It is tempting to get fixated on format especially when Record Store Day comes around.

It is also a day to ward off amnesia: not so long ago LPs (vinyl) were seen with some justification as dead. They still only account for a tiny amount of music sales although that has mushroomed in recent years.

We have been here before. At the moment I have now (and it has taken me five or six years) switched mainly to listening to streams while CD remains my favourite physical format. CDs oddly were supposed to be obsolete by now so they share that in common with vinyl.

Format is only a means to an end. The ultimate format is performed hearing music live and in the moment with the minimum of artifice. No one can really bottle that and even live recordings in fantastic sound and boasting, the key bit, superlative performance say like EST’s Live in Hamburg or remarkable creations in the moment such as Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert never are supposed to be surrogates to the being there experience. The fact that we cannot always or at all be there, in the studio or the live venue, means we have to rely on recorded sound.

I am not sure what people want any more from recordings. Is it perfection or not? My views certainly have changed on this as my ears have got used to digital sound and after all what most people hear now via their computers or devices is a very recent kind of experience usually vastly inferior to CD sound. It takes a while to get used to it just as getting used to DAB sound on the radio was a jolt after FM.

The revival of interest in vinyl certainly indicates a desire for near as dammit tactile authenticity. And yet an array of styles such as heavily processed plastic beat driven murky electronic music and not always all jazz but certainly classic Blue Note and very quiet chamber jazz are even enhanced by the format even bearing this preference in mind. Consuming music these days is more about portability and sharing and that is something that vinyl is not good at. You cannot carry a record player around with you and you cannot email a portion of your favourite bit to your friend for shared enjoyment.

MQA is probably the future as we see it now not that it will suit everyone and may only stick around in specialist areas but choice is all: becoming an undying fan for any format to the exclusion of others is not healthy! SG