There
are huge online music stores including one
that claims to offer over 400,000 albums and
12 million downloadable tracks! But
navigating a lot of these mega-sites and
actually discovering new music you might enjoy
is like looking for a needle in a haystack. GOOD MUSIC is a drastically
smaller website, making it far easier for you to come
here and find truly good music by some
outstanding performers, including artists
you may have forgotten about or never even
heard of before, but will come to appreciate
once you encounter them here. Over the years
some truly great music has been largely
forgotten, but is being rediscovered by
old-timers plus a new generation of people who
appreciate timeless songs that are performed
well and have strong and memorable melodies.
2. We
Hand-Pick the CDs We Sell
We personally listen to every CD we
sell, and choose our favorites from scores
of CDs released by large and small labels
worldwide. Unlike the big sites, we
never accept money to promote a CD and we
don't accept outside advertisements.
We are not influenced by anything except the
quality of the MUSIC.
We comb obscure sources to find newly
remastered re-releases of classic albums,
often done on indie labels who take the time
to do the job right (as opposed to the major
labels who couldn't be bothered because
there's not as much money to be made. They
have left some incredible music go out of
print that the indies are bringing back).
Plus we hand-pick wonderful albums by some
of today's artists who actually have
t-a-l-e-n-t.
3.
You Know What You're Getting Before You Buy
We
offer you streaming medley samples
of the songs from our cloud-based servers
before you buy a CD, so you know what
you're getting.
4. CD Sound Quality
Is Far Superior to Digital Downloads
It is true that there
has been a big decline in CD sales
globally in recent years as illegal file
sharing sites have sprung up and many
people opt for the immediacy of buying
music they like via so-called "digital
downloads" from Amazon, iTunes and similar
sources. But we disagree with those who
predict the CD will go the way of the
cassette and virtually disappear entirely.
The fact is, the sound quality of a digital
download is NOT AS GOOD AS A CD!
Mp3 and similar "compressed" formats
represent a serious degradation in audio
quality. You are NOT hearing all of the
sound you would on a conventional CD. If
you compare the file size of an mp3 to an
AIFF or WAV file (found on a typical CD),
you will find that it is often only 1/10th
as big. So there is a lot of
data missing.
(We admit this applies to our streaming
samples too; we provide them to you only
so you can get an idea of what's on each
CD, but they are not as good as the
fidelity you will hear when you have the
actual CD in hand).
We ship quickly so you can have a
top-quality CD delivered to your door in a
few days. You will have something tangible
to hold onto and treasure for years to
come.
Anything worth having is worth waiting
for!
5. If You Listen on an iPod or
Smartphone, You Don't Know What You're
Missing!
The convenience of
portable listening devices means
that a lot of people are taking
their favorite tunes with them, but
they're missing out on A LOT. Those
little earplugs you use to listen to
your iPod or the mini-sized speaker
in your cellphone cannot possibly
come even remotely close to
reproducing the full frequency range
of the audio spectrum and the high
fidelity that a pair of good
speakers can provide. (Plus
be forewarned: studies show those
earphones can also damage your
hearing permanently).
Even if you burn your
own CD from digital downloads, and
listen to it on a home stereo, you
are NOT getting the same tonality
that a commercially manufacturered
CD can deliver, because your source
material is so fractionalized. (You
know the old saying, "garbage
in, garbage out.")
FYI — in case you're
interested, at our small office, we
listen to music on a restored,
vintage Marantz tuner, connected to
a pair of Bose 901 Direct/Reflecting
speakers that bring the warmth,
power and excitement of a concert
hall or movie theater to the room.
Only live sounds better. (We urge
you to buy some good speakers — even
used — which you can often find on
eBay for very little money, along
with a tuner like a Marantz and a CD
player such as any of the Pioneer
models. For a small price you will
be rewarded with spectacular sound.
And
you will learn to hate those
little iPod earphones! They
are a bad joke that consumers have
come to accept.)
6. When You Buy
Digital You're Losing Another
Important Feature
When you only buy
digital downloads, you are also
losing another very important
component of the music experience:
the liner notes which often
contain interesting photos of the
performers and information that
gives you fascinating insight into
your favorite artists. To say
nothing of the credits which are
routinely listed in a CD package,
telling you who the musicians are
who played on each track.
7. We Separate the Wheat
From the Chaff
It used to be
that radio stations and record
stores would weed out the good
stuff from the bad, and artists
thrived or faltered based almost
solely on musical merit. But
nowadays, with a few big
corporations like Clear Channel
in the U.S. gobbling up local,
independent stations, all we get
now are generic, universal
playlists. Tons of garbage is
being shoved down the throats of
consumers that would never even
reach the marketplace in years
past.
Record companies
have been taken over by
accountants and lawyers, who
sign so-called "artists" to
recording contracts despite
their lack of any discernible
musical talent whatsoever.
Big-money promotion is a
substitute for musicianship. The
advent of "auto-tune" means
vocalists can even sing off-key
and be brought on pitch
artifically through computer
software. Cutbacks in school
music programs have meant that
young people are no longer
routinely exposed to a variety
of music, or encouraged to learn
to play an instrument. Thus
there are musically illiterate
people making
noise instead of music
today.
The lack of serious musicianship
is readily apparent. As
Chicago-based singer/songwriter
Ramin Streets observes, "theloss
of melodyhas
been a major contributor to the decline
in music's standing in [modern]
culture. Traditionally,
songs have been comprised of four
ingredients, namely:melody,
rhythm, harmony and lyric.
Over the last 300-400 years, the strongest
and most memorable music ever
writtenmore
or less received equal
weight in these four areas.
Classical music saw heavier weight
applied to melody and harmony.
