I’m not an old man who opposes change. Well, yes, but not now. Streaming is great. I love that all the songs I’ve ever made can fit in my pocket.
Algorithms help you find new music or music you’ve never heard before. However, every technological advancement has its drawbacks. I’m not going to mention the sound quality. We’ll talk about that later. Instead, I would like to talk about why the old days were good. Music is one of the few things that’s cheaper now than it was in 1994, when I bought Blues Traveler’s “Four,” which cost $20. Now you can listen to any song in the world for $20 a month. Let me tell you why that’s not good.
First, I can no longer edit. Back when music could only be released on physical media, artists were limited to the 45 to 60 minutes that could fit on tape. With streaming, there are no limitations. In the past, you might have had 90 minutes worth of songs, but you had to cut that down to 45 minutes. Lack of editing is not a new phenomenon. The artist always made double albums, but they were unusual and interesting.
It was a gamble, costing more to buy and potentially not selling as well. I love Guns N’ Roses. Their double album “Use Your Illusion” is 2.5 hours of music. This alone could make for a killer album, but it becomes bloated and repetitive. There are some great double albums like Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti, but they’re usually filled with filler. Nowadays, it doesn’t really make any difference if you don’t edit everything and publish it.
Take Taylor Swift and Zach Bryan, for example. Both were tempted to give everything up. Since 2019, Swift has released five albums, plus Taylor’s Version, which features new songs. Her latest album is over two hours long. The best 45 minutes would make a great album. As it is, it’s slippery. I don’t hate it. I live with two “Swifties”. I know and enjoy most of her music. Her 2014 album 1989 is a perfect 48-minute album. At the time, she released a 50-minute album of consistently great music every two to three years. These days, quantity dilutes quality. Since 2019, Brian has released six and a half hours of music and 120 songs. With some editing, we have two great albums. As is, there are a lot of songs that are skippable.
This leads to the real cost of streaming: the disposability of music. If Brian had released the 34-song, two-hour “American Heartbreak” in 1992, it would have cost $40. I spent $40 and may not be able to listen to anything else for a while. You would sit with it, listen to the deep cuts, look at the album cover, and read the liner notes (which was also a casualty). All you have to do is skip to your favorite song. You can browse your options on your phone, but if you don’t get instant gratification, you’ll end up wearing something familiar and getting stuck in a rut. When I went to the record store as a kid and bought a CD, I owned it. You might not like it, but you don’t have unlimited options, so you won’t know until you listen to it a few times. Even if an album doesn’t click with you right away, you may find that you like it when you listen to it again. The same goes for Radiohead’s “Kid A.” Once I got over the fact that it was different than what I was used to, I listened to it for what it was and loved it. With streaming, it’s easy to ignore something because the possibilities are endless. If “Kid A” had come out today, I might have listened to it once and immediately moved on to something else.
So what should I do? Buy a CD player or record player. When my favorite artist releases a record, I buy it and listen to it over and over again. You may be disappointed, but only after careful consideration. However, it’s not just about buying your favorites. Take risks. You buy something because the album cover looks cool or a friend recommended it. There’s something about picking it up, reading the liner notes, and looking at the artwork. Going to your local record store and browsing is a much more rewarding experience than having Apple force feed it to you based on an algorithm.
There’s nothing like a record you love. But streaming has made music disposable and we are at risk of losing it. So put that phone away, pick up the needle, and spin the black circle.
Joey Clark is the Executive Director of Shared Blessings and a member of the Dancing Rabbit Music Association.
