The Digital Age

Okay, here's my beef.

I love the artists that populate the music industry. I love the music industry. I love shoveling whatever little money I have into the experience; actual CD's, liner notes, album artwork, I love it all. I love artists that have this unwavering respect for their art, and I have unwavering respect for all of them.

But as I am often BROKE, I may not always be able to AFFORD CD's. Does that mean I should not be able to partake in the experience? I know that laws are in place to protect artists and their work, and to prevent abuse of the system but music is about bringing people together. Now, I don't want digital music to replace the record biz (which I'm observing, sadly, it is). There is no substitute for going out to a record store, sifting through albums with your grubby, greedy little hands and, upon finally finding the one you want, holding it close in a completely obscene (and sickening) way. There is NO substitute for that, and I don't care who you ask. See? I LOVE music, and the musicians that produce it. But is music sharing not still bringing people together?

I don't see how it's fair that ITUNES can charge us every spare breathing moment they can. Does ITUNES get a portion of an artist's profit? I'm not really savvy on that stuff. I give my money to the artist when I can, as often as I can because I do believe that they deserve something for the piece of themselves they're putting forth (unless you're FOB or Spears, and then it's just a piece of nothing...story for another time, unfortunately) but I'm not always able to do that.

Music is fuel for me; it is something wholly life-giving...it is my oxygen. Should I be deprived of that when I occasionally want to be able to get a song but can't afford it?

People in the biz saying "OMG YOU CAN NEVER DL MUSIC! IT'S UNLAWFUL!" are part of the reason people are MOVING AWAY FROM the Record-Age. If they want to bring people back to the idea of albums; the grounded-ness of it...then they should perhaps try not to say/do things like that to people.