Piyu Highlights The Decline In Music Hearing Quality In The Digital Age

Guitarist Padi Reborn, Piyu (Ivan Two Men/VOI)

JAKARTA - The increasingly massive development of digital technology in the music industry has drawn serious attention from PADI Reborn guitarist, Satriyo Yudi Wahono or who is familiarly called Piyu.

In his view, the ease of spreading works through digital platforms is like a double-edged sword which fundamentally erodes the essence of audio quality while changing the habits of music listeners.

Musicians, said Piyu, cannot deny or avoid this wave of technology.

"We musicians or artists cannot avoid technology," said Piyu in Senayan, Central Jakarta recently.

On the one hand, technology does offer tremendous speed to reach listeners around the world. However, the consequences behind this speed, according to him, are much more worrying.

Piyu specifically highlighted the decline in audio quality that occurred in a musical work. This phenomenon is seen as a direct impact of the need to share data instantly.

"So, the music that we should listen to with audio quality like this (good), has finally decreased," said the 52-year-old musician.

The decline in quality occurred due to the process of embedding data (compression) so that it could be distributed quickly. "Because it must be shared quickly. If for example it is shared quickly, automatically the data must be compressed, the data must be reduced," said the seasoned musician.

More than just audio quality, the ease of access offered by the digital era also shapes the behavior of new listeners who are criticized as less patient and tend to be lazy.

Piyu observes the habit of listeners who now like to pass or scroll through a song in just the first second without giving it the opportunity to listen to the end.

"So don't, don't be easy to scroll. Just listen to the intro, 'oh, it's not good', it's scrolled. Even though the point is behind," he said.

This behavior seems to be a new challenge for musicians to maintain the attention of their audience.

Responding to the two-sided challenges of compressed audio quality and the shrinking range of listeners' attention PADI Reborn even designed a special writing strategy on their latest single. The strategy was created to "force" listeners to enjoy the composition in its entirety, from the opening to the end.

"That's why we made this new single, we put everything complete. So the intro is there, after that the verse is there, the chorus is there, until the melody is behind," concluded Piyu.