The Washington Post carries an interesting article this past week that suggest the Internet is (go figure?) changing the way people discover and share music.
” Because the Internet has changed how people discover and share music, the rules of marketing it and the hierarchy of who determines what’s hot have also changed. As radio-music listenership declines, the industry finds itself spending more time courting a broader field of tastemakers who, through Web sites, are popularizing songs that never get radio play. The primary tool in this transition is the playlist — a sequence of tracks posted on blogs or shared on music purchase sites such as iTunes. Not just that, but also ‘about 2,700 albums have been brought back through the Vault, with more than 5,000 scheduled to follow’ with those albums not having enough demand to justify another printing.”
Now that’s nothing new to me, because my own discoveries have been tempered by sharing services and Internet radio. Thankfully, my collection is much broader than the Top 10 of my last years in high school and includes decades of great music from the 20s to the 21st century.
Like many others, I’m discovering new music and old music at a pace that I thought was never possible and it’s opened my mind and my ears to to tunes and bands I would have never imagined. From the indie pop bands I discover on Soma FM or the great old jazz performances from obscure players from the Bebop era, my playlists continue to expand.
The article cites alot of intresting habits from several musical affectionados and today, I also discovered that You Tube has an incredible collection of recorded television performances that will continue to intrigue me for hours to come, including this discovery of an old Stevie Wonder performance. Believe it or not, this is a live performance from Sesame Street and although I missed it, the Internet is bringing it back…and damn…is this funky or what? Check out the kids dancing on the stairs…this is what music is all about! Sharing.