Forum wk 1

This week's forum raised some interesting issues, one which I have contemplated in some detail. We were looking at the nature of technology and how it affects our consumption of music. Today finds music more accessible than ever before in history courtesy of developments in recording technology and distribution through the internet. Some wonder if the ease of access to music has lessened its value. Certainly, the live performance has suffered from the recording (although more recently there has been an increase in live concert going as the record companies lose their stranglehold on music distribution to the internet). The other intrigue is the issue of fidelity. Up until about ten years ago, the quality of fidelity consistently improved. Then audio quality reached a point where the fine tuning of clarity became imperceivable to Joe Average, since then, the masses have in sacrificed quality in favour of ease of access and reduced cost (in the form of MP3 files shared over the internet). I have also seen people sacrifice fidelity through their play back devices. The MP3, headphone combo that has infiltrated the mainstream in the form of the ipod, listening to songs played back through mobile phone speakers and, my own personal dilemma, play back through crappy laptop speakers. In my own case, I often lament the reduced quality of playback but, without an easily accessible speaker system, make compromise in order to still be able to listen to music in some form. I have also had it suggested to me that the fact that people are happy to sacrifice fidelity is a compliment to the quality of the music that has been captured. That they are able from an incomplete image to still get full enjoyment from a song is testimony to the value that music has in our lives.