Starbucks Bails on CD Sales
Starbucks recently announced that they will stop selling CDs at the registers of their 21,000+ retail coffee shops around the world. Quoth a Starbucks representative: “We will stop selling physical CDs in our stores at the end of March. Music will remain a key component of our coffeehouse and retail experience, however we will continue […]
Hi Rez at CES
It’s been a few years since I last had the opportunity to visit the annual high-end audio orgy at the Venetian hotel at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. So I was very pleased to get out there for the 2015 edition. I was also pleased to discover that the CD transport continues to […]
Free Streaming Under Fire
People prefer to listen to songs for free. But now the music industry is rethinking its strategy of making popular music available for free via ad-supported online streaming services. High-powered pop star Taylor Swift pulled her music from the Spotify platform in November. This could lead others to follow suit, as it appears that big-time […]
Multi-Format Generation
My three-year old daughter, Lucy, and I listened to the Sound of Music soundtrack on vinyl the other afternoon. She has been listening to vinyl and enjoying the cover art since the day she was born. (She’s about 18 months in the photo.) She also has lots of CDs and DVD/BluRays. I recently had the […]
Japan Still Loves CDs!
Who knew that a squad of young Japanese girls wearing saucy Brazilian cheerleader outfits could save a dying technology? A recent New York Times article reports that AKB48, a popular Japanese group (pictured – photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP), has sold CDs containing tickets to its performances, encouraging fans to buy multiple copies. A cunning strategy indeed. Japan […]
Top 6 Side-2 Lead Tracks (conclusion)
These three songs round out my top side-2 lead tracks. I’ve also added some bonus coverage… “Street Fighting Man” – Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet Here are a case where the lead track on side two was also the lead single for the album. (It was the only single released from Beggars.) This is one of […]
Top 6 Side-2 Lead Tracks (Pt 1)
One of the great things that I love about the vinyl LP is the running order, or sequencing, of songs. Sequencing is one of the underappreciated components of an album; to me it’s as important as selecting the track to be featured as the single. With the vinyl LP you get the added bonus of […]
Top 5 Rock Drummers
I’ve always said that rock and roll is about kick drum and bass. Rhythm, after all, is the key definer of style. So it’s fitting that the first list I post is comprised of my favorite drummers from my world of rock. 1. Ringo Starr My first obsession was with the Beatles. I started out […]
Neil Young vs. Low-Rez Drugs
Neil Young has seen the needle and the damage done. The classic rocker has written extensively about the impact of drugs in the music industry. Now he’s taking on a new drug scourge — the MP3 file. MP3s were recently likened to methamphetamine by Steve Silberman of AudioQuest, maker of hifi interconnects for audio and […]
CD Format Still has Value
Easter isn’t the only holiday celebrated this weekend. This Saturday, April 19, is Record Store Day. It will be the seventh annual celebration of brick-and-mortar music shopping and, more importantly, of the enduring appeal of music in a physical format. Nielsen SoundScan data show that vinyl records represented the only music format that increased in […]