Music Mondays - #33 - Music Sales in 2013

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s this thing called Spotify that everyone’s using these days.  Lately, there’s been a lot of grumbling in the music community about the impact of streaming services like Spotify — mainly being that artists are given a pretty insulting amount of compensation.  It’s so incredibly convenient though, and considering that fact, it’s free, how can you really blame anyone for taking advantage of it?

We really have come a long way since we were hand cranking those wax cylinders on our phonographs so that we could feast our ears on some vaguely musical hissing sound that came from a horn.  Streaming is a relatively new phenomenon, and it’s pretty hard to argue that any advance in technology has ever negatively impacted the progression of music in the big picture. 

So, maybe, there is hope.  But wait, is vinyl making a come back?  No, not really.  People are definitely buying a whole lot more records than they were seven years ago, but the vast majority of people still listen to music via digital format.  There are people who have invested exorbitant amounts of money in hi-fi equipment to supposedly prove that their records sound better than your iPod. 

Your run-of-the-mill Crosley turntable that you picked up from Urban Outfitters definitely doesn’t though.  So what gives?  Is this really just a result of hipsters being nostalgic for a time they didn’t even know?  Maybe, but my guess is that it’s a reaction against the lack of sentimentality that digital music has, and what fills that void better than owning the huge physical artifact that is the vinyl LP of the music you cherish?

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