[atlantaprog] Re: Fwd: [ARTNEWS] the death of classical music

Allen Welty-Green wrote:

I think it's also a matter of technology. The repertoire is not getting any bigger (sadly, but that's another thread). But there has been a steady market for new versions of the old warhorses thanks to advances in recording and playback technology. I think in recent years we've reached a plateau in sound quality. I think most people's ears aren't discerning enough to hear an audible difference in , for instance CDs and DVD-audio - so very few classical fans are going to be inclined to by new versions of things they already own. The market for new classical recordings is essentially only a small group of audiophiles and classical music *geeks* (to use a term from the article) - not enough to sustain a major-label market.



Absolutely. The change from vinyl to CD was HUGE! Not only in terms of quality, but in terms of space too. Now you can get a double CD as opposed to one of those old vinyl box sets consisting of 5 vinyl records. And switching them was easy. The jump in convenience and sound quality was a MJOR LEAP. The change from CD to SACD or DVD-A is sound quality that may or may not be at all discernable. The only cool thing is the 5.1 format. However, you can't currently listen to 5.1 in your car, and there are still 2 competing standards. Even though I imagine that within the next 5+ years we will have 5.1 sound systems in our cars that will play CDs, and DVD-A/SACD, mp3CDs, etc. how much would it suck to amass a large collection of SACDs only to find out that the "winnning standard" turns out to be DVD-A or vice-versa. There was no real "cometition for standards" when CDs came out. I just don't see big reasons for people to rebuy their collection.

Brain21


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