As the home recording sessions have proceeded for my fourth studio album, one internal debate has taken center stage in reckoning with the future of my music career:

Should I still release independent albums in physical CD form, or should I go completely digital?  Does anyone even buy CDs outside of a live gig situation anymore, or do they now prefer downloads?

Haven't heard much from CD Baby lately (for the layman, this is a middleman company that sells artist's CDs over the net and also has digital distribution options for one's music)...A vigorously touring solo artist named Seth Horan is declaring his new record to be his last physical CD release ever.  Current circumstances all seem to be funneling the industry and listener alike towards the MP3 as the new universal format.

So what the hell am I going to do?  I've been constantly dwelling on this over the past two years.  And I think I've finally come to a decision.

I’m going to continue making CDs as long as the concomitant technology to support the format still exists, and as long as enough people own CD players to make it tenable.  There are both objective and subjective reasons behind this choice, but the main stance behind my decision, which I feel to be an objective one, comes down to sound quality.

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I'm currently reading a fascinating new book called Perfecting Sound Forever:  An Aural History of Recorded Music by Greg Milner, in which he describes the evolution of various recording mediums and their respective pros and cons.  I'm not sure as of yet how much of his dogma dovetails with my own, but his overall breakdown is not dissimilar from the following.

The production of consumer music has almost always interfered with the sound quality of commercial recordings.  In the early phonograph days an artist would literally cut tracks live directly onto a wax master, which was then used as a template for pressing.  The novelty of that new technology, which captured performances that could be played time and again, ultimately couldn't outweigh its non-durable, scratchy, hollow timbre.

The vinyl format experienced noticeable improvements over the course of a few decades until the advent of magnetic tape, which was a quantum leap forward in terms of fidelity, but unrealistic as a mass commercial medium (at least until the introduction of cassette and 8-track tapes, which were a more functional adjunct for use in automobiles).

Tape is capable of capturing a truer sound and can handle a higher signal load than vinyl; too much bass, for instance, can have a catastrophic effect on a record player's ability to convey sound, as it does this physically and not magnetically.  Too much frequency representation on vinyl equals too much movement for too delicate a conveyance medium.  The mastering process for vinyl reduces excess frequencies, literally squeezing the soundscape into a more limited range.  So the end result is a drastically reduced sound picture than what the original master tapes suggest, representing a new kind of disappointment for artists, engineers and producers alike, who all work too hard to brook such a loss in sound quality.

Most audiophiles had a quarter inch reel-to-reel in their high-end systems for a time.  But tape, if not properly maintained, deteriorates much more completely than vinyl.  Records can transmute a few minor pops or scratches into "character" or "vintage charm" whereas tape can disintegrate altogether, especially if it is excessively played (how many times did we wear out our favorite tape cassettes all those years ago?).

Digital audiotape was poised to take over before the CD arrived, probably due to cost impediments, commercial impracticality, and durability.  It became another unexplored addition to the audiophile's collection of high-end listening technology, assuming its own obscure place next to the dusty reel-to-reel.

The compact disc was a remedy to the cost/benefit conundrum in that here was a relatively inexpensive medium which, although it initially lacked sufficient aural quality for some pundits, was able to convey a much more complete sound picture, and at comparable if not cheaper cost.  Its smaller size also increased its portability, making it an even more viable alternative to vinyl.  And its durability far eclipses that of vinyl or tape, as scratches are easily mitigated via laser technology, or buffed out physically.

Which leads us to the MP3 and other purely digital formats that seem poised to take over.  There is no doubt as to the ease of distribution and file sharing of this medium, and with no physical production cost it is the cheapest method of mass distribution invented thus far.  There is even a "green" element congruent with modern environmental protection trends, as there is no physical industrial byproduct other than that from the hardware supporting the format.  The only potential hazard of the digital medium is the impermanence of storage; computers and drives can crash, and data can be lost forever.

But with the MP3 the sound quality has taken a noticeable step backward, from the reduced sonic range of the digital files (and the fallout of the "Loudness war," where subtlety and dynamics have been sacrificed to excessive compression and competitive volume), to the way most people now listen to these tracks (mostly on tiny iPod earbuds or diminutive speaker systems).

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Which brings me to the subjective portion of the reasoning behind my decision.

At the very least, I believe that CDs, if recorded, mixed and mastered correctly, can sound better than MP3s that exist solely in digital format.  I want to buck the trends and steer clear of overly compressed and amplified music that is stripped of dynamic peaks and valleys and ergo emotional power.  I want my music to BREATHE, to have life, to convey feeling, to embody the qualities that once made it ART and not purely COMMERCE.  I want my music to be capitalism-free (or at least commerce-lite).

My records will abstain from loudness war heroics and shine instead through subtlety.  To really hear it, you will literally have to take out your ear buds, get out of your car and otherwise throw it on a good stereo system and sit and LISTEN to it.  Music has become background noise and I feel it should be a soundtrack to a life, something one pays attention to, something that carries personal MEANING, something with which one can connect and be moved by.

Maybe I can even convert some of the younger denizens to the listening experience in a more active way, get them to trade their background iPod music transience for a bedroom headphone sit-down, get them engaged in a pure listening process like it used to go down back in the day.

I want to try and keep the album alive as an art form.  I want to feel the joy of seeing a nice cover illustration and a little poster insert of the lyrics, and connect with like-minded individuals, pass it on at the shows to whoever's interested.  Hell, maybe I'll even press some copies on vinyl...because I think these are the kinds of people I want as fans, the people who feel the same way about commercially released music as art and are sticking to their guns.

I've made my decision and I'm sticking to it.  What a relief.