Covermount CD Discontinuance
Tue, Sep 28 2010, 3:32AM
I note that the covermount CD is to be discontinued and replaced with a web-based player.
Although the decision is no doubt irreversible as, presumably, it was made on cost grounds, I would still register my protest as I , like others, have enjoyed the convenience of playing the covermount CD when travelling in the car or on the train and elsewhere using a portable CD player and am disappointed that this benefit will no longer be available.
It seems to be like so many recent decisions such as the discontinuance of Gramofile and the PDF facility on this site........ "unfortunate".
Mon, Oct 4 2010, 4:27PM
#2
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
I won't miss the covermount CD much - the rather longer musical excerpts on the new player more than make up for it. Just listening to Faust-Melnikov in Beethoven.
(But I do miss the .pdfs in the archive......)
Mon, Oct 4 2010, 5:35PM
#3
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
I have just received the monthly magazine without the C.D which has been an integral part of it.
When the C.D. first came out there were substantial extracts from the featured CDs which meant that the C.D. had an intirnsic value. Then some-one decided to put on the interview which took almost half of the space and reduced the value of the extracts to little more than useless.
Recently the interview has been replaced by lengthy extracts either from a composer or a performer and the C.D had become enjoyable again.
And happy got it right you discontinue it!!
Like many other readers I enjoy listening either in the car or on my audio in reasonable sound. i am currently listening to Collins in the Jupiter - my old transister radio sounded better.
Any chance of the decision being reversed or the C.D. offered as an alternative, if necessarty at a small suppliment ?
And incidenally can anyone seriously accept your contention that a driver for the change is the environment - this is one decision which is solely cost driven.
Mon, Oct 4 2010, 5:35PM
#4
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
I have just received the monthly magazine without the C.D which has been an integral part of it.
When the C.D. first came out there were substantial extracts from the featured CDs which meant that the C.D. had an intirnsic value. Then some-one decided to put on the interview which took almost half of the space and reduced the value of the extracts to little more than useless.
Recently the interview has been replaced by lengthy extracts either from a composer or a performer and the C.D had become enjoyable again.
And happy got it right you discontinue it!!
Like many other readers I enjoy listening either in the car or on my audio in reasonable sound. i am currently listening to Collins in the Jupiter - my old transister radio sounded better.
Any chance of the decision being reversed or the C.D. offered as an alternative, if necessarty at a small suppliment ?
And incidenally can anyone seriously accept your contention that a driver for the change is the environment - this is one decision which is solely cost driven.
Mon, Oct 4 2010, 5:48PM
#5
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
Gerard Lum sums up my own feelings exactly. Many of us do spend a lot of the day at the computer, and the last thing I want to do is go online to 'relax'. A cup of tea, Gramophone, and the CD will do nicely. In fact I won't buy downloads either for similar reasons; the record companies are making us do all the work (and that's assuming the downloading goes smoothly, which is far from always the case), it's much easier to order a CD and have it delivered in a day or two. A physical object, with notes, not dependant on the vagaries of the internet, viruses - updates, scanning and avoidance of; Windows updates; firewall updates; and the wretched seemingly endless updates from adobe.
No. I too am seriously thinking of ending my Gramophone subscription after all these years.
I know it's early days, but I just don't want to have to spend any more b****y time in front of a computer screen.
And yes, the execrable sound!! Some of us have spent decades building up true hi-fi systems, this is going backwards.
Sigh.
Mon, Oct 4 2010, 11:56PM
#6
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
the execrable sound
Have you listened to it? And by that I mean through a "true hifi system"?
Some of us have spent decades building up true hi-fi systems
Yes we have.
this is going backwards.
No it's not.
Tue, Oct 5 2010, 12:31AM
#7
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
the execrable sound
Have you listened to it? And by that I mean through a "true hifi system"?
Perhaps he can't? After all, not everyone has their computer linked to their hi-fi. Indeed, I suspect most people still don't.
this is going backwards.
No it's not.
Well, it might well be, if you don't have the means to stream the Gramophone player via your hi-fi.
And it definitely is, if you want to, say, listen to it in the car (eg, via a CD player), or on a train, or on the beach, or anywhere you either don't have access to a computer or where there isn't an Internet connection, where you could previously have listened to a ripped covermount-CD on an mp3 player.
There's no doubt the Gramophone Player has some advantages over the covermount-CD (if only extended extracts).
