Is It Still A Record?

The other day I was talking to a friend about the recording process I’ve experienced in the past and what I’m doing today (mostly with Logic X as my DAW and composition tool).  We talked about recordings I liked and I went to my laptop where all of my CDs have been ripped to MP3s and played a few “records” for him to demonstrated some of our points in the conversation. I also   I kept calling them “records” throughout the conversation and realized, every time I used the word, that I was not being accurate calling these things “records” if every one was once a CD and is now an MP3 file on my computer. Vinyl, most of these songs never were in any noticeable quantity.

Then, I thought, “It is a record.”

One of the several definitions Webster’s finds for the word is, “a piece or collection of music reproduced on a phonographic record or on another medium, such as compact disc.” While the objects I’m referring to are definitely not “a thin plastic disk carrying recorded sound, especially music, in grooves on each surface, for reproduction by a record player,” one of the other definitions Webster’s lists for the word, they are certainly a record of a moment in time while also being a recording of a moment (or many moments) in time. Music recorded, played back, and stored in any format, sequence, or packaging (or not) is a recording and a digital or analog “record.”

Obviously, this was nothing more than a minor verbal skirmish with myself and an innocent bystanders (who was not harmed in any way) about words and their context and meaning. Justifying the word in my own mind just makes conversations about music a little less complicated.