Is Music Worth Anything Now? by Andy Rogers

 

I love music – I always have. Remember that old song by John Miles? “Music was my first love”…  “To live without my music would be impossible to do”… that could have been written by me.  From the time when my dad gave me a copy of “With the Beatles” back in 1963 right up to the present day I love having a new album .. A whole new batch of songs to explore. Maybe it will be fantastic, maybe not (!) but that moment where you hold the artwork in your hand just before that first play is still addictive.

But the sad thing is this. At the age of 65 I seem to have become a musical dinosaur. Part of a dying breed of people who a) listen to albums all through and b) are actually willing to PAY for the music they listen to.

It’s the Spotify effect. You can get as much music as you want for nothing. No need to buy any albums or singles any more, just log on, type the artist name and there you are. Great. Unless you are the artist of course! If you’re lucky you might eventually get some miniscule amount in royalties dribble into your account but don’t hold your breath and certainly don’t rely on it to make a living. If you actually DO want a personal copy well just get yourself one of the many mp3 converter programs and steal the track from You-tube. Pay 99p for a track? Are you mad? The sound quality will be rubbish but you’re only playing it through a tinny speaker on your phone anyway!!

All very sad. And while I’m stood on this soapbox think about this: When this generation gets a little bit older what music will they remember and cherish with those special memories? Where is their “Sergeant Pepper”? Their “Dark Side of the moon”? Their “Rumours”? The sad truth is this. Kids now just do not buy music. They don’t buy singles (oh, they listen to them as I say, but they don’t BUY them) and they most definitely do NOT buy albums. My lads (both in their 30s now) couldn’t tell me the last time they bought an album. They don’t even want them for birthday or Christmas presents. They just wouldn’t play them.

Try going into an “entertainment” shop like The HMV Store that sells CDs, DVDs, games etc and by the time you’d got past the racks of games for X-box, PlayStation etc and discovered the last few racks of CDs that are lurking in the darkest corner of the shop you will find that, apart from one or two other sad looking people in their 50s or older, you’ll be pretty much on your own. Anyone younger than that will be back at the front of the store having gone into the store for some game or other, a Star Wars Plushie or a new pair of Bluetooth headphones. What they are not there to do is buy music.

Unbelievably (and this is a true story) during the run-up to the last pre-Covid Christmas I was browsing the CDs in the HMV store in Solihull (now closed down of course) when two teenage girls came up to me, looking lost. “Excuse me” one said, “Sorry to be a nuisance but how do you do this?” “How do you do what?” I asked... “How do you buy a CD?” they asked(!)... The concept of finding the artist by looking alphabetically then paying for it at the till was an alien concept. I knew then the days of the record store were numbered.

So that, I think, sadly is that. Music as hard copies... from cylinders to 78 records then through Vinyl onto CD is as good as dead. Personally I will be very sad when it finally happens. I love browsing in HMV or whatever CD shop is left (there aren’t many now are there?). I like to see the new releases... or survey the digital remasters of old favourites. I’ve always been able to spend too much time (and money!) in Music stores … but not, it seems, for very much longer. I’m going to miss that. A lot.

I'm a fan of the little details… where and when was it recorded? Who produced it? Who exactly is on vocals and who’s that playing that fantastic guitar solo? Oh and while I’m at it, it’s good to have the lyrics too!  Try finding that on Spotify!

So to sum up – and to return to the heading - IS music worth anything now? Well of course it is, it can soothe, calm, energize, and take you up (or down) and above all it is a source of all your greatest memories.  The trouble is, unless you are a very big name artist you are never going to make a living with making music. We live in an era of disposable music, people don’t buy it so it has no real value. Tunes come and go so quickly that nobody has time to associate them with any special memories. Nobody over 20 will be able tell you who is in the singles chart this week, that’s a fact.

No-one of this generation is going to have the chance to look back in twenty years time and say “Ah yes! I remember buying this album – what a great year that was”.  And that’s a shame, don’t you think?