But it would be silly not to recognize and admit that, for some people and/or some situations, it definitely has disadvantages, too.
(Sure, it's possible to record the Gramophone Player stream as an mp3 or similar - anything your computer will play can be saved somehow - but that's doubtless an infringement of copyright, and so hardly a solution that can be officially suggested to mitigate its shortcomings.)
Tue, Oct 5 2010, 10:17AM
#8
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
Oh dear. Once again, what a lot of hot air over a fairly marginal issue!
Any change will inconvenience someone, but really, in the grand scheme of things, how important is the loss of the CD?
It reminds me of when the Radio 4 schedule changed:
"I always go to the bank on a Friday morning so changing the start time of Desert Island Discs ruins my day. Typical thoughtless and inconsiderate arrogance of the BBC..." etc etc.
I received my subscripton copy yesterday, read the list of benefits of the new Player, listened to it before writing this and consider it a great innovation. Even so, it is hardly the primary reason most people get Gramophone, I suspect.
I understand why someone who hates computers might feel the loss of the CD but then I'm sure someone must have been put out by the invention of the wheel.
As for cancelling one's subscription over the issue...!
Get a life guys.
Tue, Oct 5 2010, 10:58AM
#9
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
While I can see clear advantages in an online selections of listening etc some of the disadvantages of dropping the covermount have already been made apparent. Many older, less hi tech, listeners tend to have computers and hi fis in separate rooms - the first signifies 'work', the second 'recreation'. It is essential to keep these functions separate when there is more than one person in the household who may want access to the PC when the other is downstreaming music. I know the techies will say 'run a lead between the two', or simply 'get a second computer', but most of us have slender means in a time of austerity or alternatively don't want to live amongst a maze of wires and equipment/or try to wade through pages of complicated instructions.
A point not raised so far relates to those without a voice on this forum, the older listeners who have no computors/do not know how they work, and those listeners who may live remote places overseas without access to broadband. What of these unfortunate folk?? Comments such as 'getting a life' etc aren't very helpful
Tue, Oct 5 2010, 11:41AM
#10
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
While I agree wholeheartedly with Gerard Lums earlier comments, one lne does not ring true for me:
"And I also take the point that the technical obtacles to listening to the online content via one's hi-fi system are minor ones."
Connecting the computer to the Hi-Fi is the easy bit, getting a reliable data stream at a high enough data rate to enjoy high quality listening in a rural area is impossible.
After thirty years of reading Gramophone it's time to give up and look elsewhere. I wonder if anyone in the management team will be told how many subscriptions get cancelled in the next few months - or more importantly if they'll care.
Maybe I'm missing something, but if I COULD get good internet access to listen to all these music extracts, read reviews - if a little out of date - and also avoid all the unwanted articles now filling the magazine why would I want to pay for the paper copy?
Tue, Oct 5 2010, 1:45PM
#11
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
I have to say I am amazed how much acrimony this issue has generated. I don´t have a computer, I´ve never had one, and I don´t want one near my home, anything I do with a computer I do during my lunchbreak ar work, that is quite enough for me.
Saying that the battle between covermount CD and Gramophone player remains irrelevant for me. I´ve had a look at the player and credit where credit´s due it does seem excellent. You can listen to complete works, hear large excerpts, and comparative recordings. Clearly the covermount CD is very popular with a lot of people, but the reason why I´m so surprised is, what did these people do before it existed?
If memory serves, and I remember the first one with Cecilia Bartoli, the covermount CD first appeared in 1996, so what did people do before that? This issue is irrelevant for me, because I have never bought anything based on a covermount CD snippet. I have bought many LPs and CDs based on informative reviews, but mainly all the LPs and CDs I have bought in my life have been through the wonderful experience of walking into a shop seeing something with a combination of composer, piece, artist, label, and sleeve design that excited me enough to take the plunge to buy it, the not knowing has always been a wonderful part of the experience, still is.
I think people have lost a little perspective on this one. At the end of a working day the last thing I want to listen to is a CD compilation of snippets, I go to my record collection and play something wonderful in it´s entirity. I stooped buying Gramophone 7 months ago because the superficial nature of the reviews as I see them renders the magazine useless to me.
Tue, Oct 5 2010, 2:21PM
#12
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
surely gladgrad is getting to the nub of the matter; eventually magazines, like newspapers, published on paper will be museum pieces, we shall read the content electronically and items will be updated daily and hourly not tied to monthly issues. We will subscribe, or not, to gramophone.co.uk !
