成仙之路

This morning I played Radiohead’s most recent album, “In Rainbows”, on the way to work and felt that I did appreciate more than listened to it randomly from iTune. I was dragged into the vibe, and had sacred feeling that I had before. In stead of “listening” to the album, I’d rather say that I was “worshiping” it.

Would you rather prefer to buy CDs or download mp3s? Since most people have access to internet nowadays, downloading mp3 seems to become mainstream. Why? It’s fast, easy, cheaper, and even free. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to encourage illegal downloading here, but it seems that mp3s will soon substitute physical CD Albums. Well, it is sad when it comes true.

I’m kind of in the middle of buying albums and downloading mp3s. Which way is better? Of course there is never a right or wrong answer. However, by examining the purposes of each one, I still believe that buying physical albums makes you appreciate the music more.

To me, downloading mp3s is a convenient way to sample new music that I was curious about. I used to buy music albums blindly just by reading critiques and by looking at their packaging designs. Very often, I would set them aside and would never listen to them since they didn’t sound like what I expected. It was simply a waste of money. Thanks to iTune that provides great collections of music in various genres, artist bios, and discographies. It truly broadened my knowledge of music.

Buying physical music album is not only for it’s music, but also is for the message, concept, and design of which the artist ought to deliver. Listening to the entire album in the original order instead of listening randomly from your iTune or mp3 player, you get to enjoy the entire production of the whole album from the music itself- melody, lyric, arrangement, track order, influence, to visual communication- photographs, graphic design, promotional video, etc. Everything matters.

Therefore, I do still see the necessity of buying physical albums as a serious music fan. Downloading mp3 is just a quick and easy way to explore new music and find rarities. Good records need our support so that it makes more sense for artists to continue making greater works.