3 ms·

You're not understanding what commodities are. An apple (or type of apple, to be specific) can be a commodity because I don't care or who which orchard made th

by CPLX 3y ago

You're not understanding what commodities are. An apple (or type of apple, to be specific) can be a commodity because I don't care or who which orchard made the apple, and I am completely indifferent to the apples of various orchards when I go to the supermarket. Recorded music isn't like that, at all. I care if the song is Fly Me To The Moon sung by Frank Sinatra or Stairway to Heaven sung by Frank Oz using the voice of Kermit the Frog. Some products are commodities. Some aren't. The word has an actual substantive meaning.

toast0 3y ago
> You're not understanding what commodities are. You're not understanding how some people use music. Does the supermarket care who the artist is? Not really. Do I care who the artist is? Not really, I just need dance music to keep part of my mind occupied so I can get into the zone easier; saccharine vocals help too, no substance please.
- CPLX 3y ago
  How would you feel about having the exact song playing on repeat every day of your life? Every movie, every scene. Same song in the background. Every first dance at a wedding, same song. Before a baseball game, standup and put your hand on your heart, same song. You’re indifferent right?
  - toast0 3y ago
    In the case that it's only one song, I'll be a little more picky. Same thing if you have to eat the same apple every day. I'd probably just stop listening to music at that point. Or find some work where they're still running large collated copy jobs; those copy machines make some good beats.
    - CPLX 3y ago
      If I had to eat the same banana every time I chose to eat a banana I wouldn’t give a shit, at all. In fact if you told me that my understanding of physics was wrong, and that I had in fact only eaten one banana ever in my life, which had been reconstituted and delivered to me each time, I wouldn’t have anything to say. Because I wouldn’t be able to tell if that was true. Because bananas are all the fucking same from a practical standpoint. That’s what a commodity looks like.
Hermitian909 3y ago
I think there's some talking past each other going here. I think it's useful to bisect music into commodity/non-commidty categories. Category 1 is things like Taylor swift's music which is not a commodity. Category 2 is the music playing on lofi hip hop radio[0] is a commodity. 28,000 people are listening to the music on that channel as I type this and and approximately zero people know or care who made that music. The specific song basically doesn't matter so long as it fits the genre and meets a quality bar. They're analogous to handmade rugs - all slightly different but not in a way the consumer cares about. So far as I can tell, most music that gets made is treated like it's in this second category: Generic Genre X song. Producing something that manages to break out of this commodity status is deeply unusual. In anecdotal support of this, I often go to venues to listen to "bluegrass" (category 1) in much the same way I go out to buy an apple. I want the bluegrass to be good, just as I want good tasting apples, but the particular purveyor does not really matter unless it's someone special like the Punch Brothers (category 2). [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfKfPfyJRdk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfKfPfyJRdk
- CPLX 3y ago
  Just because they themselves have outsourced the selection of the music doesn't make it a commodity. It's like saying Michelin-starred restaurants are a commodity. They aren't. Once they are on that list they might be sort of interchangeable to a specific sort of person who just wants a generic "nice" restaurant and picks one off the list when they get to a city. But they're all unique and different in really substantive ways, and also different from non-Michelin starred restaurants. Your example of venues that hosts bluegrass works the same way. You trust the guy who books the bluegrass bands. If they just offered a gig to every band that asked you would hate going there and they'd close soon. Have you seen genuinely bad bluegrass? You don't like it, I can assure you of that. You're just talking about curation. And the fact that curation is even possible proves what I'm saying. If recorded music was a commodity there would only be one playlist because you would not be able to tell one playlist from the other. Can your car tell Exxon from Sunoco? Can you drink a glass of milk and know which dairy it came from? Of course you can't. THAT is what a commodity looks like.
  - 3y ago

by CPLX 3y ago

toast0 3y ago

> You're not understanding what commodities are. You're not understanding how some people use music. Does the supermarket care who the artist is? Not really. Do I care who the artist is? Not really, I just need dance music to keep part of my mind occupied so I can get into the zone easier; saccharine vocals help too, no substance please.

CPLX 3y ago
How would you feel about having the exact song playing on repeat every day of your life? Every movie, every scene. Same song in the background. Every first dance at a wedding, same song. Before a baseball game, standup and put your hand on your heart, same song. You’re indifferent right?
- toast0 3y ago
  In the case that it's only one song, I'll be a little more picky. Same thing if you have to eat the same apple every day. I'd probably just stop listening to music at that point. Or find some work where they're still running large collated copy jobs; those copy machines make some good beats.
  - CPLX 3y ago
    If I had to eat the same banana every time I chose to eat a banana I wouldn’t give a shit, at all. In fact if you told me that my understanding of physics was wrong, and that I had in fact only eaten one banana ever in my life, which had been reconstituted and delivered to me each time, I wouldn’t have anything to say. Because I wouldn’t be able to tell if that was true. Because bananas are all the fucking same from a practical standpoint. That’s what a commodity looks like.

Hermitian909 3y ago

I think there's some talking past each other going here. I think it's useful to bisect music into commodity/non-commidty categories. Category 1 is things like Taylor swift's music which is not a commodity. Category 2 is the music playing on lofi hip hop radio[0] is a commodity. 28,000 people are listening to the music on that channel as I type this and and approximately zero people know or care who made that music. The specific song basically doesn't matter so long as it fits the genre and meets a quality bar. They're analogous to handmade rugs - all slightly different but not in a way the consumer cares about. So far as I can tell, most music that gets made is treated like it's in this second category: Generic Genre X song. Producing something that manages to break out of this commodity status is deeply unusual. In anecdotal support of this, I often go to venues to listen to "bluegrass" (category 1) in much the same way I go out to buy an apple. I want the bluegrass to be good, just as I want good tasting apples, but the particular purveyor does not really matter unless it's someone special like the Punch Brothers (category 2). [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfKfPfyJRdk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfKfPfyJRdk

CPLX 3y ago
Just because they themselves have outsourced the selection of the music doesn't make it a commodity. It's like saying Michelin-starred restaurants are a commodity. They aren't. Once they are on that list they might be sort of interchangeable to a specific sort of person who just wants a generic "nice" restaurant and picks one off the list when they get to a city. But they're all unique and different in really substantive ways, and also different from non-Michelin starred restaurants. Your example of venues that hosts bluegrass works the same way. You trust the guy who books the bluegrass bands. If they just offered a gig to every band that asked you would hate going there and they'd close soon. Have you seen genuinely bad bluegrass? You don't like it, I can assure you of that. You're just talking about curation. And the fact that curation is even possible proves what I'm saying. If recorded music was a commodity there would only be one playlist because you would not be able to tell one playlist from the other. Can your car tell Exxon from Sunoco? Can you drink a glass of milk and know which dairy it came from? Of course you can't. THAT is what a commodity looks like.
- 3y ago