Let's Get Physical!

If you were born in any time period other then the 1990's then you would agree that music is in a really weird place right now. This is mostly due in part to the fact that people realize now that music is so easy accessible, it's extremely difficult to make a living as an up and coming artist these days, albeit not impossible. Due to the fact that the tools are more readily available,  there's a mass of artists making their own music these days. It feels as though one out of five people is an internet musician numerous albums online. It's like a form of digital creative rebellion, however music is now becoming less special since it's so easy to come by. I can't blame these artists one bit, they need a venue to get their music out and this is extremely liberating. I do however, blame the larger mainstream music organizations. For the longest time time they had a monopoly upon music, as history puts it, Napster made everyone realize how easily accessible music is and that we were over charged for it. Eventually the illusion collapsed and now you can find full albums on youtube. The masquerade is over. Now the only people who seem to purchase albums from Best Buy are older people or One Direction fans. People wondered why purchase from large corporate giants when I can get it online. There is something that get's lost when it's strictly online, goes from being something you would treasure to becoming a file. When we were younger we would have our CDs in special cases and we would get mad if they got smudged. Artists missed this physical sensation as well and started to resurrect vinyl records. This was a fantastic was to boost sales for smaller music stores and eventually this turned into cassette store day. Trends go the same way as societies. First there's anarchy, (the fall of CDs) then there's a revolution, (vinyl at local stores) then that revolution becomes a dictatorship. (the current price gouging of record store days) Now it's less about the records and indie record shop and more about the sticker which increases the value of the product on eBay. I love the internet but I also love physical media. The internet is a great way to get your music out there for a struggling artist, and physical media is a great why for fans to get a piece of that artist like a souvenir. I think Spotify is fantastic for the emerging artist who doesn't make anything on their music, they get paid just for someone listening to their music. Who cares if it's a minimal amount, they're essentially getting money for nothing it helps to encourage the artists. Big names like lady Gaga were upset that they weren't making enough through Spotify, but those names have already made numerous amounts of money already. Those artists now are the voice of something called Tidal, expecting fans to pay $5 dollars a month for a site similar to Spotify where Spotify has a free basic plan. People don't have a lot of disposable money these days, asking $5 a month for something otherwise free is as asinine as paying a fast-food clerk $15/hr. The origins of music years ago was about open source AND physical media. Fans would get bootlegs of reel to reels and share them with friends. My dad still has some from the grateful dead. There's something magic about that. Putting music out there and giving the audiences the choice of a physical format to purchase on works, Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead both proved this. In this day and age one needs to think outside the box.  I remember that prince said that the internet was dead and only wanted to release physical albums through a London news paper  as eccentric as that might be you have to admit that it is different and have to give him credit for that. Unfortunately he caved and went to iTunes recently.  Another entity which is a refreshing change is the California based Burger Records, the have made cassettes extremely popular again. They are spearheading cassette store day, which I'm excited about because it's so different, it's destined to go the way of cassette store day eventually. This is an extremely turbulent time for artists in general, half the battle is learning how you can find a way to stand out amidst the crowd.