Then jazz, blues and later rock
each applied rhythm to a greater
extent (i.e. the rhythm section
using drums, bass and guitar).
Thisgave
energyto
the songs and to their
performances both on the turntable
and on the stage. However over the
last 30+ years so much emphasis
has been applied to beats
vs. melodythat
the rhythm seems to be all we
know. Problem isyou
can't hum or sing a beat.
You need melody for that. And,
unfortunately, many of our modern
producers only know how to address
this need bylifting
melodies from other people's
songs. This can't last.
With the proper permissions it's
legal but is effectively
cheating... The fact
thatwe
need video games to get our fixvs.
seeing the real hero perform the
real licks at a real show only
further points to the fact that adeep
seated needamongst
music lovers is justnot
being servedproperly
anymore."
8. What We Offer Here Is
Not Just Good Music...It's REAL!
Today's
modern recording techniques in
which albums are assembled
from separately-recorded
components with the musicians
doing their parts at different
times, sometimes continents
apart, has resulted in a loss
of synergism amongst
performers that only a live
recording session can create.
Much of today's music sounds
very sterile, antiseptic, and
artificial. You will realize
this — if you don't already —
when you listen to some of the
albums we sell here that were
recorded in the day when the
singer and musicians all
assembled in the studio at the
same time. It was "live," it
was "real." If someone made a
mistake, they had to stop and
start all over again. To cut a
good master required enormous
skill and perfectionism on the
part of all the participants
at a recording session. If you
listen closely on some of the
"old" tracks, you will hear
the occasional imperfection —
such as Rosemary Clooney's
bracelet making a slight noise
as she steps up to the
microphone to sing. But oh
what a voice! These
recordings breathe, they
pulsate with life! You will
thrill to how exquisite they
sound!
9. Browse Our Site
And Sample Artists You Think
You Won't Like
We strongly
encourage you to take some
time to browse our website and
click on album covers by
artists you don't even think
you'd be interested in, in
genres that don't ordinarily
attract you. Then listen to
the audio samples we've
posted. Give yourself the
opportunity to experience
something different for a
change. If you're a young
person, listen to the new CD
by Bing Crosby and Rosemary
Clooney and hear how great
they really were! Or, if
you're a Baby Boomer or older,
try listening to Matthew West
or Adele.
10. Who ARE We,
Anyway?
We are located
in a colder climate and with
our long winters, we have to
find something to do while
we're couped up indoors,
lest we get cabin fever!
Listening to music by the
fireside is one of our great
passions. So a few mutual
friends got together and
decided to create our own GOOD
MUSIC website in
what we think of as a noble
effort to share with others
the (often obscure) CDs we
have discovered.
Our little group consists of
a retired music teacher, a
retired doctor, a college
student (who is a music
major), a man who once
played in a professional
symphony orchestra but who
now holds a managerial
position in the financial
services industry, a
housewife and mother of
three pre-teen children, two
trial attorneys (solicitors)
with a combined 40 years of
legal experience, a
commercial airline pilot,
and a former recording
studio engineer who now
paints for a living. With
our diverse backgrounds we
each contribute something to
the selection of music
that's offered for sale
here. But don't stereotype
us because you might be
surprised who brings what to
the table! Some of us are
literally hands-on in
processing your orders, so
we are personally involved.
11. Our Record
Label
A few years ago we launched
our own record label, which
strictly uses recordings
that have fallen into
public domain.
(Royalties to songwriters
and publishers still have to
be paid). In the EU, sound
recordings were copyrighted
for 50 years until November
2013, at which time
copyright was extended to 70
years, but this was not
retroactive.
Countless labels large and
small have flooded the
market with p.d. recordings,
typically "best of"
repackagings. But we are NOT
a typical re-issue label. We
take a different approach.
We use new audio technology
called DES (Digitally
Extracted Stereo) to
transform material recorded
in the days of (1 channel)
monaural into STEREO for the
first time. The improvement
in sound quality is
astonishing. Old recordings
really come alive. You can
hear more details in the
original music. We are able
to subsume instrumentation
that had not been previously
well heard, separate it, and
then carefully place these
instrumental and vocal
elements across the sound
stage in a logical way
during the mixing process.
Thus we create a fresh
recording that sounds as if
the singers and musicians
just did those songs today.
In some cases we have also
have used pro musicians to
overdub tracks by iconic
artists to update the sound.
As Google explains, "Stereo
sound is generally
considered to be better than
mono sound because it can
create a more immersive and
realistic listening
experience. Stereo sound
uses two audio channels,
left and right, to separate
the different elements of a
song and give them more
space to shine. This creates
a sense of space and
directionality, allowing the
listener to perceive where
instruments or voices are
located within the audio
mix. Stereo sound can also
reproduce a wider range of
frequencies and provide a
higher level of detail than
mono sound."
So our small indie label is
unique, as is our Good Music
online store. We put
more into it than we ever
get out of it financially.
We are also dedicated
preservationists and have
tracked down previously
unissued material.
Quite honestly, profit is
not our #1 objective.
Promoting good music is.
FEEL FREE TO
WRITE US. WE'D ENJOY
HEARING FROM YOU!Our
address:
GOOD
MUSIC
Unit 33297
P.O. Box 6945
London, W1A 6US
Telephone:
+44-2033183469
For
inquiries about the status
of your CD order(s),
please send email to: support@good-music.biz(No
phone calls about orders,
please)
We hope you come back
and visit our site on a
regular basis because we
will be adding more great
CDs and new vinyl LPs in
the future. Often what we
have here will be fresh
new releases that we
will get before anybody
else, believe it or not.
That's because we're
plugged into some small
labels here and there
and often know about CDs
before they're even
released... Happy
listening!
TO CONTINUE SHOPPING OUR GOOD MUSIC STORE, CLICK HERE
