As I grew up through the Internet age, I witnessed the culture of digital music flourish. I also became the snooty nerd to condemn it all. A few interviews by Trevor Horn taken in and it wasn’t before long that I felt the revelation of quality of sound reign upon me. I set myself the mission of spreading the news…

But I annoyed people. Telling someone that their Mp3 walkmans are portraying their favourite records as over compressed, two-dimensional mush, isn’t a good way to make friends. So I retreated. Since then, I’ve stayed with my rather traditionalist approach to listen to music in physical for the most part. However, in recent months, I have become enlightened by a service called Band Camp that seems to have taken action to cancel out the things I dislike most about digital music.

To clarify, there are two fundamental things about downloading digital music that I have a problem with.

Number 1.) The quality.

This is something I touched upon in detail in my last article. I was exposed to quality of audio files when I started producing my own records, and I became consciously aware of the unjust lacking of detail that these files portray of your favourite records when some of them have cost hundreds of thousands pounds to make. A little while ago, the below image went viral and it effectively sums up my thoughts.

In the long run, people are wiling to sacrifice quality for convenience. If people are able to enjoy music this way, who am I to judge them for that?

Number 2.) The Money

Money is a grey area when it comes to digital music sales. It has indeed caused much debate, but the truth is, unless you are a well-established act on top of the competition, record sales are no longer a sustainable income for an artist.

Itunes, as an example may sell your album for £7.99. They will take half of that amount for each sale. If you are an artist that’s signed to a record label, you will be lucky to see any more than 20% of the half that Itunes shares. What currently ensues at the moment is an argument between artists and record labels, with the artist fighting for a 50:50 share. Hopefully that will be the case before too long.

However, whenever challenges arise, opportunities open themselves, and this is where Band Camp comes into play.

What this service does, is give the artist the power to directly sell and engage with their fans. In relation to issue number 1.) BandCamp’s downloading service gives the opportunity for buyers to choose what format they want to own, be that Mp3, Wav or Flac. You the fans, have the power to choose the quality.

Band Camp also allows artists to make the experience of their download as interactive as they want it to be. You can include Liner Notes and even videos to make the download, ultimately a much more tangible experience.

They also shine a positive light on issue number 2.) The money side for artists as equally as much as their fans. Whereas, an Artist may obtain 50% per unit sale in Itunes for a £7.99 album, they can sell their album on BandCamp for £7 and with the exception of a small admin fee, receive most of that money.

So ultimately through BandCamp, an artist can earn more from selling their album for less.

So is this service being used enough? I certainly think it’s becoming a more prominent feature for DIY artists, but I believe it can go much further. So if you are reading this and you are an artist, and you are signed up, keep using it and emphasis the benefits to yourself as well as your fans. If you don’t have it, research it:  and if you are fan who wants a digital copy of an album whilst wishing to support the artist to the upmost, I would see if that artist has a Band Camp profile, and if they don’t…tell them about it!

Here is an example, I know the man behind this band, and he is seriously anti-download to the point where you will not find his music on any other digital service. So if he can be persuaded to sell digitally on BandCamp, you know it must be because they offer something different.

Magenta – Band Camp

Whilst I may have been that anti-digital music nerd when I was younger, I have learnt to instead, not condemn it, but embrace it, and hopefully do my part to make it better for everyone else. Collective hats off to Band Camp…They are moving digital music forward in the right direction.

Over the last couple of years, articles all over the news have documented the increased sales in Vinyl (according to Channel 4, sales are as high as they were in 1977).  The fact that the people responsible for this resurgence are within the age category of less than 30 years old certainly leaves me intrigued.

As a young and aspiring musician/writer/producer and general anorak, the increased popularity in vinyl pleases me greatly for a number of reasons. The higher quality of sound, the warmer mid-range, the tangibility of the experience of opening up the gatefold sleeve and your roundtable’s needle gracefully tracing audio across a shiny black polyvinyl chloride disc.

It all feels so ‘Real’ doesn’t it? Which is why I think younger people are more attracted to it than ever before. We are in a culture now, where having a PC, Laptop or other form of information technology as a consistent companion is the norm. Not to say that is a bad thing, but having had spent days reading news, messaging people, emailing people, blogging people, posting a picture of my cat in an absurd sleeping position…it all just makes me feel a little dizzy (I guess I’m only making things worst by writing this blog).

My point is, with so much information out there, our attention spans have supposedly spread seriously thin, especially with music. I have an Itunes Library of about 15 days length, a modest amount compared to some. Topped with Spotify and various other streaming services, Youtube, Soundcloud etc. it is very easy to either render oneself as disassociated or riddled with Jukebox syndrome.

As great a platform as the internet provides for the discovery and convenient consumption of music, very rarely does it go further than passive listening for me, probably because I’m too busy reading or engaging with something else, such as social network feeds or another news article of Jose Mourinho talking about “nurturing his young eggs.” It leaves me and a collective number of people my age searching for something more.

Which is where physical plays a part, and which is why despite what seems to be the general consensus, the way I listen to music predominantly is through either CD or Vinyl. I was brought up on my parent’s record collection of Queen, Rush and Genesis. Indeed, a weird child I was, but I hold that influence dear. There are no distractions. It’s me, the record, the sleeve and the record player, all of it demands that I am going to give my full attention to it. What equates is a blissful state of solitude.

But the beauty of Vinyl goes above and beyond just the experience and I actually think it’s only half of the reason younger people are given a reason to buy vinyl. ‘The journey is the reward’. Nothing attracts me more to a city centre than Coffee and Independent Record stores. The independent Record store, as an aesthetic in my opinion is just wonderful. I’ve spent days fuelling my caffeine addiction and going to record stores. I find it liberating to be in a space where everything isn’t uniform, and there are plenty of people my age who despise uniform. There are also some great moments of discovery that lie in a record store, such as serious 80’s hair metal (as can be shown in image 1), to finding an artist who will just prove to you that they are worth your time (as can be shown in image 2). It is a voyage of discovery, something again, which is great, but the Internet has neglected.

Image 1

Comedy Genius

Image 2

A gem I discovered in Spillers Records.

Record stores are also doing more to give themselves prevalence in cities and towns now. Record store day has led to the rise almost to the point that the annual celebrated 24 hours is almost overwhelming for some.  Additionally, the conjoining of record stores with independent café’s, I see as being a great move: Spillers Records and Plan Café in Cardiff being an example and Truck Store in Oxford being another. Furthermore, signing sessions almost definitely will pack out a store. I’ve been one of many fans, who have managed to meet Steven Wilson as a result, and I think the more artists, record stores and other small businesses can work together, the better.

Steven Wilson signing session at Sister Ray

Spiller’s Records, Cardiff.

Truck Store, Oxford

It really is an unusual and exciting time for music, and I certainly hope to see the rise of vinyl sales and number of people in Record Stores continuing. I for one, will certainly continue to play my part in that.

For further reading, I recommend Last Shop Standing, a documentary and book that gives insight into the history of the record store.

For further reading, I recommend Last Shop Standing, a documentary and book that gives insight into the history of the record store.

Eden Shadow’s debut album available now