Word Virus

I rarely buy CDs.  Rather, I rarely want to deal with “physical” music.  I own over 3000 CDs, and with the recent 30th anniversary of the compact disc last week, it made me think about how I collect music. I bought my first compact disc in 1987, before I even owned a CD player.  I still have that disc, Samhain’s Initium. Yet, over the past 5 years, I’ve made conscious decision to buy fewer and fewer CDs, in favor of digital copies.  Don’t get me wrong, I buy a lot of music.  And, if a nice collectors edition of something comes out, I’ll usually pick it up in CD form.  However, whenever possible, I prefer to purchase digital only copies.  There are several reasons.  First, I just don’t have the space.  I’ve reached the point where nearly all of my CDs have been boxed and placed in storage.  Second, I don’t even own a CD player or stereo system.  When we moved last year, I decided that it was just a waste, since all of my music listening takes place on a mobile device or computer.  The stereo in my car has an iPod jack and it can play mp3 files.  Why would have 10-15 CDs in my car, when I could have 200+ on my iPod?

So, what does this have to do with the music industry? They are so concerned about potential profit loses, that they make it hard for the majority of users to enjoy the music they own.  Apple’s recent move to DRM free for most content and the DRM free content on Amazon is a step in the right direction, but I’m rarely going to just stumble upon music at one of these sources.  The place I find music is on the internet:  websites, blogs, streaming sites.   In the past, I’ve usually avoided online radio, mainly because I hate the radio format.  Years ago, I listened to lots of Shoutcasts, but even that became too commercial.  I haven’t actually listened to the “radio” in over 20 years.  Yet, somehow, I seem to find new music without any problem, and buy lots of it.  

This leads me to internet services like last.fm and blip.fm.  I’ve listened to lots of stuff on blip over the 6 months, usually through Twitter links and suggestions.  I only recently joined last.fm, and in that short period of time, I’ve discovered more new music than I have in the past year.  I stream last pretty much all day.  My library and other people’s libraries.  The funny part is, I’m not paying for this music, and as far as I know, the artist aren’t receiving any compensation for these streams.  However, in the past 3 weeks, I’ve purchased 9 CDs, as a direct result, of music I’ve heard on other people’s streams.  

What’s the lesson that the music industry can learn?  If you let people listen and share music, they will hear more, and in turn, buy more.  Trying to sell the same 20 artists year in and year out is not going to work any longer.  The more music we can hear and the more diverse that music, they more likely we are to purchase more.  Isn’t that what the music industry has wanted all along? Consume, consume, consume.  Somewhere along the way, they became “consumed” with how much money they could potentially lose and failed to recognize how much money they could actually make.