Seems to me T Bone Burnett is often confusing the mp3 format and quality with the internet. The quality that audio was recorded has nothing to do with the internet.
I can definitely hear the difference between a tape recording and a mp3 recording and I will always take the mp3.
“I would not advertise myself… I would not market myself.” Wow, I guess he just wants to play by himself in his basement the rest of his life. How do you plan to get those great tape recordings heard by your fans if you plan not to advertise or market yourself?
I hope you are not managing any new, up and coming bands. Because I will never hear about them.
Yesterday, T Bone Burnett was stuck on a plane for five hours and took a moment to respond to just about every single Hypebot reader that mocked him for the somewhat shocking advice that he offered to musicians at the FMC Policy Summit. If you don’t recall, he basically said that the best counsel he could offer an up-and-coming artist in today’s climate is to, “Stay completely away from the Internet.” Don’t bother uploading your music to MySpace, because the second that an artist does, they’ve instantly devalued it. I’ve taken the time to curate some of his best quotes and hope that I don’t misrepresent his views by isolating some of his most interesting insights:
If you are a musician, I am on your side. I am fighting for a fairer, more ethical future for musicians. I have been doing this for a long time, and I have to say, in all honesty, that as larcenous as the record companies have been, the internet makes them look like Robin Hoods. I am fully aware of the possibilities of putting together and managing a database on the Internet.
The Internet is a powerful tool for sharing information- great for research. It is, however, an indisputable fact that digital technology does not capture music as fully as analogue technology. If one can’t hear the difference between a tape recording and an mp3, he should not quit his day job.
Digital is not the end of technology. In my view, for music, it is a detour. There are better sounding, more stable, more robust technologies to store music available now, and there are many possibilities for the future… If I were just starting out today, knowing what I know now, I would have nothing to do with the internet… I would not advertise myself… I would not market myself. I would spend every minute of the day I could playing and listening to music. Learning. Getting better…
Musicians deserve better. The audience deserves better. If you are a musician, YOUR audience deserves better… The future of music is analogue. Guitars are analogue. Pianos are analogue. Drums are analogue. Music is analogue. We are analogue.
I am fighting to make the world sound better. The quality of the sound of recorded music has fallen off close to a hundred percent in the last twenty years, and we all suffer from that reality. Though I would wish it to be so, I do not believe that the internet is ushering in a world of peace and harmony and community.
At the moment it looks most like an advertising platform. The internet, is at this moment, an amateur medium. I trust that someday, this internet, or another one, will turn into something strong and filled with beauty and truth. As things stand, though there are the occasional bright spots, it is fragile and filled with nonformation. We can see this by the defensiveness (and offensiveness) of many of its proponents.
At any rate, by any standards, it is a medium of extremely low quality, as exemplified by the unlistenable mp3 format.
I hope you’re right. I hope this internet or another one works out. A lot of people are putting a lot of blind faith in it. For all the good that can come of connectivity in terms of community and shared information and research, there is as great or greater a potential for evil as we must see clearly by even the most cursory examination of the subject. So far… I would say that the internet has failed to deliver on its promise. I have high hopes that that will change. I’m just not counting on it. At any rate, I am not talking about going backward, I am talking about going forward.
I want to assure and reassure you that I am fully alive to all of this.
Onward.
T Bone Burnett
via T Bone Burnett Responds: “Musicians Deserve Better. The Audience Deserves Better.” – hypebot.
Even in the days before mp3s and ipods the average person spent at most a few hundred dollars on their stero system and speakers (often far less) I’m not convinced that I’m going to be blown away by the different between an analog recording and a digital mp3 file on my crappy $100 sony car stereo (with the same speakers the car came from the factory with) or my equally crappy $150 “surround sound” system (In quotes because I didn’t set it up properly and all the speakers are sitting in front of the tv) which is as close as I have to a cd player in my house (unless you count the cd drives in my computers!)
I just think people like T Bone Burnett and Steven Wilson (who is also not a fan of the mp3) forget is that as audiophiles they are somewhat out of touch with how the rest of the world listens to music.
T-bone didn’t mention the 8 track.
I know my Maxell Gold tapes from 30 years ago sound just like new and blow away my mp3 files, lol.
For the audio side of the debate, he’s 200% correct. Even higher quality mp3s are complete crap. They come nowhere near the quality of the analog recordings. Most people are simply to lazy to care and it’s sad and disgusting.
As for the marketing online, he’s implying ruining your music for the sake of promotion or fame isnt worth having your music sound like shit. He’s half right. But if the listeners are too lazy to care theres not alot we can do about it. The internet is a necessary evil, just like labels. Stranglehold. I can only hope we live to see something more.
Right or wrong the battle about audio quality is lost. The average person on the street with white earbuds does not care, they want convenience over quality.
I’d agree that its lost – For now. But we as artist need to continue to fight the battle. We owe it to our children and grandchildren. I have high hopes for Neil Youngs “Pono”. The difference is noticable to even the most untrained ear. We’ve seen a massive decline in hard copy sales but a surge in vinyl sales. Hope is not lost.
First let me say I have over 1000 vinyl albums. It is a mistake to think that vinyl will ever approach what it was in the past. Vinyl sales will not make a dent in overall music sales. It is now just a collectible and will never be a primary method for listening to music. Why? It’s not portable. Who has a turntable? The method of consuming music has moved on and no matter how hard artists fight, it won’t return. You have to step out of your shoes and into the shoes of the 13 year old on the street… they don’t care. They want the music fast and easy on their iPhone. The greater battle is to just get consumers to even buy music and that is another entire mess the labels will not admit to causing and are doing nothing to solve. Forget the format, just get people to buy.