Reflecting on My Music Listening and Buying

I don’t blog enough about music but I do love it.  Well, that’s kind of a dumb statement because pretty much everyone loves music.  But I do love my music, I love new music, I love hating bad music (although I’m not that big of snob.  I don’t like boy bands because they suck, not because they’re popular.  Radiohead is popular but they’re amazing, therefore I like them.  See?).  

Years ago, a church family gave me an ipod for Christmas.  Not only did that move them up on my prayer list, but it really helped my music listening experience.  Prior to that, I had various CD cases that I would drag around with me.  The Ipod of course changed that.

Oddly enough, I still buy most of my music on CD.  I bought the new Coldplay Viva La Vida album on cd, imported on itunes, threw it on the ipod, and flipped through the liner notes, etc.  I like imagining certain bands sitting together discussing what the artwork should look like and why.  What should be contained inside the liner notes and on days when I have too much time, I compare things like the people they thanked in this album versus the last.  I find it interesting.  In addition, I look at a couple websites, read magazines (I subscribe to Rolling Stone and Paste).  Speaking of Coldplay and Rollling Stone, I liked Chris Martin’s interview, “The Jesus of the Uncool” in Rolling Stone.  And as the cd collects dust on my shelf, I enjoy listening and discussing certain albums with others. 

Radiohead was interesting because they first made In Rainbows available by download for any donation on their website.  I gave $5 because I’m a big spender.  (I’m serious, if you check out the sites, I think that was the highest donation they took in but it was what I was willing to spend and I loved the idea.)  Then, when the CD was released months later, I bought it too.  I like looking at my CD’s, DVD’s, and books on my shelves (and I wonder how long it will take me to get Kindle or the Sony Reader.  If I traveled weekly, I’d probably consider it).  I like the tangibility of certain things.  You can check out a brief Paste article regarding Radiohead’s downloads and sales numbers with In Rainbows here.

Anyway, I am interested what will happen in the music industry.  I read this interesting article in the NY Times, “Songs From the Heart of a Marketing Plan“.  Though it’s more about how new artists need to attach their music to products and commercials (like Yael Naim’s “New Soul” promoting the MacBook Air), it speaks to the changes in the music industry.

 For those interested in great music and love independent music,  here’s someone you should know – Andy Zipf.  He’s a real artist, he’s  refused to sell out, and he actually loves to travel and play shows for  people. In some ways, he’s already doing the future of music thing.  For instance, his music is only available by  digital download.  He will  be playing our first youth group of 2009 with a concert and  conversation.  (Let me know if you’re interested, I’d be happy to get  you directions).  Check out his music here.