music you can touch
I used to have a big thing about vinyl. I suppose I'll always love it but I now appreciate the ease and convenience of buying and 'sharing' music with my laptop. I bought more CD's as presents than I ever did for myself and MD's didn't figure. Recently I was talking to my old buddy Ian about all of this and he was reminding me the implications for people like him when you share music online. Now-a-days bands like his have to tour and tour to make any money because fewer and fewer people buy music. Maybe that's why there are so many festivals this summer. When I first started using the MP3 format I was away in Japan and I downloaded my old record collection from other users of the shareware I used. Of course you don't stop there and eventually I started stealing and got into the harder stuff. Airing my record collection has been a revelation - the crackle on my Technics turntable, having to get up and turn the record over, raking through all the big art to choose what's next, gatefolds, even some ltd edition Jamie Hewlitt prints from my Senseless Things phase!