As a graphic designer who hasn't worked for 18 months in my field (mostly because I've been displaced by computer geeks and code-monkeys who just happen to have a copy of Paint or PhotoShop, and therefore feel they can call themselves "web designers"), I can only shake my head ruefully at the proposition of completely media-less music distribution. An entire segment of the music industry will potentially be eliminated with this idea--the graphic designers who design album covers.
Of course I'll admit more than a LITTLE self-interest in this specific aspect of the music industry, but I feel that the divorce of music from the visual arts is an aesthetic tragedy, and we, as consumers should demand that if we are going to be, in the future, permanently denied the ability to own physical permanent copies of music, then at the very least, the music industry should include high-res graphics with these downloaded albums. We, as consumers, write the checks--we should be able to make the rules...
The divorce of visual art from recorded music is a dire proposition indeed. Album art for vinyl was an iconic example of popular art in the mid-late 20th century. Not may people could recognize a Rauschenberg, Calder, Klee, or Magrite painting, but show 100 people on the street half a dozen popular rock albums with the names blocked out, and I'd venture that they'd all get at least 75% of the bands correct...
The Grateful Dead, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Herb Alpert, Kansas, Boston, The Capitol Steps--some of the most iconic art of their period was album covers.
And that medium is, as we speak, vanishing. The CD cut the surface area of music packaging to 1/4 the size of an LP album. Digitally distributed music rarely even comes with any art at all, and when it does, it's usually a very low-res JPEG.
No, I cannot have ANYTHING good to say about a distribution method for music that 1) does not provide me with a permanent, physical copy of my purchase, and 2) divorces music from the visual arts.
I pray for the future of the music business. We are headed for the days of pre-album music distribution--when the 45rpm single was king, and people bought their music one song at a time--usually the ONE song that the RECORD COMPANIES thought you should be hearing. This is a sad, uncreative, and VERY dire state of affairs, as far as the future options available to music consumers is concerned.
--Richard