Tue, Oct 5 2010, 6:39PM
#13
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
... eventually magazines, like newspapers, published on paper will be museum pieces, we shall read the content electronically and items will be updated daily and hourly not tied to monthly issues. We will subscribe, or not, to gramophone.co.uk !
'Eventually' perhaps, but not for some time to come, I think.
For example, the "paperless office" was forecast as long ago as 1975 - some 35 years later, I suspect most offices have more paper, not less.
Wed, Oct 6 2010, 3:05PM
#14
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
I too have just received the magazine in the post and was dismayed by the lack of cover c.d. Definitely a retrograde step. Many of us have access to the internet, but our internet audio is not top class. and it is not comfortable to sit and listen for any length of time. I haven't seen, by the "Gramophone", any mention of or consideration for, the subscribers who are not on line.There must be many, if they are of a similar age group to me. I have been subscribing for well over 50 years and am computer literate, but this innovation means nothing to me. I suspect it is yet another money saving exercise wrapped up in the technology coat and the usual environmental remarks. No real consideration for loyal subscribers at all, judging by how it was done!.
Wed, Oct 6 2010, 4:35PM
#15
RE: Covermount CD Discontinuance
Hello John,
Yes, I have listened to the Gramophone player. The sound, through my computer's tiny speakers, is poor. No match for the old CDs through my hifi. And I have no wish to connect it up to my hifi system. They live in different places, have different functions as far as I am concerned, and I don't want cables trailing round the house.
I do appreciate the work that has gone into the player, and I do think that it is very successful at what it does. It is a fine piece of design and workmanship and I congratulate all those involved in its production.
But my main point is that I don't want to be fiddling with computers (yet again) to enjoy music. I think that there are rather more of us out there than some people think. Sales of classical CDs (and SACDs when they get released) are holding up very well.
I do look forward to the day when accessing the internet really will be as easy and quick as just turning on the TV, in other words when the technologies at last truly converge (which has been promised for ages).
But until then, the computer will be there for work and 'routine' browsing, and ordering CDs off the internet, and the hifi system will be used for enjoying music easily, with notes, and in high fidelity. True relaxation. And I do actually own a physical object in the shape of the CD. I realise many younger people don't bother about all this (most of my young colleagues have no idea what true high fidelity sounds like). But a lot of us do.
My genuine best wishes,
Steve.
I cannot help thinking that Gramophone has seriously miscalculated in its decision to abandon the covermount cd and place all its eggs in the online player basket. I am sure that there are some small commercial benefits to be had, and the editorial team will no doubt see great advantage in no longer being restricted to the 80 mins afforded by the cd. And I also take the point that the technical obtacles to listening to the online content via one's hi-fi system are minor ones. Nonetheless I think the decision to lose the cd is a huge mistake.
Let me try to convey why I think this. I spend virtually all day, particularly when working from home, sitting in front of my computer fending off mountains of email and battling with the range of websites and online 'tools' connected with my work. I am often in my study (spare bedroom) from 5.00 in the morning till well into the evening. Suffice it to say that when I come to have some time to myself I have had a bellyfull of clicking, scrolling, passwords, online messages, and the like. At the end of such a day it has been my occasional pleasure to shut the door of my study behind me, withdraw to the living room, pour myself a glass of something, put the cd in the player and put my feet up with Gramaphone magazine. The last thing I would even begin to contemplate by way of relaxing after such a day is to start fiddling with a computer again. The fact that I have never visited this site until today, despite the fact that I count myself as one of Gramophone's greatest admirers, is testament to my total indifference to online content. That I have taken time out of today's schedule to fiddle about with passwords, registering and logins simply to send this message indicates the extent of my frustration at Gramophone's change of policy.
I have long enjoyed the quality of writing in Gramophone but the overall experience for me will be much diminished by the absence of any aural accompaniment. A time will probably come when hi-fi/tv and the like are interconnected as a matter of course with the internet in such a way that doesn't require the cumbersome computer-type interface. But quite frankly the idea of my setting up a laptop next to my hi-fi in the living room is laughable. Incidentally, has no one even considered the noise computers make - a problem that professional studios have to go to great lengths to resolve.
It is with great sadness, therefore, that after several decades purchasing Gramophone, and being a subscriber for 10 years, that I have this morning cancelled my subscription. From now on I shall have to seek out some other form of reading for pleasure.