So I wanna have a conversation and I would love input and opinions.
With the radio program, we have to follow some rules with the RIAA sound exchange and the stupid people that think they control the record industry, or did control the record industry.
If you wanted to play a track on the air in the community radio space you or the radio station had to own the physical media.
That meant that artists or entities associated with an artist would either send you or the radio station a CD. When digital files became the norm those same entities would send you the files. Now that streaming has taken over the world. We can all agree that radio has been on the decline for a while due to the streaming entities. You can curate your own playlist.
I feel like you're losing something that the DJ used to offer you. That's a deeper conversation that I think we should have at some point.
There's another problem, though, a problem that I actually was faced with this week.
The band Tub Ring released a new record on Tuesday the first. Last and First Men. I am a big fan and so are my listeners. I was looking forward to exploring this record on a upcoming episode.
I set a calendar reminder to go purchase the album. I missed the social media post talking about how the band didn't have extensive plans to release physical media or files. I went to the Amazon can't download it there. I'm like for sure. They put it on their band camp site right no.
OK, check the Apple? Nope, I am a smart guy so I could start up Spotify and direct my computer to record the Spotify stream and then make my own files.
OK, yeah I can do that but I want to support the artist. I really wanted to buy the damn record. Is the world really trying to tell me that nobody cares about having your own music library anymore?
That seems really fucking stupid. I realize that we have Internet access pretty much wherever the hell we want nowadays and that if streaming music goes away we have a bigger problem.
But what about those people who don't use streaming services? So they just don't have access to the record. What the hell?
In the end, with help from my friend Tom. I was able to find it in digital format that I could purchase and download, but I had to leave the country to do so.
No, you're gonna say oh Lucas you're just old get over it start using streaming music. You're not really supposed to stream Spotify on the air.
My record library is over 4000 albums and there are several of them that are not available on any streaming platform. I'm wondering if it's gonna get harder and harder to curate your own soundtrack unless you drink the streaming Kool-Aid and forget about the little guy.
Thoughts?