2:59

Industry uberpundit Bob Lefsetz has lost me as of late. Somewhere between his knee jerk iTunes metadata revolt (four years too late there) and his current love-in with new country I began to loose faith. All the power to him if he really wants to slobber over Keith Urban, but I doubt that’s why people read his column so religiously. However we had a nice salient point tonight:

So, there’s a conundrum. More people are experiencing more music than ever before. But the labels are sinking. You see they’re just not delivering the tunes the way people want them. The public wants a certain FLUIDITY! It’s less about piracy than USABILITY! If the labels only focused on making it EASIER for us to experience and acquire their wares, we’d give THEM all our money.

Bingo.

I tried to hold onto the physical CD for long as I reasonably could. I took great pride in this expanding wall of Ikea shelves that grew a few times a year to house the next hundred or so finds. I kept detailed electronic lists of what was in the catalog. Hell, I used terms like catalog. Library. Collection. It was important to me to get that first run Three Gut Constantines record with the cardboard cut out, it didn’t matter that I owned the Sub Pop version.

Digital was a novelty, really. Sure I’d buy the iTunes exclusives that didn’t have a physical counterpart, but aside from that it was the hollow version. It was too artificial. It betrayed my shelf forest.

However I broke down about a month ago. I think it was the Jai-Alai Savant. The local chain stores in Niagara Falls don’t offer much in the way of selection, so what are my options? I could drive to Hamilton or Toronto, possibly not find it there, and in the process waste three hours and a lot of gas. I could mailorder it, but there’s something about having to wait two weeks, deal with shipping costs, duty costs a the border and the exchange rate that turns you off. So iTunes it was, no physical copy every intended. Maybe I’ll get the vinyl one day if Flight of the Bass Delegate changes my life. This lead to an eMusic subscription at the recommendation of Jordan Pastepunk, and the service is just changing my whole outlook. Suddenly it’s like Napster again. Well, maybe it’s not as free, but I’m discovering music again without having to make agonizing rationalizations over time and money.

Bob’s right, it’s all about usability. I’ve never thought about it in those terms before.