In this blog post, we will look at how listening to music has changed in the digital age and compare the advantages of digital media with analog media.
Nowadays, listening to music stored on our smartphones is already a familiar thing for us. Ten years ago, cassette tapes and cassette players were commonplace, but today, some young students have never even seen a vinyl record or cassette tape. The modern era is often referred to as the digital age, and the opposite of digital is analog. The terms analog and digital refer to how information is processed and stored. Music, one of the cultures that humans have enjoyed for a very long time, has also undergone significant changes in the digital age. Music, or more essentially, sound, is expressed as a wave. A wave can be described as a vibration of energy, and the size of the vibration is called the amplitude. When the amplitude that changes over time is represented by a connected line, we obtain the time-amplitude curve that we commonly see. This is called a waveform. Knowing the waveform of a sound means that the sound can be reproduced. Sound media are a means of storing these time-amplitude curves. Analog sound media, such as vinyl records and cassette tapes, record waveforms as they are.
In other words, the actual waveform is engraved on the plate or film. When played back, the engraved waveform is read, amplified, and played back.
In contrast, digital media divide the waveform into small units of time and store the amplitude at each point in time as a number. This process is called analog-to-digital conversion. The degree to which time is divided during this conversion process is called the sampling rate, and the degree of detail when digitizing is called the bit depth. The quality of the sound source is determined by these values. For example, the specifications of a music CD, 44.1kHz and 16-bit, mean that one second is divided into 44,100 parts and stored in 2 to the power of 16 different levels of detail. To play back the music, these numbers are converted back into analog form, or sound.
Another major advantage of digital audio is its convenience and accessibility. We can now easily find and listen to the music we want anytime, anywhere, via our smartphones and computers. Internet streaming services offer vast music libraries, allowing users to discover and enjoy new music with just a few clicks. This shows how innovatively the way we consume music has changed compared to the past.
It is no longer necessary to purchase or store physical media, and we can now access a wide variety of music without space limitations. Have you ever experienced the sound quality of your favorite cassette tape deteriorating after listening to it repeatedly? Analog media wears out with use, causing the sound to differ from the original recording. It is similar to a pencil wearing down.
The pointed parts wear down more easily and become blunt, which weakens the high frequencies and eventually causes the sound to become muffled. We tend to perceive this sound as “old.” Analog media cannot stand the test of time. In contrast, digital audio media stores information as numbers, so even if it is used many times, there is no deterioration or change in content. If there are no problems, it can be stored forever. Furthermore, digital storage devices are small and easy to handle compared to their storage capacity, so unless there are special circumstances, it has become rare to see analog audio media.
It is ironic and interesting that recent digital audio is becoming increasingly high-spec, with the aim of becoming more similar to the original sound, i.e., analog. Technologies such as Hi-Res Audio demonstrate efforts to reproduce even the smallest details of sound quality. Ultimately, this can be seen as an attempt by digital technology to imitate the warm and natural sound of analog.
In addition, with the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, music recommendation systems have advanced, enabling users to automatically receive recommendations for music that suits their tastes. This enables the personalization of music consumption, enriching and diversifying the musical experience of each individual. For example, services such as Spotify and Apple Music analyze users’ listening history to provide customized playlists. This increases opportunities for users to discover and enjoy new music.
Let’s look forward to the development of digital music that will one day achieve both perfect sound reproduction and eternal preservation. The evolution of digital music is endless, and new possibilities will continue to open up with the advancement of technology. In the digital age, music is no longer just entertainment, but an important part of our lives.
