Thirsty for Music? Enjoy your STREAMING PISS

Remember when you bought records? Tapes? CDs?

It was simple. The artist recorded the work. YOU BOUGHT IT. No begging. No "if you like it, buy it."

The other alternative was to listen to the radio. Whatever the disk jockey played, you heard. The artist got paid.

Then came THE INTERNET.

The answer to piracy, greed and a whole lot of people out of work (record store clerks, sheet music sellers, CD manufacturers, not just artists) was..."find a new paradigm."

Guess what. NOBODY'S FOUND that magical NEW PARADIGM.

Streaming? Did you say STREAMING? Streaming is what you do into a toilet.

Streaming hasn't allowed hundreds of 70's and 80's artists to get back into a studio and record quality music. It hasn't even allowed them to use shitty Pro Tools and knock off some crappy-sounding album. So many artists have stopped in bitterness (Joni Mitchell), shrugged and asked why bother (Steve Miller) or severely reduced their output (James Taylor). Young artists aren't being nurtured or supported. I could go on, but I'll stop out of bitterness, and ask "why bother?"

The fact is, we HAD a system that worked fairly well. If you stole music, you took a risk. You risked a store owner catching you and calling the cops. You "supported the artist" because you paid. If it was a used copy, you supported a music store, and you supposed the person who DID buy the fucking thing, and now wanted to pass it along. The economy worked.

The problem with streaming, aside from esthetics (like, no value to the music, no pride of ownership, no album notes, no fancy cover, etc.) is that it doesn't work. Spotify and Friends steal from the artists and short-change everyone. Book-cooking and fakery is at an all time high. Streaming services don't pay decent royalties and are a monopoly. And, yes, it's getting worse.

You can be a curmudgeon and grumble, "I don't like external drives, I don't like clouds, and I prefer the old ways...real books, real CDS or vinyl, actual tangible ART..." but you're a Realist if you add, "and the artists are getting screwed and the music suffers. We aren't getting good music anymore, we aren't encouraging creativity anymore, things aren't tougher not easier, and the old adage is true, "you get what you pay for" and if it's "free" it's shit. Or, you're stealing, so call it what it is and don't say "sharing" or "new paradigm" or "har har, I'm a pirate."