Even though services like Spotify, Rdio, or whatever the streaming service flavor of the month have a much wider selection than what folks were used to back in the bad old days, I still consider them an extension of the world where radio is king. Something about having albums that I enjoy randomly added and deleted at the mercy of licensing contracts at any given point in time really turns me off from using such services for very long. While the ability to stream music reliably is a definite sign of technological advancement due to faster Internet speeds overall, the general default of using streaming services everywhere feels like a huge leap backwards in comparison to my time in the early oughts on SoulSeek or Direct Connect scouring peoples collections as if I were thumbing through boxes of records. This advance also makes little sense to me since hard drives are so ridiculously cheap these days. Albini seems to share my own frustrations when it comes to using services that try so hard to stay in the music industrys good graces: [T]he hybrid approaches being tried are clumsy and insulting. I recently tried streaming a podcast from an official licensed site. When the cats started fighting I missed a little bit, having to separate the cats and then feed the cats and then calmed them down. I came back to my computer and tried to replay the last few minutes that I had missed but was greeted with a notice that due to copyright agreements this player was not allowed to rewind the podcast. I find it unimaginable that the people who posted the podcast wanted that provision enabled. And the site just ensured that I would never bother with their product again. Its not really the fault of the companies themselves that have to operate legally, of course, but time and time again straight up piracy seems to kick the shit out of the options available with these restrictions. Using YouTube as a jukebox, more often than not, is already consistently better as far as selection goes. YouTube also has to remove content when copyright complaints come forward, but their method of following the old maxim ask for forgiveness, not permission seems to yield much more for me to enjoy time and time again. Now, I share music on Facebook a whole lot. Apart from being a way to buffer most of the mind-numbingly terrible opinions I see on a typical day in the news feed, its a way to take advantage of this glorious age where we can easily find and share media we love, no matter when it was produced or how strange it may be. Again, this keynote mirrors my excitement: In short, the internet has made it much easier to conduct the day-to-day business of being in a band and has increased the efficiency. Everything from scheduling rehearsals using online calendars, to booking tours by email, to selling merchandise and records from online stores, down to raising the funds to make a record is a new simplicity that bands of the pre-internet era would salivate over. The old system was built by the industry to serve the players inside the industry. The new system where music is shared informally and the bands have a direct relationship to the fans was built by the bands and the fans in the manner of the old underground. It skips all the intermediary steps. Bands now have default control of their exposure. It’s no longer necessary to pay people to pay other people to play your records on the radio, only to have those people lie about doing so. It’s no longer necessary to spend money to let people hear your band. It happens automatically. There’s another, much subtler change that all this instigated. Since people no longer have to make do listening to whatever is on the radio playlist and are no longer limited to owning what the store decides to stock, they have become much more indulgent in their tastes. My friends now normally listen to exotic playlists that they have dreamed up themselves, full of counterintuitive and contrasting choices that are uniquely theirs. Our office bearer has a hi-fi in that studio office and is as likely to be playing the new 45 from the hardcore band Leather or electro drone by Tim Hecker as he is to be playing a deep cut of Cincinnati soul or handbag disco or improv guitar noodlings, whether newly released from Oren Ambarchi or 30 years old from the Takoma label. People can now listen only to music they are ecstatic about, all the time. Anywho, you should give the whole article a shot. Albini knows a thing or two about recorded music.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 04:31:37 +0000
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