Column from September 11th, 2000 edition

Back again this issue, but on-going mess here might mean this column might be "Missing In Action" at some other point of the coming weeks....

Anyway, here's an issue that I'm increasing feeling is worthy of debate: does MP3 devalue music?

My main issue is sound quality. CD is already less than perfect music delivery method where you can spend a lot of cash on a player to get very small incremental improvements. MP3 is way inferior to that and does nothing to make the music alive in any way. In sound quality terms, if something thinks what MP3 produces is acceptable, they either have no standards at all, or a serious hearing deficiency. It strikes me as bizarre that while the whole music industry is fighting about what is going to be the next carrier medium, to improve sound quality and stimulate sales, all the focus is on something that has all the subtlety of a tin can with some string attached! Whereas people of one generation can dig out their old vinyl albums and marvel at the production values, that's never going to happen with MP3s, they just can't communicate enough.....

That's why I feel MP3 is devaluing music: it makes music into too much or a disposable commodity. It might well have a role as a means for unsigned bands to distribute their music and to get heard, but that's it. It is also takes the record labels collective eyes off what new music they should be supporting - thanks to MP3 they're all too busy launching court cases against Napster and their ilk, or trying to find copy protection methods which also nearly all denigrate music quality and put far too many business controls in place.

MP3 might sound like a great idea, but it's going in completely the wrong direction....