Job for a Cowboy will be dropping their best record to date, titled Sun Eater, come November 11 via Metal Blade. As always, the album is available for pre-order in a variety of physical formats. A format that bassist for the group Nick Schendzielos feels like is going away and being cheapened.
Basically, Schendzielos boils the decline of physical format down to the loss of an art form. He also brings up that we're willing to spend equal amounts of money on fleeting things like coffee, but not music. Check out his lengthy statement posted via Facebook:
"There's just something about holding it in your hands… some intangible feeling of value, of possession, that is just not there digitally. From the mystique and beauty of the printed colors of the artwork…to reading the lyric booklet as you listen along to the songs, to reading the credits and thank you lists… all these things establish such a stronger and more permanent connection to the album and the artist and that is straight up missing from today's world of Spotify, iTunes, or illegal downloading.
I love Spotify as much as the next guy, maybe even more, but the experience that came with the physical act of collecting music was such a massive part of the love of it. I miss it. So I KNOW that the generation of kids in today's musical climate are missing out on something that could enhance this all-too-quick-to-dismiss-something-if-it-doesn't-keep-my-attention-for-more-than-15-seconds-vine-instagram-hyperactive-attention-deficit-disorder-societies dire need for something of real substance.
My burrito and drink at lunch the other day came to $11.37…and they're long gone. Later that day I bought a latte for $6.94….also gone. When did we accept the argument that 10 bucks for something you could have your whole life, get untold amounts of joy from, that took months or even years of people's blood, sweat, and tears, in addition to the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars spent making the record was asking too much? Are we crazy?"
I'm a massive advocate of supporting your artist and a big vinyl collector, so I understand where he's coming from on a personal level. There's something about being able to hold the album (CD, DVD, etc.) in your hands and inspect all the little bits of information that comes with it. There's something about being able to really hold the art up close to yourself and examine all the little intricacies and everything like that, but at the same time the world is changing in a big way when it comes to the consumption of music. Namely in the form of misguided souls justifying piracy and the digitized cheapness of a product.
Where do you stand? Physical formats for life or bring on the new age?
