http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article5847674.ece

Interesting stuff, basically saying that kids these days actually think mp3's are good quality and have no idea about how music 'should' sound.

At least partially true I think.

Yeh i'd definately agree with that!! I remember playing old records.. kids these days have no idea about good music at all! I think it's up to the parents to introduce good music to their children - we need to keep traditions and the past alive!!

As a child of the MP3 generation, I can honestly say that I like MP3s for their ease and multiple uses.

And i've never owned an LP player....

The point is that MP3's don't sound very good, there are compression 'artifacts' manifested by a tinny, metalic sound along with other issues, but kids these days don't know the difference or really care.

Of course if you use 320kbps mp3's then it's almost non-existent but the shit you get from a lot of places is 128kbps and that sounds shocking.

This actually reminds me of when I listened to a track i bought on CD through my PC Senheisers... I noticed new sounds and depth that i didn't even know were there, blew me away!

Never noticed the difference before that.

I have been meaning to reply to this post since it was posted so here goes !

There are both plus points and negative ones for mp3, I will try and list what I consider these points to be.

Plus Points

- Small file size, means kids can fit 100's of albums on a small sized device.

- You can download some tracks from a album before you buy it

- No moving parts, which means you can go running or do a workout with your mp3 player and no skipping.

- Due to small file size you can send your mates your fave new artists track or album, and get them into music they have never heard of, and vice versa.

- You can have your entire collection on a single device, no more getting up to change cd's or records.

- Has really helped smaller artists get noticed, as tracks get sent like word of mouth. Imo it only hurts people like Britney who make such bad albums that no one would buy them once they heard them once.


Not so plus points

- Sound quality is just not there, especially not at the lower end ones like 128kbs which sound like crap no no matter what you listen to them on. Imo the lowest you should listen to is 228kbs or what ever the one below 320kbs is.

- Increased piracy, some kids never buy a album their entire lives because they can just pirate everything.

- Means kids grow up paying no attention to quality or even having any idea how much extra enjoyment you can gain by having a higher quality source.


Now you can get flacc and other lossless formats but they take up more space so most people either don't know about them or avoid them, and even then a lossless track can be ripped badly or can sound like shite due to the fact you are using a onboard soundcard to play them or any other number of reasons like the software you use to rip the tracks.

My other gripe is people are willing to pay £300 on a ipod touch and they will even use lossless files, but they refuse to buy a decent pair of headphones, you don't have to spend more than £20 to BLOW away the ones that come free with devices. However people say I just spent £300 on a device I ain't spending more on headphones, such a odd viewpoint.

So no mp3 has not killed music, it has however made people forget about quality and also introduced the "loudness war", I am sure it has effected the market but they need to learn to adapt and actually make quality albums people will want tobuy other than the usual shite that is just 3 singles and then filler.

I am sure I will edit this post when more comments come to mind, but for now this is my opinion.

Think part of the reason stuff sounds so shite nowadays is that a lot of music production companies/studios have gone out of business. Count the number that are around nowadays compared to say the 80s. Programs such as garage band have been mostly responsible for this. Also means there's people making their own music who really don't know the best way to go about it.

Perhaps since the world is very techy now, kids don't know which is real or something like that just like the case of mp3 and music.
I agree it depends on the elders esp. the parents to help them identify things.