Thoughts: Emily White's Post on NPR's All Songs Considered

I Never Owned Any Music to Begin With, Emily White.


This is an interesting, discussion-provoking article, though it's another one of those things that doesn't make me feel very proud of my generation. I've been thinking about it quite a bit this week. Mostly because it's not descriptive of everyone in or around my age bracket and, the big annoying thing, it's more fuel for many members of the older generations to make condescending, sweeping generalizations, like "you kids don't appreciate anything" and keep up the bah-humbug "get off my lawn" mentality. (Ahem... who raised us again?) Those are the type of comments the piece initially spawned. Basically, I know this is a vicious cycle, but I'm still tired of my generation getting shit on. And I raise you the old adage "the world sucks, why can't we all just get along?"


On supporting the music...


Plenty of my Tumblr and last.fm friends, whether they're in my age group or not, purchase music on a regular basis—in fact, one of them just went and excitedly ordered an LP, prompted by an audio post I made. When able, my music blog cohorts purchase and support tons of music; we give lots of little-known artists exposure and several of them have repeatedly thanked us. We like going to shows and purchase merch directly from the artists when we can. It's a privilege, one that many of us do feel lucky to have, even while most of our peers are suffering widespread unemployment, underemployment (myself as well), drowning in student loan debt (myself as well), and mountains of other "life stuff." This is a lot of what I see.


Those who download music illegally shouldn't be vilified, and I'm tired of how major corporations and the RIAA are still handling this issue, still kicking and screaming, seemingly refusing to realize that the industry has changed. Mostly, while I think it's unfortunate that countless employees have been laid off, I think it's karma for their decades of corporate greed, ripping off artists with shady record deals, etc. To sort of counter illegal downloading, there are plenty of useful sites that allow streaming and sharing of music, like Turntable.fm and Spotify, that plenty of people take advantage of. Still, I'll say that no vilification is necessary. Sharing music with friends is something that's always happened, whether it's copying a tape, burning a CD, or passing around MP3s. When someone shares an MP3, nothing is really, truly lost by that—there's no money in packaging or anything physical. So, isn't that a better method for sharing? It's just a copy of an MP3; nothing is subtracted from the original. I'm probably mostly speaking for the indies here, but I know that a lot of the musicians I listen to don't particularly mind when people share their music in such a way to get the word out. That leads them to actually sell records and get audiences at their shows that they wouldn't have otherwise had.


In the NPR piece, Emily White does come off extremely entitled, but I want to believe her heart is in the right place, as it appears she supports a lot of the musicians by going to their shows. Most artists tend to make more money off gigs anyway. I know there are plenty of people my age and younger who follow the 'responsible' example when they have the privilege of doing so. For digital music, I don't see the iTunes store folding and Bandcamp is pretty cool (many bands there take advantage of a pay-what-you-want model, which is awesome). For supporting physical music, Record Store Day has been a very successul thing; the stores are completely packed with people of all ages that day. I feel a sense of pride in supporting my favorite musicians and supporting my favorite record stores. A lot of my "fun" money goes toward records. When I can, I buy a lot of records (yes, actual RECORDS) I wouldn't have otherwise heard if I wouldn't have downloaded them. My taste is admittedly obscure, so it's harder to find full-album streams of them on various sites anyway. It's nice to have that large album artwork and those liner notes, to be able to plop the record down on the turntable and slide the needle over. I like the whole tactile experience and I'm thankful of that privilege. I tend to lament on how there aren't many of my peers who partake in this music-listening experience... but we are still here, I promise.


+


Also, check out Bob Collins' NPR response, showing the two different types of comments the post has elicited.


Further reading on the music industry:


Courtney Love does the Math (Courtney Love) via salon.com — From 2000, still relevant.


The Problem with Music (Steve Albini) via MaximumRockNRoll — From the early 90s, still relevant.