cathy. That's just sad.

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

Well, online credibility is never necessarily a shoo-in with the middlemen, it's more of a potentiality...

I can believe that the syndicates feel that their audience for hardcopy newspaper strips and the audience for XKCD don't overlap much. They could be mistaken, but I can see them seeing it that way. XKCD never struck me as old-school mainstream humour.

[ginsu.livejournal.com]

According to Wired, it was getting 60+ million page views per month a year and a half ago.

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/news/2007/11/xkcd

That's a hell of a niche, my friend. I am reminded of how all the syndicates, but one, looked at Dilbert and said "Nah, too technical and specialized" and stamped it REJECT.