Paper short abstract:

Examining both the analogue/digital divide and the importance materialities play in music consumption, I evidence the complicated role that notions of decomposition play in the production and valuation of recorded music commodities.

Paper long abstract:

For listening purposes, music collectors often evaluate the digital domain of music commodities (CDs, MP3s) as being inferior in comparison with analogue formats (vinyl, tape). However, a simply aural analogue/digital distinction too crudely distils the material differences between media formats. The 'organic' decomposition of vinyl and its card sleeves are both banes for collectors and a source of the format's allure as a historically authentic audio document, whilst the 'inorganic' plastics of cassette tape and CDs cases, MP3 players and computers are largely derided as being fungible, 'soulless' and having aesthetically challenging modes of decay. Recognising this, there exist record labels attempting to challenge such a divide by creating CD and digital packages that decay and age 'organically' like their analogue counterparts. Often the musics issued originate from historical archives, and are analogue recordings being re-presented in digital formats. I therefore examine decomposition not just as a problematic process of loss, but as a tool for adding value to objects and commodities. Decomposition is an aesthetic process, which designers of music commodities can harness to add organic/analogue characteristics to ideologically inorganic/digital commodities. For collectors, being able to curate collections that 'age gracefully' whilst avoiding decrepitude lends legitimacy to their often derided popular stigma as mere hoarders of inessential goods. Drawing on fieldwork in the USA with collectors and independent record labels, I evidence how modes of decay are potentially positive aspects of design and production, curation and consumption, rather than simply a negative form of degradation.