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Effect of digital downloads on track selection?

The debate about whether digital releases and their low cost lead to the dance music market being flooded with crap has been done to death already, but I wanted to look at the other side of the issue -- not the side of the people who make and distribute the tracks, but the side of people who eventually buy them.

Basically, here's the question:

Do the ease and low cost of downloads influence DJs and regular music buyers to be significantly less discriminating about what they buy (and perhaps also about what they eventually play out)?

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On the other hand, one might argue that downloads would actually make DJs more discriminating, since there are now thousands of more tracks available than just whatever happens to get out on vinyl; faced with a much less limited set of choices, they can afford to turn their noses up at more tracks.

Thoughts?

Sometimes I find myself buying a track that I know will just be filler because it's easy/cheap to download. If I listened to the actual vinyl I'd probably not buy it.

I'll be the first to admit I know buy way more shit than I otherwise would.

quote:

Originally posted by bas Sometimes I find myself buying a track that I know will just be filler because it's easy/cheap to download.

If I listened to the actual vinyl I'd probably not buy it.

+1. it's kinda sad that there are tracks i've bought and only listened to once.

When I used to buy vinyls, I picked them out really carefully until I finally made the decision to purchase them. For me, it wasn't just music to dj with, but it was my precious collection. Some were hard to find, but once I got my hands on them, it was very rewarding.
I switched to mp3's, thinking that it would allow me to experiment and give me more variety of music for dj'ing purposes, since it was a cheaper alternative, and also because it was more convenient not having to change records each time I load a new song. After a while, I stopped buying records, and ended up selling my collection (Damn it! I miss em. ).

With mp3's, I end up buying so many songs without giving much thought into it. A lot of them turns out to be total crap that I never listen to. For me, physically owning the tracks meant so much more than just having an mp3's.

I listen to much more new shite music since the downloading spree started but i get the chance to be more selective with the tracks I buy.

Vinyl at my local stores is way too pricey.

I see your point concerning why it may result in less discriminating tastes among digitial consumers, but ultimately, I feel it results in a more casual purchasing process than with vinyl.

When all you have to loose is a dollar and some change, you're less likely to reflect upon whether or not you really need this, or whether or not it really fits into your sets and style, and more likely to just say 'why not?' When you're shelling out 12 bucks, on the other hand, you tend to weigh the risks of getting stuck with a dud of a track a little more carefully.

But it could work in the opposite way. Considering that you're getting great quantity at great affordability, it would make perfect sense to stretch out every last bit of quality for your money. But generally speaking, I think most people go the 'well, I can always use more music' route when confronted with an uncertain purchase, and if vinyl prices were on par with digital downloads, I can see most people having the same spendthrift attitude.

i don't think filler necessarily means shit


there's definitely alot more filler that wouldn't have cut it in a vinyl-only market, but that has both its pros & cons. it's easier to construct a consistent flowing set with filler tracks & it makes the standout tracks erm.. stand out more. however the trend seems to be pushing edm ever further into the disposable territory...

i don't think it's changed my buying habits. i've bought more music but that's because there's been more to choose from. even back when i bought vinyl it was all too often the case i played it once or twice before completely going off it :/

its unfortunate that beatport isnt set up like a real record store. where you really have to dig to find the gems. would be great to have a graphical interface similar to a record store 12" rack of vinyl. so you cant browse as quickly and search for particular artists. would make a lot more fresh dj styles.

quote:

Originally posted by richg101 its unfortunate that beatport isnt set up like a real record store. where you really have to dig to find the gems. would be great to have a graphical interface similar to a record store 12" rack of vinyl. so you cant browse as quickly and search for particular artists. would make a lot more fresh dj styles.

Sorry, but that's retarded.

quote:

Originally posted by noikeee Sorry, but that's retarded.

+1 lol


and honestly if you end up buying a lot of shit...you're just lazy. The flip side to your question is that there is so much out there you can put together a very diverse unique set if you put some energy into...if anything the cheaper cost should allow you to buy more tunes which means you should be able to find some tracks that go super well together...

or you can just download the top 10.

Yes, i thing that the digital download services definitely makes a customer to be less picky about his/her choices, possibly adopting a "why not?" attitude. I also always wander about the value of such a digital collection. I mean, you buy just another bleepy minimal MP3 track and store it in your hard-drive with another 10000 bleepy minimal MP3 downloads, only to end-up with a useless collection of MP3s which no-one is gonna here and appreciate it, except for yourself and the few times you gonna play it on the dancefloor, until the new bleepy, minimal track is out. Quite stupid really. Buying a rare vinyl e.p. with those 3 OMG legendary tracks is something substantial (having a "real record collection" which someone may hear sometine), to have a bloody hard-drive full of MP3s is a waste of money. Plastic music, for the plastic djs, in our plastic times. IMO a very bad-time to be an EDM DJ/Producer really.

quote:

Originally posted by PETRAN Yes, i thing that the digital download services definitely makes a customer to be less picky about his/her choices, possibly adopting a "why not?" attitude. I also always wander about the value of such a digital collection. I mean, you buy just another bleepy minimal MP3 track and store it in your hard-drive with another 10000 bleepy minimal MP3 downloads, only to end-up with a useless collection of MP3s which no-one is gonna here and appreciate it, except for yourself and the few times you gonna play it on the dancefloor, until the new bleepy, minimal track is out. Quite stupid really. Buying a rare vinyl e.p. with those 3 OMG legendary tracks is something substantial (having a "real record collection" which someone may hear sometine), to have a bloody hard-drive full of MP3s is a waste of money. Plastic music, for the plastic djs, in our plastic times. IMO a very bad-time to be an EDM DJ/Producer really.

