SouthSIDE Glen
independentrecording.net
The answer to that hinges upon just what one's definition of mastering/finishing/finalizing actually is, which is the subject we're all kind of dancing around here.
I think there's no question that the Internet has a great influence on this question for at least two reasons: the increase in release and download of singles via the internet, and the tailoring of mixes to work under the constraints of the MP3 format and various streaming formats. In this sense, if one were to take the broad definition of "mastering" - i.e. the preparation of a track or collection of tracks for printing to it's final distribution medium - then, yes, I think the mastering of individual tracks for Internet distribution will increase in the short- and mid-term.
I think this is just a fashion swing, however, not unlike the swing to the popularity of 45RPM singles was in the 60s (though for quite different reasons.) As ultra-wide bandwidth access to the Net becomes ubiquitious and/or standards develop for lossless compression, the need to master to the straightjackets of bandwidth will swing back to the purer standards of mastering for maximum sonic quality. Add to that the probability (IMHO) that the public will demand more than one song at a time from their favorite artists - at the same time the creative artists besting their competition by releasing two or three hits at a time instead of just one - and the idea of at least mini-albums and eventually albums will become popular agian. Plus the public will have the bandwidth to make full-album (with video, even?) downloads quite feasable.
Everything swings on a pendulum, and just like a pendulum the swing back is never quite the same as it was the first time. So while we are currently on the one hit download side of the swing, that won't last forever, and we'll just swing back to a future multi-track release popularization similar to, but not identical to, today's album releases.
What I also hope won't last forever, and what I see as a far bigger issue from the technical standpoint, is the idea that "mastering" is just the second half of mixing. Far too many home recordists, IMHO, just phone in the mixing and expect to actually fix it in mastering. That is NOT what mastering is supposed to be all about, regardless of whether the mix will wind up on a meSpace stream or on a Sony label SACD.
G.
