Sting: Apps Will Replace CDs

Just in time to promote his new (free) app, Sting is hailing the medium as the future of music distribution. We could have told you that, Sting! Here's the former frontman's full quote, as told to Billboard:

"People are going to stop buying CDs. People are going to stop selling and making them, so I am looking for different ways to get music to people, and the [app] at the moment seems to be the favorite...The app is the new model. It's very full and can also be constantly updated, so it's not a static thing. It's organic."

The Sting 25 app, available this week, is a "digital documentary" of Sting's quarter century-long solo career. It's free, Sting explained, because "we don't know how much it's worth." Ahead in Stingconomics 101: how to claim your very own free elephant nurse.

(via Music Week, CBS)

Comments

[SanJoaquinValleyGrower]

11:57 AM on 11/19/2011

pssst, hey sting, look into vinyl. Remember sound quality?

[maigesheng]

12:13 PM on 11/17/2011

Was there an article on Bjork, when she said this a while back?

[SpreadthePanic]

10:29 AM on 11/17/2011

The two things that people really want in their music is for it to be portable and on-demand. Audiophiles will swear up and down about the quality of vinyl, but until they figure out a way to put record players in cars that will never work for the masses. Also, so little of the albums that are made now are listenable from beginning to end. Compression sucks, so mp3 certainly isn't an optimal format... but the file sizes for FLAC and other lossless formats are enormous and it is quite a task importing them into iTunes if you want to load them onto your iPod. Even if you have another brand of portable player, it still is unlikely that you will be able to easily import these files or have enough space for more than a couple of albums worth of music. CDs are dying because instead of a CD case that takes up half your back seat to bring a few hundred albums with you, you now can have that much music and more in your pocket at any given time.

Regardless of the compromise in quality, the mp3 format, streaming audio, and apps will be preferable to the masses who want a great amount of music easily accessable, even if it means a slight difference in clarity.

[kerriberri]

10:43 AM on 11/17/2011

Good comments; had to fan you though, for your terrific screen name. Thanks for the laugh!

[Dan Dolan]

10:13 AM on 11/17/2011

I'd rather have cd's so that I can copy them, which is my right, and by that I mean to make replacement copies for myself. the DRM is crap and is just a scam to have people pay for the same music over and over an over again.

[kerriberri]

09:12 AM on 11/17/2011

No kidding. If he'd said this ten years ago, it would be prescient.

Ultimately, we will no longer be able to purchase CDs, DVDs, etc. Companies are moving to re-privatize their "possessions" and you will simply be given the option to buy a "subscription" to listen/watch (read "revenue stream").

At first the media (CD,DVD) will disappear. Then the players. Then the parts.

Overall, better for the environment, I suppose. But it almost feels like we're about to enter another cycle like the Dark Ages, doesn't it? Less knowledge, less freedom. But that phase is probably a generation or two away. If I had kids, I'd worry.

[OhioYippieHippie]

10:05 AM on 11/17/2011

the kids are revolting. i am

[kerriberri]

10:44 AM on 11/17/2011

Good for you; watch your topknot!

[RealistBC]

11:25 PM on 11/17/2011

Considering that the best music rarely gets recorded anymore, who is really losing out by not partaking of such a "generous" app offer as made by the media corporations?

[kerriberri]

07:40 AM on 11/19/2011

Good point; this is the price for constantly marketing to the LCD (lowest common denominator).

I'm just bemoaning the continual narrowing of our choices (while we're all being told--"wow, look how many CHOICES you have now--Coke or Pepsi?"

[sabelmouse]

08:44 AM on 11/17/2011

he and his wife are hypocrites who go on about environmental issues while flying from one mansion to another in their private jet.
i have no interest in anything he says or does or his music.

[jwredd]

08:52 AM on 11/17/2011

You prefer the other entertainers who fly from one mansion to the other and DON'T champion environmental causes?

[Kalik]

08:59 AM on 11/17/2011

Yes.

[sabelmouse]

09:14 AM on 11/17/2011

i don't like that kind of thing but i prefer that to hypocrisy any day.

[topkatnc]

08:54 AM on 11/17/2011

Good morning .. saw that you were trying to reply to a certain comment , well they deleted it .. I was replying to it yesterday afternoon , and when I hit post comment it said it was deleted .. don't ask me why , because I couldn't find a thing wrong with it .. but they have done that to me plenty of times .. Who knows how they take anything !

[sabelmouse]

09:13 AM on 11/17/2011

i don't know what they are doing .i did it again on the thatcher/steep thread. did you get that ?

