From my limited exposure, there seems to be a consensus that folks would prefer hard-copy vs. digital-only releases from lovers. This isn't meant to be an argument concerning the upcoming release, but a larger discussion concerning digital music and where media trends are headed. There are a lot of cool paradigm shifts in the works, but at the same time, I wonder if these trends aren't also making art a throw-away commodity that parallel what industry has done with digital electronics. Though, without getting overly philosophical, perhaps art should be a throw-away commodity.
I'm certainly old school -- my first ever album purchased was on an 8 track tape, my 2nd was vinyl, at which my collection exploded into cassette tapes which were eventually converted (i.e. re-purchased) as CDs. I mostly listen to music these days broadcast from my computer, phone, or truck's harddrive-based mp3 player, but all that music was ripped from CD's I own. I personally like having the tangible product for two reasons: 1) the possibility of artwork, credits, liner notes, lyrics (i.e. the artist's option to add another dimension to the 'flavor' of the album) and 2) the physical copy for my collection. Arguably, these can both come in digital form, though I think what I and other people like is more than the convenience of having these provided at the time of purchase. Whether that ineffable, yet visceral, quality is actually in the product or in the consumer's mind, I don't know.
I think to some extent the question is about reproduction. Is a digital reproduction as 'real' as a hard-copy? Is any reproduction as 'real' as a live performance? Quality is sometimes (often (always?)) lost during reproduction, for instance a photo copy of a photo copy of a photo copy. I'm not trying to make any statements about audio fidelity; that's a whole other technical discussion. I'm being more philosophical. I'm wondering what makes a hard-copy so damn alluring?
albums are great because they have all that space for artwork, but that said, for real use, i prefer cd's. my car still has a cd player, and it's only when i'm going on a trip that it's worth getting out the ipod adaptor.
there is something about holding it in your hand that makes it better, vs i acciedentally delete stuff off of my computer all the time, there is something reasureing about being able to load it right back on, vs spending hours looking for it in my computers various drives and such. it's nice to have something to hold, in addition to the art work and lyrics and everything you get with a physical product. plus there is something satifying about looking at your shelf full of cds:)
i think most of my friends would agree with me here, even if they don't actually own physical copys of their cds anymore, they admit to feeling something special about them. like when you make a mix cd, it's somehow much more personal than a tracklist you put together for someone, though these days it's virually the same amount of work. the only people i know who don't really care about the physical product, are people who don't really care about music. just grab a cd they say, cause it doesn't really matter which one it is to them.
"Is a digital reproduction as 'real' as a hard-copy? Is any reproduction as 'real' as a live performance? Quality is sometimes (often (always?)) lost during reproduction" yes and no, some of the "live ablums" i've got sound so much better than the band does live, cause they've had the chance to go though and get the right sound person and the right levels and so fourth, right off of the sound board. for instance they can make sure the everyone is playing the right song (i'm looking at your grave jerry garcia). but that said it's hard to argue with the band live in the right place being far better than anything captured on tape/mp3... and even then, when you are talking about amps and such, you can bet the sounds been manifplated before it gets to your ears, when you happen to be at a concert where te musicans playing through their amps and then forwhatever reason, the amps go out, it sounds different. sometimes better, often times worse. (ben lee playing to five of us in the fox theater=amazing sound, wilco playing to 500~1000 of us on campus somewhere = pretty bad)
I think it's just nice to have an actual copy of the music, subiminally we might be thinking the artist did this just for me, puting out of our head that it's just one of who knows how many thousands upon thousands of copys of it, this is mine, just for me.