When the Internet turned 40 late last month, I wrote a multi-part blog on the ways I thought it has ruined music. Again, I would never, ever want to go back to music in the pre-Internet days, but I do find myself lamenting some of the changes in behaviour that this technology has wrought.
Before you read any further, you make want to read those blogs and browse through the comments left behind.
Part 1 (Items 1-3); Part 2 (Items 4-8); Part 3 (Items 8-11).
As you can see, there was some good discussion about what the Internet means for music going forward. I particularly liked the comment about how the Internet may cause our brains to be rewired so that we won’t have to remember things the way we used to. Forget something? So what? Just look it up!
Another comment caught my eye. This is from Dave:
“In regards to number 6, I'm really tired of people talking about the value of music. People think music is worth less because we aren't paying $19.95 for a CD anymore? Maybe we're all realizing we've been paying way too much over the years. Look, folks, the CD/album is going to be a niche market, downloading and the cloud is where it's heading.
“Speaking of which Alan, you've been preaching streaming music for a while now, and now it sounds like you think it will devalue music, can we get a little clarification on that? As far as videos go, MTV and Much started giving up on videos long before Youtube became popular so where the hell else were we supposed to see the videos we wanted? Even when they did play videos, it was the same 12-15 artists over and over again with, for the most part, idiot VJ's. We were forced to watch the cool videos once a week on the Wedge or City Limits.
“As far as quality, yes, depending on who uploaded, it can be pretty crappy, so I don't know why more bands aren't doing what NIN is doing. They're live videos are incredible. “
Dave’s response to the $19.95 CD is typical and completely understandable. We did overpay for music for many, many years. The file-sharing explosion was a direct reaction to that perceived rip-off—and the fact that people wanted more music than they could afford. Am I glad I can get whatever song whenever I wanted it wherever I happen to be on whatever device I have handy? You bet.
But there’s a downside to this. If a scarce or controlled commodity suddenly becomes uber-cheap and uber-accessible, do we hold it as dear as we once did? Do you have the same emotional attachment to a file on a hard drive that you got for free as you do to a CD that you discovered (and paid for) in a store or bought off the stage at a gig? I guess that’s for you to decide. All I know is that when I lose a CD, I feel worse than I do when a music file gets corrupted or deleted.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that I’m spending far, far more time researching about and searching for music and less time actually savouring it. Why? Because with so much choice, I feel have to keep moving forward lest I miss something. Does that count as devaluing music? Or is it just a case of being time-stressed?
As for the cloud-based streams devaluing music, I don’t think so. That’s just a delivery mechanism. The convenience will eventually outweigh any primary attachments to the physical version. People will still buy CDs, vinyl, box sets and special editions for the foreseeable future, albeit in dwindling numbers. As soon as the legalities and the hardware issues are worked out, customized streams of both audio and video will quickly turn into the radio and TV of the 21st century. Will we love the music any less? Probably not, but we will see new attitudes and behaviours develop.
Finally, why aren’t more bands doing what NIN is doing? Time and money, really. Trent has a huge organization behind him who can devote many man-hours and processing cycles to recording, editing, uploading and otherwise curating NIN content. Since I’ve become almost 100% immersed in the online world, I’ve become very away at how much time and how many people it takes to do something truly excellent rather than just good enough.
We’re seeing a fundamental shift in the way people discover, recommend, acquire and consume music. This isn’t unlike the shift in the late 19th century where people had to become accustomed to enjoying pre-recorded music on their own schedule instead of always having to consume music through live performance.
Hey, keep the comments coming. This is gonna get real interesting...