Flood Pt. 2

Interesting article on DiS by their music industry 'insider', this week on how the audience is not blameless in the p2p argument and the additional comments beneath the piece are a cut above the usual squawking you might encounter on the internet. I like to think (in a narcissistic manner) that this ties in, to a point, with my mixtape musings from a couple of weeks ago. I started using Spotify yesterday and it has given me access to the Bowerbirds album (at last!) and, in tandem with my last.fm recommendations, introduced me to the utter beauty of Port O'Brien, who might be one of the best bands I have heard in bloody ages. Of course, I could have downloaded Bowerbirds (lord knows I tried) or bought it (never in stock in Rough Trade...) but then the sense of excitement, that first time, would have been diluted. On a personal level, waiting to hear it for so long made it refreshing on that first listen and I will be going out of my way to get a copy in the near future (at a reasonable price; the days of me paying any more than £10.99 are over).

So does downloading devalue music? I know people who stuff their computers with it, but shouldn't they, we, wait? Its more satisfying for me to have a new cd in my hands, to have a little book to flip through (for example, if you downloaded No Age's Nouns then you missed out on one of last year's neatest inserts) and to bask in their reflective glory on my shelves at home. Collecting music is the pinnacle of capitalism, right? You can do it for the right price, if you're prepared to shop around. Browsing bundles of torrent sites just isn't as satisfying as pulling the Superman version of Illinois out of the racks in Rough Trade East. Is it? Of course, I don't have an answer and until someone comes up with a satisfactory one, this is all just pointless pontificating. It is something to think about the next time you unpack that rar. file though. Maybe that little band you love would do a bit better if people paid for it. You can't rail against faceless 'evil conglomerates' for ever; its real life, not Blade Runner.