Over the past couple weeks, the internet has been buzzing about Spotify. The new subscription-style music service. Any track, any album, anywhere for only $9.99 a month. It’s not such a bad deal…but it also feels too good to be true. What happens when you’re signed up, you stop buying music and have converted all your listening focus to Spotify, when suddenly they jack up the price? Do you stick around and pay the piper…or do you cancel it and lose all your music? The rumor is that Spotify will be $14.99 a month within 18 months…and that’s a less appealing thing.
But the argument isn’t whether the price for streaming is competitive…it’s whether you want to stream or own? And is streaming in fact owning? We don’t own physical pieces of music anymore. There are some of us audiophiles still out there buying CDs and vinyl. But that’s a number between slim and none. If everything digital base…what’s the difference between having the digital file on your computer versus having it in a cloud? They sound the same. The accessibility is the same. The experience is the same. The only difference is that when you purchase music, you have to make the conscious decision to pay money for the music. The music means more. When you’re not paying for it…you will pay less attention to it and won’t mean as much. Though I want pay for music system to stick around…but I think that model is already a dinosaur in the digital age.
Hopefully, music will get better. It’s not going to be about getting people to check you out anymore…it’s going to be about getting them to stick around. If you’re music isn’t good out of the gates…then you’ll lose them. The one thing I do know…cloud is here to stay…until the next medium comes out.
Here are the 11 Best Songs By Rogue Wave Now:
1. Love’s Lost Guarantee (Descended Like Vultures)
2. Publish My Love (Descended Like Vultures)
3. Harmonium (Asleep At Heaven’s Gate)
4. Eyes (B-Side)
5. Good Morning (Permalight)
6. Falcon Settles Me (Out of The Shadow)
7. Chicago X 12 (Asleep At Heaven’s Gate)
8. Endgame (Out of the Shadow)
9. Permalight (Permalight)
10. Seconds (B-Side)
11. Kicking the Heart Out (Out of the Shadow)
Buy Zach Rogue’s new side project, Release the Sunbird now!!