The obsolescence of the compact disc, or CD, at the hands of downloading of song files appropriately fit into Marshall McLuhan’s concept of the reversal of mediums. The CD was the pinnacle incarnation of the phonograph, a hot medium. In the time of the Internet however, it was inevitable that recorded music become a more participatory medium. Despite attempts by the Record Industry Association of America at disrupting the emergence of this new medium through litigation against its users, and legitimization through corporate appropriation, downloading has become the dominant medium for receiving recorded sound.
Introduction: The Current Hotness and Coldness of Recorded Sound as a Medium.
The CD
In the late 1990s, the record industry in North America and England used the compact disc format as its primary medium for the distribution of audio, with cassettes and vinyl records occupying minority roles. The CD contained audio data read by a laser as the disc span incredibly rapidly around an axis. The CD allowed for an incredibly clean and refined sound. It was smaller and more portable than a record, and better sounding than a cassette. It is also did not require turning over from one side to another like either medium, and could play for longer. The CD was the evolved, streamlined form of the record, yet not so different from it. From the time of the phonograph, which was the original ancestor of the compact disc, to the incarnation as CD, recorded music existed as a hot medium. Users were immersed in sound. McLuhan referred to the phonograph as a “Music Hall without walls” (McLuhan, 283); the same applies to the CD. Hot mediums such as the phonograph require little to no input from the user.
Below is a user created youtube video on the history of the CD:
The Internet, Napster, and an Initial Corporate Rejection of this New Medium
The Internet changed all this. Working as a strong example of McLuhan's Global Village, the Internet represents the re-tribalizing of human societies (Mcluhan and Zingrone, 117). Therefore, it naturally follows, that a popular medium, such as the CD, overheats and becomes something as cold and participatory as downloaded music (McLuhan, 38). The first incarnation of music file sharing to achieve mass usage was Napster. Napster was a program that enabled its users to share their musical libraries of MP3 files with one another through mutual downloading and uploading. It only lasted two years, until it was forced to shut down by a court order by way of the Recording Industry of Association America
The Current Incarnations of Downloading
The cool nature of downloading as a medium is apparent in the term “peer to peer”. Downloading demanded active participation of its users, as they are forced to pick the music they want, as well as share what they already have. Two current incarnations of music downloading occur in the form of torrent files, and via file storage websites, accessed either through blogs or search engines such as Google. Both of these formats are highly participatory. Torrent files allow for the simultaneous downloading and uploading of files. Torrent files themselves are accessed through public websites, such as piratebay and isohunt, or private websites such as What.cd, which are invite only and require membership and certain sharing ratios. Music blogs share songs or whole albums, which have been uploaded to websites such as mediafire or megaupload. Blogs are user created websites, which are thus incredibly participatory. The RIAA still attempts to interfer with these methods by shutting down torrent websites and having music deleted from file-sharing websites, but without much progress. There is also the online Itunes store, which is the most popular site for the legal purchasing of music files.
Here is a user-created video on torrenting:
Contrast: The Reappearence of Vinyl
An interesting trend showed something of McLuhan’s concept of reversal was the reemergence of vinyl records as a medium (McLuhan, 39). This new trend has appeared because of the immaterial nature of music files, which make music collections seem semi-permanent. These records may come with a link to a website where the owner of the vinyl can download a high quality MP3 version of the album. Perhaps in response to the proliferation of downloading, vinyl has reappeared because of its existence as the primary material medium for its users. Listeners consider its sound more authentic than that found on CDs, which is acoustically closer to the MP3s as their sounds are both produced digitally, in contrast to the analog technology of records.
Here is a documentary on the current popularity of Vinyl:
Radiohead's Album "In Rainbows": a Successful Example of Digital Distribution
Radiohead’s album “In Rainbows” is an example of the successful use of the new format. On October 10th, 2007 Radiohead released their new album on the internet solely in the digital format with a pay-what-you-want cost, with the option to pre-order the physical copy of a box set of CD or vinyl copy. According to this article by Times Online, while a large number of those who downloaded paid nothing, the average amount donated was roughly the equivalent of eight Canadian dollars at the time. Given the hundreds of thousands or millions of downloads they received, this resulted in great profits for the band. The album was symptomatic of the new coldness of obtaining music. Radiohead fans had to go on the Internet, navigate the website, and control how much they wanted to pay for the album. In addition, Radiohead offered a contest online where animators were able to submit clips for potential music videos. The band themselves judged the results, and then choose four finalists, who received money to make full videos with. These videos were then distributed on the contest website, as well as on Youtube. Through an awareness of the medium, Radiohead were able to effectively channel the coldness of recorded music’s current distribution.
Conclusion: The Internet and the Global Village
The more participatory nature of music downloading is coherent with McLuhan’s concept of the global village. The global village seems to have predicted the Internet, and with it comes a change to the way we view every medium around us.
Work Cited
Douglas, Guy. “Copyright and Peer-To-Peer Music File Sharing: The Napster Case and the Argument Against Legislative Reform.” Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law (2004): n. pag. Web. 2 April 2010.
Eric McLuhan, and Frank Zingrone. ed. Essential McLuhan. Concord, ON: House of Anansi Press Limited, 1995. Print.
McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media. Toronto: Mcgraw Hill, 1964. Print.
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