Why Listeners Need to Win the Loudness War

There has been a growing trend in recent years that has is becoming an imminent threat to audiophiles everywhere: "The Loudness War".  Record labels have been consistently releasing loudly mastered recordings and there is no sign of them stopping. These loud recordings lack musical integrity and are depriving music lovers of a true, unaltered performance.

In a nutshell, the “Loudness War” is a term adopted by sound engineers that refers to the longtime trend for record labels and the artists that they represent to master and release their music louder than their competition. The practice began in jukebox age of the 1950s, where record producers milked 45s to make them noticeably louder than their competition; they argued that this was necessary because the commonly inconvenient volume knobs on the machines could not be easily accessed to change the volume of songs.

Since that time, the Loudness War has been justified by one somewhat mythical marketing observation: “Loud sells”. Label heads believed that if a hit record was louder than its competitors, than it would be more easily heard and recognized on the radio and on jukeboxes, giving it marketing advantage that would enable it to outsell the competition.

Think of it as TV, a medium whose broadcasters will do anything to catch attention. Viewers around the world have sent in complaints about obnoxiously loud TV advertisements being sprinkled in with calmer show and ads. Why do companies make their ads louder? To scream over their competitors’ ads, obviously. It is this same philosophy that drives The Loudness War, and consumers have grown tired of it and have successfully fought it.

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) believed that the CALM (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation) Act was certainly more popular than any other cause she had advocated during her 18-year career in the house.

“If I’d saved 50 million children from some malady, people would not have the interest that they have in this,” said Eshoo.

She was right: while America is divided on many key issues, the public was able to swiftly reach its consensus on overly-loud TV ads. President Obama signed the CALM Act into law on December 15, 2010, and viewers rejoiced their liberation from loudness. However, music listeners have been fighting a lesser known loudness war of their own. If viewers won one loudness war, then why can’t listeners win another?

Leading record labels are the main cause to blame for louder records, and their dominance in the music industry means the public at a disadvantage in the fight.

Thankfully, vinyl records were able to hold off the Loudness War for a few years, as those mastering the discs knew that if they were produced too loud, listener’s styli would fly out of the grooves and cause expensive damage. This is not to say that they didn’t milk the format, as I have several records in my collection that are especially loud (Styx’s The Grand Illusion, for example).

In 1983, however, the music industry received a new weapon in their arsenal that has been comparable in strength to the nuclear bomb: the CD. The format quickly superseded records, thanks to its highly touted bass range and capability for dynamic contrast. Although record producers definitely took advantage of these new capabilities, they only did so to make louder music lacking dynamic contrast.

All instruments can produce both loud and soft notes; the difference between these notes is called dynamic contrast.  Dynamics have fallen victim to loudness, as you simply can’t have one without the other. In other words, record producers compress music on digital formats to make it louder, sacrificing dynamics.  On the flip side of the coin, there must be dynamic contrast in music in order to preserve its subtleties.

Dynamic contrast, in the opinion of many musicians and connoisseurs of music, is what makes the art interesting and powerful. There is nothing like a quiet passage that slowly creeps up on the listener until it eventually jumps out with full force. However, the Loudness War has killed dynamic contrast and has removed these charms from music.

Notice how much more dynamic contrast is present in Joe Jackson's original 1984 release of Body and Soul (top) than its 1997 remaster (bottom). Many album remasters heavily compress the original work. 

Think of it as typography. Fonts used to be beautifully hand-written and finessed. Typographers would spend hours honing their craft to make a living. However, as the computer age brought along a revolution in design, typography faded away—and so did all of the beautiful subtleties associated with it. Similarly, loudness is destroying the subtleties of music and hard work of the artists that create it.

The Loudness War is no longer just a war between record labels for sales: it has become a war against the artistic value of music. Viable new works might never a true, high fidelity release and classic works have been slaughtered by boatloads of loudness and compression. Need evidence? Watch this video by mastering engineer Ian Shepherd, analyzing the progressive decline of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. I’ll wait.

Notice how the later, louder remasters sounded less powerful? Michael Jackson isn’t the only victim of loudness, with works by Billy Joel, The Smashing Pumpkins, and others losing their dynamic range and their punch.

Listeners need to stand up for their music if they ever plan on listening to it with dynamics ever again. Fortunately, many have already realized that there is a problem with their music. Some have noted how annoying listening to loud recordings can be.

“When you're through listening to a whole album of this highly compressed music, your ear is fatigued, said Ludwig. “You may have enjoyed the music but you don't really feel like going back and listening to it again.”

I would have to agree with him on that one. Much of the music on my phone is loud and compressed, and I sometimes find myself with a headache following a long car ride of listening to that music.

That is not music listeners’ only trace of consciousness, as many Metallica fans will tell you. The band’s 2008 album Death Magnetic sparked controversy upon release due to its loud and heavily compressed mix. Some hardcore fans of the band could not bear to listen to it. Shepherd later discovered that the version of the album available in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock somehow escaped the Loudness War, intriguing many fans as to how it did so.

According to Rolling Stone, “Shepherd discovered that the CD is boosted as much as compressively possible, making it 10 decibels louder than the GH version while completely bleaching out the dynamic range.”

The Guitar Hero version of Death Magnetic (top) sounds much more pure than the actual CD release (top).

If artists receive enough backlash for such blunders, record labels might finally get the point and make their releases quieter.

