The recording of music is, in itself, a wonderful thing, allowing music to reach much larger numbers than would otherwise be possible. It does seem like one of the few really good things to have come out of the industrialisation and technologisation of the Earth. However, the commodification of recorded music is another matter. It was problematic from the start - destined to destroy itself, as it appears to be doing presently. As soon as recordings could be made, copies could be made. An owner of the earliest wax cylinder player could presumably have also purchased a wax cylinder recorder and produced ‘pirate copies’ of commercially available cylinders. It just would have been rather expensive and complicated.

With the advent of cassette recorders in the 1970’s, while LP's were still the primary commercial format, the "music industry" issued the alarmist claim HOME TAPING IS KILLING MUSIC. With hindsight (and historical context) this was ridiculous. There was a huge amount of home taping going on in the 80’s and 90’s. The "music industry" may have become increasingly diseased, but the totality of human music-making is as healthy as ever.

CD's and CD burners meant incredibly cheap, perfect copies. The situation was snowballing at this point. With the rise of P2P, we have heard more extreme claims being made that "music" is under mortal attack. In reality, it's the "industry" which is being threatened, and this is just the result of the paradoxical nature of trying to package up and sell something as non-material as music. People will continue to make music, regardless of economic realities. People were making music before they invented the idea of "money". Music won't die, but the means by which it is propagated may well change. We are in a very interesting transitionary period. Particular formats have dissolved into pure data. COTD is trying to attune itself to the situation and make the most of the available possibilities.

Many wonderful performances have been tarnished by musicians finishing with the slightly apologetic announcement to an ecstatic, transported audience that "We've got CDs for sale". Music has unfortunately become far too product-oriented, and we hope this will soon change. COTD isn't going to try to sell you a product. You're welcome to our music.