finally pressing post in honor of spotify raising prices
thinking about this weird thing
(1) i am so fucking sick of gen ai oh my god
(2) i want to dismiss as nostalgia the idea that music piracy better encouraged curiosity among consumers but it feels like spotify’s entire teleological “press a button and background music comes out” business model shows that there’s something to it
(3) soulseek: the weird intimacy of snooping around other people’s files. private torrent trackers: having to engage with other people in a fairly constant way
(4) the music pirate is a collector. the collector as a figure has their own problems (i was among those who hoarded mp3s to excess). but something like “ownership” can be useful
(5) this seems like a stupid move on aa’s part
(6) the evidence is ambiguous as to whether or not indie labels benefited or were hurt by piracy (major labels were hurt but fuck them) but there’s nothing ambiguous to me about spotify’s relationship with independent musicians