I've just brought the new Coldplay CD from Play.com and I think it's pretty good. It's very Coldplayish but there are no stunners like "Fix You". But this post isn't about the music it's about the media it's played on.
The problem with Mylo Xyloto is that Coldplay have ruined my enjoyment of it by having a number of short intro tracks. These tracks, which are about a minute long, have their own title and the end of them leads directly to a main four minute song. This is all well and good while listening to the CD from start to finish but on an MP3 player it sounds somewhat rubbish, unfinished. This is because a lot of music players can't cope with the jumping from one track to another very well and have a tiny gap in-between tracks. And let's not forget that most players can play tracks randomly. This means that all these tracks either suddenly stop when the music has just built up or they start abruptly with no intro. It's simply annoying. Of course, we don't want to put limits on music artists telling them not to have tracks that lead into other tracks, that would be ridiculous. Many classical and movie sound tracks are like this and other artists such as Queen and Snow Patrol have tracks leading into others.
Then there is the extended track at the end of the CD. These are either monotonous drivel or simply nothing, no music, just empty tracks taking up CD space. Sony do this a lot and I think the reason why they do this is because some years back when CD burners first came out they could only successful record on to short play recordable CDs (60 minutes). Long albums couldn't be recorded. Therefore, I think studios continue this annoying habit to try and prevent CD copying which isn't a problem these days because CD burners can record to almost anything. Then, when you rip the CD to your MP3 library you have to contend with this enormous track with 6 minutes of nothing at the end or in the middle of two songs. Kasabian have done this and I think Robbie Williams has also (both Sony).
Another thing is cost. How come a CD is cheaper to buy than the downloaded version? I mean there is the cost of all that plastic and the sleeve and then the cost of transporting it to the shop and some bod unpacking and stacking it on the shelf and the rent of shops and warehouses. All these costs are redundant with a music download. So, what do you get with your download? Nothing or maybe the album art, which is free anyway yet you may have to pay an extra pound or two.
I think it's about time the humble CD and download got an update. For a start they should contain much more information such as lyrics, photos and bios. The CD sleeve has this information so why not add it to the media itself? Then there is the ability to link tracks together; a way to say to the player that track A should be followed by track B and don't play track D without playing track C first. Of course, player will need to be updated but that is the easy part.
The problem with Mylo Xyloto is that Coldplay have ruined my enjoyment of it by having a number of short intro tracks. These tracks, which are about a minute long, have their own title and the end of them leads directly to a main four minute song. This is all well and good while listening to the CD from start to finish but on an MP3 player it sounds somewhat rubbish, unfinished. This is because a lot of music players can't cope with the jumping from one track to another very well and have a tiny gap in-between tracks. And let's not forget that most players can play tracks randomly. This means that all these tracks either suddenly stop when the music has just built up or they start abruptly with no intro. It's simply annoying. Of course, we don't want to put limits on music artists telling them not to have tracks that lead into other tracks, that would be ridiculous. Many classical and movie sound tracks are like this and other artists such as Queen and Snow Patrol have tracks leading into others.
Then there is the extended track at the end of the CD. These are either monotonous drivel or simply nothing, no music, just empty tracks taking up CD space. Sony do this a lot and I think the reason why they do this is because some years back when CD burners first came out they could only successful record on to short play recordable CDs (60 minutes). Long albums couldn't be recorded. Therefore, I think studios continue this annoying habit to try and prevent CD copying which isn't a problem these days because CD burners can record to almost anything. Then, when you rip the CD to your MP3 library you have to contend with this enormous track with 6 minutes of nothing at the end or in the middle of two songs. Kasabian have done this and I think Robbie Williams has also (both Sony).
Another thing is cost. How come a CD is cheaper to buy than the downloaded version? I mean there is the cost of all that plastic and the sleeve and then the cost of transporting it to the shop and some bod unpacking and stacking it on the shelf and the rent of shops and warehouses. All these costs are redundant with a music download. So, what do you get with your download? Nothing or maybe the album art, which is free anyway yet you may have to pay an extra pound or two.
I think it's about time the humble CD and download got an update. For a start they should contain much more information such as lyrics, photos and bios. The CD sleeve has this information so why not add it to the media itself? Then there is the ability to link tracks together; a way to say to the player that track A should be followed by track B and don't play track D without playing track C first. Of course, player will need to be updated but that is the easy part.
One last thing and I know this is a weak argument but it does make some sense. When you buy a CD what are you buying? You are not buying the songs because you don't own them, you only own the right to listen to them. If you loose or damage a CD you have to buy another one. This is surely wrong. If you buy the media but don't own the rights to the music then shouldn't you be able to get another copy if you can't play it any more? Buying music (and video) is somewhere between renting and buying. It wouldn't be a problem if you could backup the CD to a cheap writeable CD-ROM which you use without the worry of getting it lost or stolen. Although, if you could get replacements from the studio then where would it stop? You could argue that your old vinyl or cassettes could all be replaced with CDs and that simply isn't going to happen. Downloads are fine though because you can always download the music again if you can remember were you brought it from.
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