When I was growing up, finding the new music was simple -- new tunes were introduced on the radio and later, on TV's American Bandstand. The new tunes generally sounded odd the first couple times you heard them, then some would catch on.
Apparently it isn't so simple anymore. I heard something to that effect on NPR this week, but can't find it now. However, I did run across an editorial piece titled "The Recording Industry Soldiers On Against Illegal Downloading," in the NY Times Saturday with this paragraph that caused me an "ah-ha!" moment:
But the recording industry's interests are not synonymous with the public interest. The industry assumes that the main reason people engage in file sharing is simply to get free music. For many people, certainly, that is its main appeal. But file sharing — like the new generation of legal music-downloading services, including Apple's wildly successful iTunes Music Store — is also a direct response to a number of unpleasant realities in the music business. As long as the recording industry lives and dies by the blockbuster, music listeners will be looking for ways to see deeper into the music catalog. For some listeners, file sharing has become a way to experiment — to try out new music without first shelling out $16 or $17 for a CD. There was a time when radio gave listeners a chance to hear lots of new music. Thanks to conglomerates like Clear Channel, those days are dead.Posted by Marcia Oddi at April 18, 2004 08:46 AM