Musicians are suffering

"Musicians are suffering under this new economic model", a quote from this article on music ownership by Ted Gioia that sparked some thoughts.  This bear is old enough to remember the era that Gioia describes when big records with big graphics were collected as cult objects.

Had this once upon a time, but that pictured is not mine.

Like boiled frogs, we have gradually become accustomed to the present environment of convenient digital supremacy, but the facts Gioia cites are still shocking:  "Last year, more songs were streamed on any single day than were downloaded during the entire year."

And as that shift has occurred, all revenues now go to the platform (looking at you, YouTube) instead of the artist - not that the artist had a great share before.

Gioia is making a plea for the return of some kind of tangible cultural artifact that will accrue value and endure, and while that is a very sympathetic point of view, I cannot believe it can become true.

Perhaps out of nostalgia, Gioia omits much of the downside of the physical. People bought a lot of albums because they had to, if they wanted to choose their music at all.  People bought albums because they had to do that in order to find out what the other 9 songs a band was playing in addition to their hit single.  Often these albums were BAD, and the purchase was a cause for regret.  Yes, the arduous and costly exploration in search of good music generated a strong bond with the favorites that one discovered, but the process was onerous.

The limited supply of physical artifacts meant that people were locked into a limited set of choices from the big record companies, for the most part, except for those who took extreme measures to chase down their dreams.

And, let's not forget that records were HEAVY.  Anyone who ever had to change apartments a couple of times began to regret having a big collection and to pare it down.  

The big curated collection of 8,000 rarities was the provenance of those who had the money, time, and stability to build such a hoard. Now anyone can access almost any music of their exact taste without extreme measures.  Yes, that is no longer a special form of achievement. But perhaps we should not be striving for great achievements of consumption, but rather listen to the music for its own sake and develop our spirit (and spirit animals) accordingly.