When I was a kid in the '60s, growing up in the greatest era pop music has ever known, I collected maybe 10 LPs and fewer singles (my brother got more new ones, and my Dad had some old ones, to be fair).
Radio, from the pre-Beatles WCFL and WLS in Chicago, to t FM from college radio like WFMT to commercial underground WLS-FM and the start of WXRT as a few hours on an Armenian station at night, I heard dozens of songs a day, hundreds over a week, and thousands over a year.
Yet, I ended the decade with about ten records (mowing lawns didn't make me rich).
I got my music, for free, on the radio.
I know I paid for it through increased costs in consumer goods and services, that went without saying. Copyright holders (who were and are not necessarily the artist) got some compensation, and unlike the rest of the civilized world, performers got no royalty from this But I GOT IT FREE FROM THE RADIO.
This is not a fine line or a slippery slope, most music we ever listened to was not directly paid for. Physical sales are still profitable (apart from the always was and always will be theft by major labels), terrestrial radio is still important, downloads will be a thing of the past, satellite radio will be a thing of the past.
Streaming is the future. It is not robbery, and it is not free. We certainly need to hope the business grows, and gets serviced and maintained enough so that artists can actually make money from it. It is the only, only only bulwark against actual piracy and infringing file trading. Taylor Swift can laugh it off because she's one of the few artists who has achieved physical product mega-sales recently, but the majority of musicians, whether they know it or not, can't wait until the streaming part of the music industry matures.
If streaming dies, the music industry will look up to see another nail being pounded in its coffin.
Radio, from the pre-Beatles WCFL and WLS in Chicago, to t FM from college radio like WFMT to commercial underground WLS-FM and the start of WXRT as a few hours on an Armenian station at night, I heard dozens of songs a day, hundreds over a week, and thousands over a year.
Yet, I ended the decade with about ten records (mowing lawns didn't make me rich).
I got my music, for free, on the radio.
I know I paid for it through increased costs in consumer goods and services, that went without saying. Copyright holders (who were and are not necessarily the artist) got some compensation, and unlike the rest of the civilized world, performers got no royalty from this But I GOT IT FREE FROM THE RADIO.
This is not a fine line or a slippery slope, most music we ever listened to was not directly paid for. Physical sales are still profitable (apart from the always was and always will be theft by major labels), terrestrial radio is still important, downloads will be a thing of the past, satellite radio will be a thing of the past.
Streaming is the future. It is not robbery, and it is not free. We certainly need to hope the business grows, and gets serviced and maintained enough so that artists can actually make money from it. It is the only, only only bulwark against actual piracy and infringing file trading. Taylor Swift can laugh it off because she's one of the few artists who has achieved physical product mega-sales recently, but the majority of musicians, whether they know it or not, can't wait until the streaming part of the music industry matures.
If streaming dies, the music industry will look up to see another nail being pounded in its coffin.
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