It's worth mentioning the synchronicity of the other day - 25th April 2011
  • First thing - get mix back online from Glen of my track This Is The Way for my new album. Upload it to Soundcloud to keep as a master.
  • Morning - I'm moving closer to London so I do huge clearout of my own physical CD stock along with other CD's I've bought. Most of my stuff sells online these days. Bin bags are filled with shiny things and plastic.
  • Early afternoon - I submit a new mix of a track, Big Empty Houses, to Abbey Road Online Mastering for finishing touches. I notice that the Soundcloud integration with Abbey Road doesn't work. It's a business challenge for them both as they both want to be the master holding party of your audio masters.
  • Afternoon - I switch on the television and see that Norio Ohga, the inventor of the CD, has died aged 81.
Timely.

The CD is disappearing and the death of the inventor puts the full stop on the CD eulogy. This isn't big news of course as we increasingly see CD's disappearing from shops and peoples shopping bags. Folks can iGet what they iWant from online. 500 Cd's on iPod is way preferable to lugging them around in your a) family home b) bedsit c) caravan

Our prized DVD, Blue Ray, TripleDepthDataMagnets will all be ushered from the physical stores and our bookcases into black bin bags. Video and film will not escape the cloud either. The invisible data pipes are getting faster and wider and we are pulling our dreams and lifestyle trinkets down from the computer hum in the skies. It's all in 'the cloud'.

Only the cloud is quick enough - to audition, buy, listen and share among machines and people. Everything else is yesterday.

The CD was a bit of a p*ss take really and for a good 10 years the major labels re-released all their existing material and made a tonne of cash. The need to develop artists was lost somewhere as an imperative and this was one of the two deathblows that was rendered to record companies by CD. The second was when everyone with a computer learned the words 'rip', 'upload', 'ftp' and Napster. Independent fiddles played while they burned.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing either. Music technology and expression is living up to the philosophy of

'it's not about the destination - it's the journey you take along the way'


It's not about the plastic and silver discs. It's how you let music affect you - how you wear your hair, walk, talk, debate and gyrate - it's everything but the plastic disc.

Demi-gods of the Cloud don't need the hardware to weigh them down.

The format is dead - long live the new format!



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