Hmmmm, when I count up the amount of money I spent on compilation cd's the past 18 years (I'm 33) and I look at them I also think most have been a waste of money. To me it doesn't matter if the are on a harddrive, vinyl or cd.
With compilations you always buy a lot of tracks you don't like. So then "First listen, then buy" on internet sounds great to me. You only pay for what you really like. That's how I see it. But I can imagine some people would buy tracks sooner because it's so easy. Maybe 18 years ago I also would have done this when it was available. Always easy looking back...

quote:

Originally posted by noikeee Sorry, but that's retarded.

kunt you. a retardation renders you unable to carry out basic human functions, such as type on a keyboard in a legible fashion. a retard wouldnt even be attempting to comment on an internet forum -
the activity is way beyond a what a retarded mind is capable of comprehending..

you my friend, are a pure, unadulterated kunt

quote:

Originally posted by noikeee Sorry, but that's fucking stupid.

fixed.

you happy?

Re: Effect of digital downloads on track selection?

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Do the ease and low cost of downloads influence DJs and regular music buyers to be significantly less discriminating about what they buy (and perhaps also about what they eventually play out)?

Short answer for me would probably be "yes" - the fact of the matter is that I buy a immensely larger quantity of music now than I did before, and by virtue of that increase alone it's clear for me to see that I buy a lot of stuff I either never end up playing, or end up playing once and deciding is horrible.

I do, however, think the positive aspect of this for me is that it allows me to continue to entertain myself, and not just worry about playing what I know will get a reaction from an audience. Sometimes I fail utterly and completely, but the nights where a bunch of new tunes that I'm not even entirely sure about come together properly, it's a pretty great feeling. Of course, the flipside of this is that on those nights, tracks that aren't that great but you took a chance on buying and playing, and wound up working well, may have just worked because of that night.

So I guess a simplistic answer to the above is that in general, I am less discriminating about what I purchase, but I still think I'm pretty careful about what I actually choose to play. In this sense, I really look at DD's as a positive thing, but definitely hear the choir singing "So much shit, so much shit!" day in and day out.

Re: Effect of digital downloads on track selection?

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Do the ease and low cost of downloads influence DJs and regular music buyers to be significantly less discriminating about what they buy (and perhaps also about what they eventually play out)?

Not in my case as I'm super picky with what I consider good music, and as I'm not a DJ and don't need to buy shitloads of trendy tracks to please an hypothetical public. So I buy whatever is really good to me whether it's house/techno/electro/downtempo. When buying, I'm quick to discard generic stuff, and even for the good non generic stuff I wonder myself if I'll still like it in a few years. Most of the time I let the track sit in the crate for a few days before eventually buying them.

The problem is that in general people are not enough picky. To me the music has to be really special so I consider to buy it. Just being a good or OK track is not enough.

not at all.

I am still very picky about what i buy off digital sites. Sometimes songs go into my checkout lists...get listened to a week later and get taken off.

I'm going to contradict the general consensus of this thread.

I've only ever bought CD, and there isn't much price difference between CD and MP3. If Beatport are charging �1.29 or whatever stupid number it is for a single track, a three track single would be just under �4, and a ten track album would be just under �13. There isn't a price difference between MP3 and CD, as far as I'm concerned.

As such, if anything I buy more carefully when I buy MP3, because I can cut out the crap. If you buy a single, there's likely to be at least one mix on there that you don't like, and so I simply won't buy it. From a DJ perspective, MP3 allows you to cut out the crap and so you can spend 100% of your money on music you like, rather than 60% the mixes you're after and 40% mixes you don't like.

It should be pointed out that this doesn't apply to albums and mixed compilations. I'll always buy the complete thing because track that is weak in isolation might play an important part in a mix or holistic album. I almost never buy albums in MP3 form though.

If you used to play vinyl, I can see why MP3s would encourage you to buy more mediocre stuff, but I'd argue the inverse is true for CDJs or people who simply listen to CDs only.

As someone mentioned on the GU boards...

Negative of digital is that you can't flip over your mp3 years later to find an absolute gem B side.

The problem with digital downloads and track selection is that there isn't as much word of mouth and that social interaction people had at the local record stores in the local scenes. Now days big DJs pretty much have to have a staff to sift through all the junk that gets uploaded to a ftp server. There's no way some DJs have the time with all the gigs they play to make fresh playlists so unfortunately they just grab tunes off the same labels they've been playing for the past 2 years.

I really regret getting into EDM just as the CDJ was on the rise and vinyl was on the decline, couple that with the only good record shop that i knew of closed after i bought my second purchase there.

quote:

Originally posted by Stef De Roux I really regret getting into EDM just as the CDJ was on the rise and vinyl was on the decline, couple that with the only good record shop that i knew of closed after i bought my second purchase there.

i'm the opposite. i find it heartbreaking the amount of money i could have saved if i'd waited 2 more years & not bought technics ;/

quote:

Originally posted by richg101 its unfortunate that beatport isnt set up like a real record store. where you really have to dig to find the gems. would be great to have a graphical interface similar to a record store 12" rack of vinyl. so you cant browse as quickly and search for particular artists. would make a lot more fresh dj styles.

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