I’d assume everyone who loved music in the past would envy the position that we’re presently in. We didn’t just land here, it was a gradual process. We were a people who had to wait years to watch their favourite musicians perform live due recording apparatus not being invented yet. With time came the power to record sound and we gradually made our way to this envious position.
The first time I listened to music on an audio only kind of device was probably on cassette or CD. I grew up in the last phases of the cassette era and just past the formative phase of CD music distribution. As primitive as it sounds, you had to get out of your habitat and hunt down the latest releases at music shops. I remember seeing Reliable Warehouse [ironically who aren’t around anymore] and Musica adverts on TV, wtf. The MP3 era is where I feel like I actively consumed music. The MP3 era had an overlap with the CD era, you wouldn’t always have enough space on your phone so you burn some of your MP3’s onto a CD to blast on the home theater system when the adults are away. The CD, cassette and early vinyl era were slow eras in terms of distribution and consumption, the music output grew along with the appetite of the audience when music became more accessible through MP3’s and later on through streaming.
The chicken or the egg debate is similar to the one I have internally; what came first, the appetite or the music?
The issue of appetite is influenced by mainly two kinds of fans, Frank Ocean and Drake fans. Not necessarily saying people who enjoy these artists’ music but people who are fans of artists with a similar output rate. Frank Ocean is well-known for his slower output rate, he usually takes three to four years in between albums while Drake can master up a run of yearly releases. The model Frank Ocean seemingly follows is similar to that of artists whose careers existed in the prime of the physical copy era. Due the technology available during the vinyl/cassette/CD era artists had the luxury of taking time to create a body of work. The album length would hit the hour march with relative ease, this was tailored with the intention that the listener will live with the music, experience in different environments and life stages. Modern artists who work like this are usually hounded eagerly by their fans wanting them to release an album. Followers of Drake hardly get a chance to pester him about an album until hints and snippets are dropped make the fans’ panties wet in an anticipation. Unlike artists who release frequently, Drake’s albums aren’t as short as most albums of this model. Typical albums of this model take advantage of streaming; they are shorter, easy listens that encourage the listener to hit the replay button as soon as the reach the end. These albums values tend to diminish quickly with the frequent replays leaving fans asking for more much earlier than during the times of physical copy.
The physical copy era was much like having a large meal with ample time to enjoy and digest. The streaming era is tailored for fans with a quicker metabolism, it is similar smaller meals in a short space of time.
I’m a large meal kinda guy with a very slow music metabolism so when I first join a streaming platform and cast aside my ways of piracy I was overwhelmed. All this music, so little time. The latest releases, golden oldies, music I’ve wanted try out, people’s suggestions and playlists, it’s a lot fam. I find myself most of the time weighing up the opportunity cost of not listening to other albums when I’m currently listening an album. Back in my days of being a pirate it was more complicated finding music, it didn’t take five seconds to discover something new and immediately play it. I found that I gave albums more time and spread out replays, yes I’d miss out on a lot but what I indulged in, I knew from front to back. I listen to a lot of music now but a lot of it gets erased in my short one listen memory. It takes time for some of us to digest music in this fast pace buffet setting, we have to find a way to ignore outside noises and focus on our meals one chew at a time.