Apple has already set forth to solve the loudness problem with its Sound Check feature on iTunes Radio, an Apple Music service. The feature, which cannot be disabled, normalizes the volume levels of all songs so that no single song can be louder than the others. This puts compressed recordings at a disadvantage because they now lack dynamic contrast and loudness.

“iTunes Radio is already so popular that it will end the loudness race by force majeure,” said American mastering engineer Bob Katz. “This development is a great opportunity for producers to explain and demonstrate to their clients how to make their songs sound better on iTunes Radio and everywhere else.”

We as music listeners must unite to preserve the flavor of music. The music industry needs to know that we want true high fidelity music, not compressed noise.

Happy Listening,

Alex

“The Loudness War is a sonic “arms race” where every artist and label feel they need to crush their music onto CD at the highest possible level, for fear of not being “competitive” – and in the process removing all the contrast, all the light, shade and depth – ruining the sound.”-Ian Shepherd

Vinyl Sales Surge

Vinyl has been making a large comeback in the past few years, thanks in no small part to creative new releases by popular artists. It was thought to be laid to rest by CDs and digital downloads, but it has somehow managed to prevail.

Nielsen Music, revered for its analysis of music sales, has concluded from statistics so far this year that 9 percent of all physical music sales were from the vinyl format. That may not sound like much, but it is pretty remarkable considering the recent dominance of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. In fact, the digital album sales services that were once touted as "the future of music" have begun to secede to these services.

Nielsen has also confirmed that the vinyl sales have yet to reach their peak: vinyl sales saw a 52 percent increase between 2013 and last year.

"They are coming back to vinyl again because they find vinyl is more fun," stated record store owner Joseph GaNun.

Few people saw this coming. Vinyl was rendered outdated in the late 1980s, first by compact and convenient cassette tapes and later by crystal-clear CDs. Information from the Recording Industry Association of America has revealed the sharp decline in vinyl sales: around 450 million units were sold in the year 1979, but less than 150 million units were being sold annually by 1987. Although the Britpop movement of the late 1990s brought in a minor vinyl fad, annual sales of the medium never began to increase until 2007.

Vinyl sales experienced a downturn throughout the 1980s, but now the format is growing popular with music fans (Courtesy of  Digital Music News)

Why has vinyl come back? There doesn't seem to be one definite answer. One factor may be what music commentator Simon Reynolds has called "Retromania". Older generations become nostalgic around the format that they grew up with and younger ones are amazed to be using the antique technology for the first time.

Nostalgia isn't the only reason for the revival, however. In the eyes of DJ and vinyl entrepreneur Colleen Murphy, vinyl is an intimate medium that forces people to have a deeper connection with their music.

"The other thing with vinyl is, you have to interact with it. You have to engage," said Murphy. She couldn't be more correct. When playing a record, one has to take it out of several different sleeves and must be willing to flip it over after the first side had played. Those listening to CDs can simply place their album of choice in the tray and press play.

Another reason for vinyl's return is its unique, warm and natural sound that is cherished by millions of listeners. Modern digital formats--despite their accuracy and lack of surface noise--are incapable of providing such a sound.

In Murphy's opinion, "When you listen to CDs after you've been listening to vinyl for a long time, it sounds a bit...synthetic."

Vinyl is also appreciated for not just containing a work of musical art, but for being a work of visual art itself. Artists over the years have made creative use of vinyl packaging over the years, and the records themselves have been released in many colors and patterns. The artistic nature of the format is mainly what seems to be drawing people in. Musicol, a Columbus-area record plant, has seen its color vinyl output shift from ten percent to fifty percent over the past few years.

Many hot-ticket artists have lent their creativity to the revival, one of them being Jack White. According to Nielsen, White's Lazaretto was last year's best selling album on the vinyl format, grossing the highest amount of yearly sales of any album on the format since 1991. Since that's the year that the company began to track album sales, Lazaretto has sold more vinyl copies in one year than any other album that Nielsen has tracked in its history.

Why has it been such a hot seller? Believe it or not, it's not just the critically acclaimed music on the record. An overachiever at heart, White set out to reinvent the wheel when creating the "Ultra" edition of his release. SPIN has listed many of its features, including a side that plays from the inside out, hidden tracks that play at 45 and 78 RPM and a floating angel hologram that moves while the record is playing.

Side One of Lazaretto, which starts where the record would normally end. (Courtesy of Engadget)

White is not alone, however, as many artists have released special colored records for Record Store Day, a day created to celebrate the vinyl format and the independent stores responsible for keeping it alive.

With the vinyl industry at a 20 year high, some wonder whether or not this resurgence is just a temporary fad. "Fat" Mike Burkett, musician and founder of Fat Wreck Chords, thinks that vinyl will be cherished for years to come.

"I think that vinyl will always be here," said Burkett. "I mean, it hasn't died--it should have died 20 years ago--but now it's getting more popular."

There is a slight chance that vinyl may become the dominant physical format for music as streaming and digital downloads slowly kill the CD. However, whether this happens or not, vinyl will always have a devoted fan base to keep the ball rolling.

Now why do I care about all of this? It all goes back to one of my favorite quotes from the late John Peel:

"Somebody was trying to tell me that CDs are better than vinyl because they don't have any surface noise. I said, 'Listen, mate, life has surface noise."

Happy Listening,

Alex