A
New Kind of Record Collection
A
Forty-something Goes Digital
by
Kevin Sutton
I have been nuts
about records since I was a baby. My mother tells me that I
learned to read from record labels. When in 1986, I got a job
in a record store to pay for graduate school, I was doomed
to amass a ridiculously large collection of recorded music.
Never one to resist change, I have always embraced new technologies,
although I have seldom given up the old ones either. I just
keep adding on.
As you might recall,
1986, the year of my first record store gig, was the beginning
of the end for the long playing record. CDs had taken a strong
hold, and had become the medium of choice for music-lovers.
It was as important then for an old favorite album to come
out in the new format as it was for an artist to release something
new. During many discussions about changing formats and the
future of recorded music, I made a prediction. I predicted
that there would come a time when all forms of music storage
that could go on a shelf would become obsolete, and that eventually,
music would be stored in a giant data base, and that users
would pay either a subscription fee, or a per-use fee to access
the music. Nothing would ever have to go out of print, and
for a nominal cost, you could access millions of recordings
at will.
With the ipod now
practically ubiquitous, the age of the music collection is
seeing the beginning of its end. And now, Real Networks have
introduced Rhapsody and a set of sleek portable devices
to go along with it. My prophecy has come true, and alas, I
didn’t patent it first!
Rhapsody (see website) is
a music subscription service which can be yours for only $9.99
a month if you wish to stream it from your computer. For $15
a month, you can transfer files to a portable device. SanDisk
makes a series of MP3 players especially designed for use with
Rhapsody that range in price from about $130-240, depending
on the amount of storage you choose and the kinds of features
you select. The units are compatible with other MP3 files,
photographs and video files, and they all have the capacity
for additional memory. The devices are sleek, sexy and easy
to use and remarkably compact, far more so than the standard
iPod. The portable players can also be plugged into a docking
station or a set of self-powered portable speakers so that
they can be used without headphones.
Rhapsody’s library
of music is immense. They boast over a million songs in dozens
of genres, but since this is Musicweb-International I will
stick with classical music for our purposes here. Thus far,
I have yet to search for a piece of music on Rhapsody’s server
and not find it. Most times there are multiple performances
from which to choose, and the available recordings range from
classic performances by the likes of Herbert von Karajan and
Artur Rubinstein et. al. to the most recent recordings by the
likes of Christian Thielemann. Many labels, Naxos for example,
have their entire catalogue available, which is kind of surprising
since they offer a subscription service of their own. (Naxos
Radio, see www.naxosusa.com for more information.).
A number of labels are now issuing recordings specifically
aimed at the MP3 market, and these are readily available on Rhapsody.
Now, one might
ask what the benefits of such a service are. Here are the most
important points as I see them:
Storage - My Rhapsody MP3
player is the size of a credit card
and weighs four ounces. Compare that
to my collection of some five thousand
CDs and LPs and you now see that having
my entire collection on my laptop has
some appeal.
Practical use -
I have approximately 170 days worth of 24 hour music listening
in my personal collection. Given that I listen to music for
about two hours a day on a good day, it would take me four
years to listen to everything in my collection once. Given
that the average CD costs about fifteen bucks, I am not really
getting a very good return on my investment. With the subscription
service, I have twenty-four hour access to nearly everything
in my personal collection and literally thousands of items
that I don’t own. And I get to use all this music whenever
I want to for the yearly cost of twelve compact discs.
Portability - My MP3 player
goes anywhere I go, and if I want to
listen without headphones, I only need
my laptop and my speakers. All of which
I take with me whenever I travel, which
is frequently. It all fits in my carry-on
baggage, and I have a huge music library
with me wherever I go.
Of course, I still
love my CD collection, and I would never give it up, and I
will certainly continue to add to it. However, for a person
who has limited space and funds, the subscription service model
is ideal. You get practically unlimited musical choices for
the cost of one meal a month in a restaurant. Given the number
of CDs that continue to get released, I don’t see the demise
of the format any time soon, but services such as Rhapsody, make
for an excellent alternative to those huge collections of plastic.
© Kevin Sutton,
2006
Editor's Note - Rhapsody's online
servcie is currently restricted to residents of the United States.
