There
was an essay in June that got quite a bit of attention on the subject of paying
for music. Actually, the blog post I read was a response to a different post,
that was in response to yet another post, and all of them relate. Here are the
links:
I
totally get the concerns about trusting the Cloud versus trusting your own
storage. If I were mostly digital, I would want backups. Even with hard copies,
it would not hurt to have backups. I’ve been writing about apocalypse and
living on the outskirts of civilization with significant loss of technology, so
I am in that frame of mind now. The other issue is more of a concern.
Actually,
it made me think about my book practices, because checking books out instead of
buying them does mean less sales for the author. If I had to buy everything I
read, I would probably read less, so I’m not sure how it would affect overall
sales, but that is a concern. Of course, if I went digital there, shelf space
would not be an issue, but I still like paper.
In
this case, what I really want is for there to be lots of fully-funded
libraries, so that lots of books are bought all the time, and I can contribute
to that, both in how I vote and in donations. There will always be people who want
to own books for re-reading or for lending or so they do not need to finish
within three weeks. I have checked books out and then purchased them for Aaron.
That is a workable model.
There’s
no equivalent for music, really, and this bothers me a lot.Here’s another link:
I
had never heard of Grizzly Bear before, and I have no idea if they’re any good,
but I think they make good points. You spend two years working on an album, and
someone isn’t even willing to spend $9? For something they will have forever?
Okay, most of my CDs cost $14, but still, for being able to listen to someone’s
heart and soul any time I want, it seems like a reasonable deal.
I
hadn’t thought a lot about the issue before, because I haven’t been downloading
music, but they were talking about concerts on the radio recently, and asking
what listeners would like to see, and people were mentioning multi-band
festivals like they used to have, and no one can afford to throw those anymore.
Bands need to rely on touring for their income now. Why? Because no one buys
the records.
You
know, touring can be a lot of fun, but it can also be really stressful, and I
hate to think of bands working themselves into nervous exhaustion or drug
dependency because they hope their kids will go to college. This isn’t even
talking about supporting lavish lifestyles for a lot of bands. If they just don’t
appeal to enough people, fine, but if you have lots of fans, but those fans
only like you enough to listen, not to buy? That’s pretty rotten.
As
I said, I am going to be getting into politics and religion soon, and there
certainly seem to be some ethical issues here, where people are essentially
stealing because it’s easy.
So
this is what I am doing. I am using Spotify to see if I like things (because it
pays a little, but not very much), and then if I do like it, and will want to
listen again, I am buying. I will buy through local record stores. When I go
in, I will try and pay cash so they don’t have the service charges.
I
value music. I think it is easy to like things without really feeling the
value, but that we are missing something if we do it like that.
And I am still undecided about going digital.
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