Klosterman on file sharing
In a recent piece in Esquire, one of my favorite modern essayists Chuck Klosterman writes about where all the money not spent on albums has gone.
I don't agree with him that file sharing is theft. I am on record stating that.
However, I do like his analysis of the situation. He thinks "pirating" music resulted from a very pragmatic concern: saving money.
He writes: People didn't stop buying albums because they were philosophically opposed to how the rock business operated, and they didn't stop buying albums because the Internet is changing the relationship between capitalism and art. People stopped buying albums because they wanted the fucking money.
I think this smacks of truth. When CDs began approaching $20 I certainly began looking for other alternatives, and he's also right that Itunes now allows us to cherry pick just the songs we like on a CD, spending perhaps $3 rather than $20.
As for where the money has gone that used to be spent on CDs, I love his answer: credit cards.
In typical Klosterman style, he says: not paying for In Rainbows today is helping people eliminate the balance they still owe for buying Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness when they were broke in 1995.
LOL. And amen.
I don't agree with him that file sharing is theft. I am on record stating that.
However, I do like his analysis of the situation. He thinks "pirating" music resulted from a very pragmatic concern: saving money.
He writes: People didn't stop buying albums because they were philosophically opposed to how the rock business operated, and they didn't stop buying albums because the Internet is changing the relationship between capitalism and art. People stopped buying albums because they wanted the fucking money.
I think this smacks of truth. When CDs began approaching $20 I certainly began looking for other alternatives, and he's also right that Itunes now allows us to cherry pick just the songs we like on a CD, spending perhaps $3 rather than $20.
As for where the money has gone that used to be spent on CDs, I love his answer: credit cards.
In typical Klosterman style, he says: not paying for In Rainbows today is helping people eliminate the balance they still owe for buying Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness when they were broke in 1995.
LOL. And amen.
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