Materialization Of Music

The Physical Representation of music

The materialization of music is changing, as we know music is the most intangible of the arts, yet the materialization or physical representation plays an enormous role in our relationship with music. The fact that we are buying fewer and fewer CDs does not mean we can have lost the need for materialization of music in general, nor that the need of retrial storage of music is coming to an end. As humans we need physical representation of the things we feel strongly about, we need to have a symbolic representation, and music has developed a complete ecosystem of material and immaterial goods that helps us do that. The sound file we listen to is only a small part in this process. A change in delivery methods

For the music business, the situation has become extremely convoluted over the past two or three decades. In the sixties, the album was the music. It was one of the primary carriers for symbolic representation and identification music fans had; associated merchandise existed, but played a much less important role than today. Even more importantly, music related media were in their infancy: there was no MTV, no video clips, no MySpace, and the art of merchandising in itself was still very young. By comparison, the audio CD plays an almost insignificant old today in the way we relate to music: a band’s MySpace page or web-site is probably much more influential in shaping perception of a band or a song than the physical CD one can buy.

There comes a shift, not a disappearance of a need. The audio CD has become an outdated product because it does not play a significant role anymore yet the need for materialization of music remains. We may not miss the physical CD itself in our music experience, but the visual identity it procured is still essential: One of the most popular features of iTunes is the “Cover-Flip” mode that lets users thumb through the songs on their hard drive interactively, as if going through a stack of vinyl

Steinways pitched an idea and came up with a cool concept of customizing artworks on record album covers there for he designed the first covers with original designs, this replaced the existing cardboard with a slip to put record inside which only had the name of the album and just a stamp on the front of the record which had the artists name on it. Going back, Steinways covers all have the same apple to it, they all seem to be very abstract pieces of work which includes different colors to grab the attention of the consumers. Steinways was the first person to create a material of advertising to help promote the industry of music and the its company. “I got this idea that the way they were selling these albums was ridiculous. These were shellac records and they were in four or five-pocket albums to make one symphony. The covers were just brown, tan or green paper. I said: “Who the hell’s going to buy this stuff? There’s no push to it. There’s no attractiveness. There’s no sales appeal.” So I told them I’d like to start designing covers. Dolan’s response was: “Then we’ve got to buy plates and start printing, and it adds cost. I made very good friends with the vice president in charge of sales. He saw the value in what I was doing. He got