it’s 7 a.m and i’m just getting ready to go to sleep. but first, a little friendly update.
i was talking to a friend about napster and downloadable music in general. and you know what? in principle i have to say that napster doesn’t really bother me. in fact, if someone makes the effort to download one of my songs i’m actually quie flattered. music is supposed to be listened to, right? and if someone is downloading songs they’re downloading songs with the intention of listening to them.
and i thought that that was kind of the point of making music, to get people to listen to your music, and in the process possibly improve someone’s quality of life, even for a short time.
i have to say that i do like the idea of professional musicians who dedicate their lives to making music. and in order for professional musicians to exist they have to get paid for their work. but i don’t see napster as compromising peoples ability to make great music. most of the people that i know who use napster seem to use it as a way of finding out about music before they go and buy a cd. so in a sense napster serves as a form of promotion. and given the conservative state of radio, etc in the world, i can’t help but applaud anything that allows people to hear new and interesting music.
it’s funny that people are so up in arms about music being available for free on napster, but last time i checked most people listen to music for free on the radio and tv, don’t they?
and i certainly don’t understand multi-millionaire artists getting upset about fans downloading their songs. that’s just musicians being either greedy or absurd, as far as i can tell. and anyways, the state of downloading is going to change so much in the next 5 years that to get too worked up about the current state of digital downloads is kind of like getting upset about home computing in 1981, if you know what i mean.
and if it’s in fact true that rates of domestic abuse go up after big sporting events then why don’t we somehow change the nature of these events? and why don’t we instigate a ‘3 strikes and you’re castrated’ rule for wife-beaters and domestic abusers? and why don’t we make it illegal for men to buy guns, since they’re obviously not emotionally developed enough to own them responsibly? i guess the only good thing is that most police forces actually take domestic abuse a lot more seriously than they did in the past. that’s progress of a sort. although there does seem to be this lingering perception among a lot of people that domestic abuse is harmless and is only the business of the people involved. as we all know, domestic abuse is not harmless, it’s a violent crime and it needs to always be treated as such, in my opinion.
but i should probably go to sleep, it’s late.
moby
