Dollars and Dimes
Money's been tight these days and I have been practicing my best starving artist moves lately, so it was a good day today when I went into Half Price Books and discovered an entire section of vinyl on clearance for 50 cents a piece. I had come in to sell some old books, and I took the five dollars I made from cleaning out the bookcase and bought a handful of old records, none of which I own on CD or have downloaded in mp3s.
Driving home, I couldn't help but smile as I thought about what a haul I made, and it got me thinking about the value we place on our music. If I had gone to the used CD section of the store and picked up the same titles, I would have no doubt owed 15 to 20 more dollars, and if I had downloaded each track off iTunes or Rhapsody it would have been considerably more. What are we paying for, exactly, when we buy music? Is it the convenience of being able to pull it up on our iPods at any moment? The convenience of popping the CD into the car stereo instead of waiting to et home and put a record on the turntable?
I know I'm probably alone, or nearly alone in my newfound obsession of buying mass quantities of music on vinyl, but it just hit me as ridiculous today to think that we get up in arms about making sure people don't illegally download music, that artists get their financial due, and so on, while there are boxes and boxes of old records out there available for almost nothing. It seems to say a lot about our need for convenience, accessibility, and up-to-the-minute art. It makes sense a la the whole supply and demand side of economics, but it just struck me as odd.
Anyway... back to being extremely employable.
Driving home, I couldn't help but smile as I thought about what a haul I made, and it got me thinking about the value we place on our music. If I had gone to the used CD section of the store and picked up the same titles, I would have no doubt owed 15 to 20 more dollars, and if I had downloaded each track off iTunes or Rhapsody it would have been considerably more. What are we paying for, exactly, when we buy music? Is it the convenience of being able to pull it up on our iPods at any moment? The convenience of popping the CD into the car stereo instead of waiting to et home and put a record on the turntable?
I know I'm probably alone, or nearly alone in my newfound obsession of buying mass quantities of music on vinyl, but it just hit me as ridiculous today to think that we get up in arms about making sure people don't illegally download music, that artists get their financial due, and so on, while there are boxes and boxes of old records out there available for almost nothing. It seems to say a lot about our need for convenience, accessibility, and up-to-the-minute art. It makes sense a la the whole supply and demand side of economics, but it just struck me as odd.
Anyway... back to being extremely employable.
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