[Ti] iTunes 4.6...

[Peter Krug]

>
>Does the possibility that the visual aspects of music may be lost as a
>result of the shift towards downloadable music worry the everyday consumer?
>Or does it only worry designers?
>

I think the switch to CD's from lp's had already started to put the 
nail in the coffin.  Let's see - the dark side of the moon lp 
included a poster, Zeppelin's albums had multiple insets/cutouts 
(physical graffiti), a spinning wheel of fun (III) and a neat paper 
bag (In through the out door).  None of this was available on CD. 
Not to mention the cutouts in Sgt. Pepper or the amazing artwork in 
Yes albums.  When's the last time you bought an lp?  The visual 
aspects of music died with the CD (sure you still get liner notes 
with the CD package, but a true fan is going to scour the internet to 
get as much info as they can on their favorite artists anyway, so 
nothing is lost there).

The visual aspect of music for the next generation is G-Force.

I for one like the album art in iTunes for making mix CD covers with 
lots of mini-covers (the low quality art is okay when it's small). 
BTW, as crazy as it sounds, walmart.com's music store seems to have 
the highest quality album covers available for cut/paste into iTunes.

The worst thing about iTunes, IMHO, is that the intended sound 
quality of music will be lost on the listeners as they reduce 
bitrates to try to cram more music on computers and devices.

Peter
-- 
A little computer haiku:
I can't remember
the last time I restarted
I love OS X

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