Witt, How Music Got Free
In this book, Witt explored the phenomenon of music media consumers no longer paying for and appreciating the music that they consume. Throughout the years it has become easier and easier for people not pay for recorded music through softwares like limewire and other downloading apps that allow you to download music from youtube and convert them into mp3 versions that can be played on any device. Musicians are becoming less and less paid for the actual artistry of making music, and Witt acknowledged that within this book. One quote that stood out to me the most from this was, “Most listeners didn’t care about quality, and the obsession with perfect sound forever was an early indicator that the music industry didn’t understand its customers (page 92-93).” I found this to be interesting because I am one of those listeners. Growing up my family had a ton of records, Cds, and tapes that I came up on as a child; however, after a certain point I no longer actually paid for music. I like many other people during the early to mid 2000’s downloaded mp3 versions from the internet added them as files to iTunes and downloaded them to my device. It wasn’t until streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music came around that I actually started paying for music again. During that time I didn’t even listen to music the same anymore. When I was a kid, I played many instruments and I would listen to songs and try to identify the different instruments that were harmoniously composed together to make them. I found great enjoyment, and appreciation for the musicians that put in time to make those songs. I thought that listening to the music that I enjoyed was very much so worth my penny, but when free options became available to access music I lost that appreciation for it. I even think as if the content and quality of music started to diminish during that time and even still till this day. Maybe that was because artist weren’t getting paid as much for their recorded music they didn’t put in as much effort to make it. I often times just find myself listening to music because it has a catchy beat or hook, but I don’t even think to care who produced the song or who should get paid for it. It’s unfortunate because creating music isn’t easy which I am now learning through creating a song for this class. Artist stress themselves out trying to develop the perfect musical project for their audience, and often times the hard work that they out into it just becomes a catchy beat.
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