David Byrne on Internet Music and how it hurts artists.
Personally I don't really "get" the appeal of streaming music. If you had told me fifteen years ago: "here in the future people can buy any song they want - as a single even! - for around a buck, and have their whole music collection on a lil' walkman-like gadget!" I would have been even more surprised by the follow-up: "But the trend is to use those same gadgets as a fancy, heavily-customized-station radio that you have to pay for on a monthly basis" The latter sounds even more nuts than the former.
(Good thing I don't try to explain to my 2000-era self about Shazam and SoundHound; that stuff just feels like black magic.)
Part of it is that the vast majority of people DON'T pay for streaming. A fancy, heavily-customized-station radio that's free, with fewer ads than real radio? Yes please!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I could see that changing the equation.
DeleteFor me it does come back to my relationship with music, and wanting to form "relationships" to various songs rather than have a genre on in the background.
Then again I have no idea how people tolerate podcasts. If there on as I do something else I'm not paying attention, and if I'm free enough to focus I'd rather do something like reading. I guess for car commutes is the one exception.
I do totally agree with the "relationship with music" part of it. I still mostly prefer to listen to music that I've purchased, and have gotten to know. But I sometimes enjoy streams for either:
Delete1. Listening to music of genres that I like but I haven't necessarily purchased everything I like. For example, I listen to a good amount of 90's alternative streams. They play a lot of stuff I enjoyed from my teenage years, but that I didn't have the money to buy (And at this point, I don't feel like buying).
2. It's also nice for discovery of new albums. Plugging in something I like, then letting it find similar music is handy.
I agree about podcasts. The only time I can remotely handle them is while doing chores at home, where I need something interesting in the background. (driving could be an exception, but my commute is too short for that)