Stan Beer
Sunday, 11 May 2008 11:48
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
I've been a Neil Young fan since "After The Goldrush" (yes I'm that old) so seeing the fuss being made about him at Sun's JavaOne conference where he publicly threw his support behind Java and Blu-ray technologies naturally perked my interest. The question is can the likes of Young help the developers of Java and Blu-ray change the way music is packaged and sold?
Although he still actively records new material,
Neil Young is a bit like other rock icons of the 60s and early 70s -
The Beatles, The Stones, The Beach Boys, The Who, Led Zeppelin and so
on. The music of his halcyon days is what he is remembered for by
legions of adoring Baby Boomer fans plus a few appreciative "retro"
rock lovers of latter generations.
Young's music no doubt still sells steadily but sales of his classics
are still a key source of revenue. Thus, it comes as no surprise then
that the first newly packaged installment covers the era 1963 until
1972 - from the days of his first bands Buffalo Springfield and Crazy
Horse until when he hit his peak with albums like "After The Goldrush" and
"Harvest".
Neil Young's appearance on stage promoting the re-packaging of his
previously recorded material using technologies such as Java and
Blu-ray is an attempt to convince fans that there is more to music than
just the sound that emanates from speakers or headphones. In Young's
case, it involves using the latest technology in the provision of high
resolution audio packaged together with videos, interactive menus,
previously unreleased songs from the era, handwritten manuscripts,
hopefully a few interviews and so on.
In addition, fans can download more content like songs, photos and tour
information directly to the Blu-ray discs as the content becomes
available.
Despite the advances of new media techology to date, however, for music
fans it has always been the audio that they have been most prepared to
pay for. Audio media itself has advanced - vinyl records and cassette
tapes are things of the past, while CD sales are taking a nosedive in
the wake of music downloads. However, convincing music fans that they
can get a richer experience if they buy integrated video and music has
not really been successful, even in the era of the video iPod.
