I'm really beginning to hate the digital age, if for nothing else, than they just cut out the music in CD form.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Maestro Sartori:
Are we seeing the death of movie music (NOT THE WEBSITE), but of soundtrack and score releases? Are we not able to collect those scores we love anymore?

I'm really beginning to hate the digital age, if for nothing else, than they just cut out the music in CD form.

What do you guys think?

---

I am not a fan of downloads. I like having a physical product on my shelf. I like being able to unwrap it and pop it in a CD player. It seems I wont be getting that pleasure anymore...

But the other big thing I don't like is them compressing crap. If the downloads were lossless, then I might not complain as much. But they're clearly not.

So now we have CD's being released in lower quality, without any packaging, and for about $2-$5 less than they'd be if we bought them in a regular store or ordered them online.

You ask an interesting question, and everyone you ask, I’m willing to bet will have a different answer. On a whole, we still get releases (that more and more seem to be bland an uninteresting, more on that in a few), but if you’re talking about physical product vs online (eg: Up, Where The Wild Things Are, A Christmas Carol), that’s all about dollars and cents IMO.

Just by the fact that CDs are a physical product, they must cost more to produce. I said in a thread about “Up” that I’m sure it was more profitable for Disney to publish it as a online only release because they probably figured it would not sell millions of copies like the latest Hannah Montana CD. I’m not against digital, I simply prefer a CD because I can control what format I get my music in that way....and c’mon, it looks good on a shelf for us collectors . Both Amazon and iTunes force the buyer into a single format and bit rate, this bothers me. As a consumer, I don’t like being locked into a format (unless I do it myself). I personally use 320 mp3s for my collection these days, but one day I might wanna change it up to something better like AAC. A large project for sure, but I can’t do that with online products. Sure I can convert to AAC files, but the bit rate is already set. That’s my biggest complaint with online releases.

This same argument is being made with movies. Streaming vs iTunes vs physical product. I think each market is different and there’s no real answer. I was reading over at The Digital Bits overview on Blu-Con this year, and the current trend of thought is that all of these things can co exist together. Each has a target market and appeal to different groups and I think that’s true. At the very least, it gives us as consumers more ways to get content. Be it music or movies, which I think is great.

As for film music in general, I think we’ve reached a plateau. I get more excited about the limited editions coming from Intrada, LaLa, Varese and FSM more then a normal current year release. Sure there are some gems this year (Star Trek and BSG:4 to name two) that are awesome releases, but as a whole, I look back on 2009 and there’s not really a lot there IMO, and I find that I listen to the collectors editions I’ve bought more then ’09 stuff. I think all music has times like this, and when studios demand more and more “cut and paste/temp track” music, as with all things creativity goes down. I think it’s going to take the next generation of filmmakers, to get things going in the direction of intelligent, good orchestral writing again.

That said, I am looking forward to Horner’s “Avatar”

Anyway, I gotta get back to work Just wanted to offer my two cents. Great topic though, I hope we see some interesting discussion.

--Brian

NP: Transformers

Don't get me wrong, I've spent plenty of money on music this year, just not anything current.

Another thought about digital downloads, since we live in a world of instant everything, it's nice to be able to walk out of a movie and grab the score on your phone. While I don't do it since I usually have the CD already or on order, it's nice to have that instant connection with what you've just seen.

Clay, you should read my "Potter 6" review.

--Brian

NP: Transformers

In the past year or so we tried, but were turned down on the following projects:

AUGUST RUSH
BATMAN/SUPERMAN PUBLIC ENEMIES
NATIONAL TREASURE 2
DISTRICT 9
TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE
JULIA AND JULIE

And, if we could release them:

UP
CHRISTMAS CAROL
LEGEND OF THE SEEKER

Sadly, this is the way things are going. You can hear those last nails being hammered in.

I still don't think physical CDs are going anywhere anytime soon (give it 10 years though and we'll see) but I defiantly think companies are being more selective and it's very much on how many it will sell, especially when soundtracks are concerned. Then again I do get surprised sometimes, case and point Horner's "The Boy In The Striped Pajamas." One of his best scores in recent memory, not to mention a very powerful and moving film. That one deserved (and still does) a CD release.

MV brings up a good point. Smaller labels should be allowed to take some releases even if they are limited. Case and point their "Alvin and the Chipmunks" score disc. Which is awesome by the way.

quote:

---

Originally posted by La La Land Records:
What is frustrating is that there are companies like mine that WOULD do a physical cd release... hell, even at a limited level if we were able to.

In the past year or so we tried, but were turned down on the following projects:

AUGUST RUSH
BATMAN/SUPERMAN PUBLIC ENEMIES
[u]NATIONAL TREASURE 2[/u]
DISTRICT 9
TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE
JULIA AND JULIE

And, if we could release them:

UP
CHRISTMAS CAROL
LEGEND OF THE SEEKER

Sadly, this is the way things are going. You can hear those last nails being hammered in.

MV

---

That release really annoyed me. I felt like if it was a real release and not a digital one, we probably would've got more music instead of this little 20 minute release. Plus the cover art was terrible if I remember right...

It is sad that labels like La La Land get turned down so that they can do digital only releases. I'd much rather purchase something from them than to have a digital download.

[Message edited by scoreguy16 on 11-09-2009]

MovieScore Media learned quickly that digital releases only simply don't pay off. People still regard MSM as a "digital label", but in fact almost all of our releases are available on CD.
http://www.moviescoremedia.com

Cheers,

Sounds like reason and logic got ahold of those guys

Good job! Oh, and happy belated birthday

--Brian