I don't know if recorded music is going to become totally "free," but it sure seems like it. To those of us who make recorded music, this is cause for worry. When I really think about it, what I realize is that whenever somebody pays for my music or the music of some other artist I've helped record, that person paying is not really paying for the music. They are paying to help the artists, musicians, engineers, and producers continue to live. They've almost always paid voluntarily, to some extent. Recorded music has been potentially free since before I was born. When I was a kid you could make a cassette of somebody else's copy of an album, and now you can certainly stream recorded music for free, and usually get ahold of the files for free, digitally. So nothing has changed in any major way, really. Having said all this, I want to say thanks for your support for all of these years. I hope the new digital world lands on a format that is better than an MP3, eventually. Devices are getting bigger and bigger, in terms of storage, so there is no reason why music can't be delivered at at least CD quality, and maybe eventually better quality than that. We'll see.

Tuesday, May 27th 2014