OK, so the tone is frequently irritating, but I found myself murmuring in agreement with the general sentiments of this Guardian article on one of my pet subjects. I'm not an audio equipment nerd but, though of course I could never bring myself to bin my entire physical record collection (just the thought of it genuinely makes me feel quite ill), I can nevertheless understand how music might start to lose its significance and just become aural wallpaper if you did have such a purge and just relied on streaming songs and albums instead. Having everything you want at your fingertips - either with Spotify or video jukeboxes in pubs - devalues the experience of choice, just as digital often devalues the album format as a deliberately sequenced collection of songs.
My iPod has lain unused for several years now - unwisely neglected, perhaps, as it could potentially have enabled me to hear a lot more music while on the move - but I hardly touch iTunes on my laptop these days. Give me the act of selecting something from the shelf or pile beside the stereo and physically setting it playing anyday.
(OK, fair enough - I'm ready for my pipe and slippers. Someone shoot me - not least for the Jamiroquai reference in the post title.)
(Thanks to Matt for the link.)
Friday, June 07, 2013
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