When I was a young teenager in the early nineties I dreamt about having all the worlds music available to me via the internet.
This is more or less the reality today.
Access beats ownership anyway IMO.
This is more or less the reality today.
Access beats ownership anyway IMO.
Different people have different needs; I'd rather have a smaller collection of music I can count on than access to all the music which is encrusted with hassle and advertising.
But I believe you will belong to a diminishing group of people who do so and nothing wrong with that.
Sure each to their own.
What do you mean? You are not in control of your life if you rent a car? An apartment? A set of Ski?
The fact a majority are happy with the current state of affairs doesn't change this. Your comment about "belonging to a diminishing group" is irrelevant?
So it simply make no sense to talk about freedom in this context.
You are confusing two very different things.
The difference is subtle but important.
I can listen to exactly the same music as you can and much much more.
Guess who is most vulnerable?
Do you think this only about music? Or books? Or movies?
If so, do you apply it to other things in your life? Do you own a car, or do you only rent? How about your home? Is it better to rent, or buy a place to live? Clothes? Why buy a pair of jeans, when you could pay a monthly fee to have new jeans delivered to your house and return the (month) old ones?
For me, IMO, I would rather own my music, books and house, but rent my car and clothes.
Because access is something that can be cut off or denied.
And at the end of the day, as long as I can walk naked to my home listening to music and reading, I will always be happy.
If I could I would rent everything. Some things I would rent for a long time others for a short.
But each to their own of course.
Although a house is not comparable.
Now, it is quite likely that you have no interest in at least the vast bulk of those, because they're obscure bands from my youth, live recordings of acts you don't care about, experimental music from the 80s, etc.
But rental access to the RIAA machine is a far, far cry from "all the world's music".
As for access, well. To each their own. I subscribe to the cliche that if you don't own the substrate, you don't own the data, and it can go away against your wishes. Now, Spotify an friends don't seem to play games like the studios do with Netflix, but that's almost certainly a matter of a business environment that doesn't encourage it, not "dedication to serving music lovers" or whatever.
It isn't that I need to "own" music. I don't know what exactly that's even supposed to mean in a world of bullshit IP laws that make less sense daily. It is that bits on your own platter is the only way to ensure your own continued access. And again, maybe you don't care - maybe the menu is more important for you than the particular flavors on it. But I know I'm not the only one who likes listening to things that are utterly unavailable on any service, for streaming or "purchase".
Let me know when we get there.
Not sure why that would change that?
There have never been as much access to music as there is today. It's a good thing.
At the moment, it seems like someone always has to take a loss, and the rationalization might be ugly.
Besides, Spotify is playing ball with the record labels. As numerous articles are indicating though, the RIAA is out for blood on YouTube. That's going to be much more contentious in the future I'd wager.
Just like we fetishize the Napster era.
Anyone with sufficiently unusual music tastes can't possibly get their content via 'access'. And that's not a high bar - even tame interests like EDM, jam, or jazz are completely unsolved via access in my experience.
So there are many ways to look at this.
Overall access is still a ways out. Access is taken away as easily at it is given. Without ownership you lose the ability to ever share that experience you once had access to.
There are a lot of music that you would love but you aren't listening to because you don't know it exist. The chances of you experiencing that is bigger if you have access to more music without having to buy it.