[kerriberri]

09:18 AM on 11/17/2011

I don't know what's up here, either. More censorship or buggy software.

Am I mistaken, or have they taken out a whole tier of "reply to"? I thought that before, someone could reply to your posting, you could reply to them, and the conversation went on for one more level.

Now it's one reply to one commenter's reply. All the gift badges have disappeared as well. Any ideas?

[NoWayMan]

08:42 AM on 11/17/2011

well, he is right about physical media like CDs and DVDs going bye bye. which isn't such a bad thing on the landfills.

dunno about his new app.

[OhioYippieHippie]

08:30 AM on 11/17/2011

actually. no its vinyl. vinyl is making a comeback. for people who know, vinyl on the right system (preferably vintage) can be a life changing experience. many will say it is cumbersome and over rated, but it is generally the closest the listener can get to the original sound. And going to vintage, antique, used record stores etc, you can easily get entire classic records for 1-5$ sorry sting not everyone can afford or wants a smart phone to listen to music with little nubbins in your ears.

[funserious]

08:17 AM on 11/17/2011

No Mr. Sting, sorry.

[kerriberri]

07:46 AM on 11/19/2011

You WROTE my microbio; fanned now, even though I could do it later.

Remember Oscar Wilde's advice: "I never put off till tomorrow what I can do the day after."

[funserious]

08:07 AM on 11/19/2011

"thinkin' that thing up took forever....and then I wasn't really sure about it.....

"Never do today what can be put off until tomorrow"!

Backatcha!!! :D

[CiscoPike]

08:02 AM on 11/17/2011

You are limiting yourself to the music you can listen to by only acquiring digital music considering only about 20% of all the music that has been recorded has even been put on CD, then cut that in more than half for stuff that had been encoded into terrible sounding mp3s. Digital music is a scam and represents only the most mediocre music, I mean "marketable" music that the world has to offer. Vinyl for me please.

[Ipanema]

08:22 AM on 11/17/2011

MP3 is only good for Rock music, which typically does not have much dynamic range at all (loud all the time). Once one gets to more nuanced music, such as Classical and Jazz, MP3 is highly inadequate. MP4 is better, but still cannot duplicate the excellent dynamic range of vinyl and the excellent low frequency response of vinyl.

[jwredd]

08:30 AM on 11/17/2011

What do you think Miles Davis would have said about your micro-bio?

[CiscoPike]

09:39 AM on 11/17/2011

Miles was great, an icon, but he didn't like Eric Dolphy, so he was flawed

[Andrew Chaplowitz]

07:38 AM on 11/17/2011

It seems that only yesterday that I bought my first CD player and was astounded by the clarity and sonic reproduction. Granted, I never had high-end audiophile equipment, so I understand how vinyl affficianados will beg to differ. Nevertheless, it was Leonard Bernstein who called the compact disc one of the greatest inventions ever (sic).

But do the apps suffer from generation loss? Does Gen Y/X care?

Yes, the landscape of how music is distributed has gone through a paradigm shift, and with the exception of American Idol winners, the days of huge contracts and gold-sellers are over.

In an interview with Daryl Hall, he stated that the up-and-coming understand this. And speaking of Mr. Hall, what an ingenius idea by him by launching "Live From Daryl's House". Brilliant!

[PeterLoffredo]

06:53 AM on 11/17/2011

Check out the new single, "Working Class Hero," released by sycicWALRUS, from the upcoming "CITY ROCK" album here: http://www.facebook.com/sycicWALRUS?sk=app_155326481208883
www.cityrock.tv

[SocialNote47]

06:41 AM on 11/17/2011

I hope not. I like using C.D. and DVD's. Plus i really don't understand how to done load on the I pod's.. Now i feel like my mother.. oy vey..

[ennui the third]

06:05 AM on 11/17/2011

Of course this guy's music is free...no one wants to buy his boring garbage....as far as cd's being a thing of the past, so is Sting....he ripped off reggae with his original group, his "world" music is as ridiculous as his toupee, and he is dull.......

[gr8bsn]

05:40 AM on 11/17/2011

The irony: I have been listening to the Police in uncompressed glory on my studio monitors all morning.

[Swedenworks]

06:40 AM on 11/17/2011

Sorry to hear that. Probabaly the most dated sounding music out there. His music is quite awful.

[frank day]

07:24 AM on 11/17/2011

Why do you feel the need to insult other people's taste in music.

I still enjoy the Police and Sting. To each their own.

[Jeffreygeez]

08:48 AM on 11/17/2011

I guess that expalins why he never made it big in the music business.You knew that all along and should have told him not to waste his time. Dated? yesterday in fact is dated.