John's Guide 2 Music - with this blog I would like to express my appreciation for music and convey my enthusiasm especially for music which in our fast-moving times can fall into oblivion soon after its release, and unfortunately this happens far too often, as the music industry and the media are mainly concerned with the marketing and selling of new releases. This blog is in correspondence with my YouTube channel of the same name soon to be launched.

John's Guide 2 Music is a place where the spotlight is on the music recordings of the last 70 years or so (that is, roughly since the long-playing record has been around), music that deserves to excite not only me and a chosen few, but that has the potential to be accepted and loved by many people who, until now, had no idea about these releases. There’s so much great music out there, it can make people's lives happier, enrich our culture and inspire young people in particular.

Beyond just music, I‘d like to point out the great formats that are also in danger of falling into insignificance in the age of Streaming: the CD and especially the vinyl record, which, luckily, has acquired an aura of coolness in recent years - almost every self-respecting artist these days also releases their new album on vinyl. It makes a big difference whether you listen to a great piece of music in the context of a streaming playlist without learning anything about the background of this piece, or whether you hold a CD booklet or even a vinyl gatefold cover in your hand and there you can get information about the place, the time and the people involved in the production, not to mention the pleasure of looking at such a record cover and its artistic design in peace, while the needle turns its tracks through the grooves of the record.
I want to point out the idiosyncrasies of the music and relate it to other music, and finally emphasize the great joy of listening to music.

John's Guide 2 Music is about appreciating the things around us. Let's remember "Slow Food," which began as a movement back in the mid-1980s. For some years now, filmmakers have been shooting again with 16mm, 35mm or even 70mm film, photographers are shooting again with analog cameras, and there are cineastes who are reinstating the old film projectors, which had already been dismissed as antique and often ended up in the junkyard, in order to recreate the original cinema experience. It's thanks to the vision and persistent efforts of a few enthusiasts who made the impossible possible that the Polaroid Instagram is once again available for purchase. These are just a few examples.

It is in this context that John's Guide 2 Music is placed. Taking time again to get to know music well, like a good friend who accompanies you through life, finding an alternative in the enjoyment of music to the digital, super-fast, super-volatile world, to the speed, convenience and cost savings of digital access. Life is too short to constantly rush through it.

You can find John's Guide 2 Music here on Blogger and on YouTube, both on the Internet, both sites with different focuses, but always on the theme of music. This shows what my stance is on the relationship between digital and analog. Digital is not the enemy. We need digital in an incredible number of situations. But the analog world is our real world, where we can use all our senses, including smell and touch. The digital world has its limits, and even the digital companies are now realizing that.

Streaming is convenient and a good way for certain situations to listen to music. The bit rate for audio CDs is always 1,411 kilobits per second (Kbps). For the MP3 format, the bit rate is between 96 and 320 Kbps, and for streaming services, between 96 and 160 Kbps. Due to its completely analog concept, the vinyl record has no compression at all. These numbers alone give an idea of how much better the sound is with CDs and vinyl compared to streaming services. As far as availability is concerned, there’s the good old record store, and on the net “Discogs”, among other platforms. There you can find either new vinyl releases or used records, and the same goes for CDs.
The home music selection says a lot about the character of the person who lives there, it’s a way of expressing one's individuality. It’s also a way to pay one's respect to the artists for producing this music in the first place, since by buying the music they are paid for their work. Being willing to pay for the music you love is a prerequisite for good music to continue to exist in the future. And if the enthusiasm for one's favorite music makes one go to concerts and enjoy the special thrill of a live performance, which cannot be replaced by anything else, then music has been given the importance it should have.

I’m not, however, concerned with a purist attitude that translates into “Vinyl-Only” and “CDs suck”. If we do that, then we won't be able to play most of the releases from the 1990s and the 2000s at all, since the vast majority was only released as CD then. It's also not about highlighting sinfully expensive audiophile special releases that only a very few can afford; most of the time there are less expensive releases that also sound very good. Of course, the much-vaunted advantages of vinyl records are not taken out of the air, but I leave the quibbles about the quality of sound to others who can also afford the high-end equipment that goes with it, whose top-of-the-line products are as expensive as top-of-the-line cars. There are also hi-fi systems a few levels below that will warm your heart or sweep you off your feet. The best thing is to listen to the devices you are thinking of buying with your favorite records or CDs, because everyone has a different definition of a super sound. For me, one of the greatest charms of the vinyl record lies in the large covers, sometimes gatefolds, sometimes with printed inner sleeves, this haptic experience is quite unique. I wish that the great music you can encounter at John's Guide 2 Music enriches your life and makes you a little (or rather a lot) happy.

My name, as you've already guessed, is John.

Welcome to John's Guide 2 Music!