Sunday, March 25, 2012

Going Digital

Encyclopedia Britannica recently announced they were ceasing publication of their long-revered, multi-volumed, term paper plagiarizing aide. I know, because we had a set in my house when I was growing up, and, just by changing a few words, the guilt of copying disappeared. My wife and I bought a set when our daughter was starting to write school reports, and we even got the annual updates, which provided crucial revisions to existing articles, and new entries for important events from that year. It was sad to read about New Kids on the Block breaking up.

The Britannica will be available exclusively online, through their website, at a cost to subscribers of $70 per year. Apparently, management at this institution of education and knowledge hasn't heard of Wikipedia, the online, and free, encyclopedia. Some people scoff at Wikipedia because of its open source nature, allowing anybody to update articles, putting its credibility in question. However they do a very good job of policing any inaccuracies. A while ago, in order to test their vigilance, I added my name to the list of British Prime Ministers. Right there between Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell where I was confident it wouldn't be noticed. But sure enough, it was almost immediately deleted, and my account was frozen. I use my wife's computer to do research for my books now.

This got me to thinking about the digitalization of everything, specifically music and books. Over the years I have amassed fairly large collections of records and books - music and reading being two of my passions. When I was young I bought many 45s (for you younger readers, under 40, these are the small records with one song on each side. It had a big hole in the middle and spun on the turntable at 45 revolutions per minute). You would buy the record for the hit, and on the other side was some piece-of-crap music that you never listened to. Then, because of The Beatles, I started buying albums. The Beatles raised the bar and the throwaway songs rapidly became non-existent, at least with bands that were serious about their music.

The LPs, or long-playing records, were the main way people bought music for a long time. A few alternatives came along over the years. Cassette tapes made a little dent in LP sales. Then somebody had a musical brain fart and gave us the 8-track tape. I sincerely hope the person who developed this monstrosity of a music delivery system has been exiled somewhere and is forced to listen to a continuous loop of Pat Boone music, along with his evil spawn Debby Boone. The tapes never changed tracks properly and you would hear one track in one speaker and another track, playing backwards, in the other. Then they would cut a longer song somewhere in the middle to continue it on the next track, due to space limitations.

In the late '80s, the LP had met its match with the introduction of the CD. The music sounded great and in the early days, when an album was released in both formats, the CD offered bonus tracks that the LP didn't have. The beginning of the end of the LP had come. The only drawback of the CD, for me, was the information that came with it: lyrics, liner notes, and other inserts that were found in the album sleeves were now miniaturized to fit in the CD case. It had most of the same information, but I had to do a lot of squinting to read it.

Today, the CD is about to die. Music is all digitized and we are back to buying individual songs (singles) the way we did with the 45s. But there's nothing to hold. We can download them on our computers, iPods, iPhones, iPads, iEverythings, and have thousands of songs in the palm of our hands. I had an iPod Nano that I got about seven years ago which was recently recalled by Apple because of some potential problems with the battery. I sent it to them to get a free replacement. When I received my package in the mail from them I had to call Apple to say they had sent me a battery by mistake and not the iPod. I was corrected by the Apple rep who told me the new model was much smaller. Not only was it smaller, but it had twice the capacity of the old one. The thing is so small it's a potential choking hazard for children. But now, with everything digitized and downloaded, there are no accompanying lyric sheets or liner notes. I miss them.

Closer to home, the same thing is happening to books. E-books are rapidly replacing paperbacks and hard cover books. My wife and I both have Kindles and quickly got used to them. We can carry our entire library wherever we go. A while ago, Amazon announced they were selling more e-books for their Kindle than paperbacks and hard covers combined. As an author, I know my books, (Protecting the Cittern and The Ibex Trophy, in case you forgot), have to be available in all formats, and the reality is that I do sell more e-books than regular books on line. At book signings I always used to stress that a benefit of getting the book directly from me was that it would be signed by the author. As of last week that argument has been taken away from me because I now can sign a book on Kindle. Digitally. You can look it up in Encyclopedia Britannica or Wikipedia.

14 comments:

  1. LOL Great post, John, but, c'mon! The Beatles? Are you sure your memory serves you correctly? I began buying LPs for The Supremes! Then, of course, it was The Beatles :) You are such a bad influence. I'd never thought of posting something to Wikipedia to test their vigilance. Now that you mention it, it sounds like fun -- and I can always say, "But John told me to do it!

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    1. I may have stretched the truth about my Wikipedia naughtiness! And yes, my first LP s were Beatles records. I was 11 in Feb. 1964 when they made it to the US.

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  2. I like your line "the CD is about to die." It made me think of my collection of CDs, my CD players, etc. All that money down the drain.

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    1. Don't despair. I still play my LPs on a fairly new turntable. Yes, they're still available. I'm sure CDs will be playable for a long time to come. And it will be a while before they disappear altogether.

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  3. Like you, I'm selling more e-books than real books, which breaks my heart, but I guess if they're reading what we write we should be grateful, right?
    And I still have my encyclopedias, although I stopped buying the annual "update" years ago. I refuse to get rid of them, even though I rarely open one these days. So much easier just to Google. (Reporters today don't know how easy they have it; weeks of research back in my day accomplished in minutes, now.)

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  4. Great blog, John, now I know what you do with all that spare time

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  5. Enjoyed your post! Favorite line: "..a choking hazzard for children." Keep writing.
    Len

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  6. So true! As much as I like cracking open an old book, there's a lot to be said for carrying a couple hundred on my Kindle!

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  7. Oh, now I'm feeling my age. Where are the 78s, those lovely, shining black pizza-sized records like Blue Suede Shoes and Heart Break Hotel or Hound Dog? These were the days of televisions with round screens chopped off flat at the top and bottom so they weren't really round, but the sure weren't rectangles either! And they came in Swedish modern cabinets! You know, the days before cars had fins. Personally, I loved picking up all the free encyclopedias (A-An) and reading them like they were wisdom from above. No, I'll not pay $70 for a subscription or an update. After all, I am the world's expert on A-An. Anything else I can get on the Internet, with or without Wiki (you devil you). I'll hang onto the CDs that I have. After all, I'm happy, why change now? As long as I have my car CD player, I have all I need (somebody up there, please keep it running). Now that I feel like I'll sooner rather than later need a Scooter to do the grocery shopping at a store that no longer offers A-An, and I know I'm older than dirt, let me just say that I enjoyed your blog. If I can still read without a computer-voice program when you post the next one, I'll be sure to read it. Thanks, John!

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    1. Thanks, Linda! I was tempted to mention the 78s. I also almost included the original cylinders that played on the Victor Talking Machine - I have some as well as the player. But I didn't want the piece to drag on too long. Oh, in case I forgot to tell you, I did get your Kindlegraph. Thanks!

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  8. You miss song lyrics? Try songlyrics.com. I highly doubt Britannica could help you with that one!

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    1. Looking them up on the Internet is not quite the same as having them included with the record / CD packaging. And don't forget the liner notes. They used to give Grammys for them.

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  9. Great stuff! Now, will you share where you found another 8 hours in a day to do all that? So far, I have mastered the quill pen. I've heard amazing tales that there is something called a 'fountain pen' out there somewhere.

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