Oh my.
Spoiler alert. I am about to sound like a crotchety old fogy. I don’t want to. It just happens that way.
Music. I love music. Always have. That won’t change. Regardless of what the music business does to screw up music, my love for the tunes that move me will never cease to move me.
I walked 4 and half miles today and I listened to tunes I love. Later in the day I spent 30-some minutes on an elliptical watching and listening to The Moody Blues live from the Greek Theatre in 2005. When I exercise I will listen to and enjoy tunes doing so.
I have gotten acclimated, swallow real hard, to listening to Amazon music when I walk. We pay for it, I suppose. There is an Amazon Prime membership that factors in there somewhere.
Today I read a story about Pink Floyd’s 1983 album The Final Cut. It was the last thing Roger Waters did as a member of Pink Floyd. We don’t have time to get into the lineage of Pink Floyd or what is good bad or indifferent about that group.
The thing is, I heard a “dink” over my head and decided to go get my Pink Floyd Final Cut CD off the shelf to listen to for the first time in a very long time. Then, I turned my head sideways. No way, I thought. No way Pink Floyd’s Final Cut is on the Amazon Music? I am not talking about Amazon Music Unlimited.
I looked before I retrieved it from the shelf. There it was on Amazon Music. All I have to do is pull it up on my phone and use the blue tooth speaker and listen to this album like I always have.
I struggle with this. I really do. Show of hands of how many of you remember certain groups or solo artist whose CDs would not come below the 14.99 mark back in the day? If you wanted Pink Floyd back in the day, you were gonna pay! I think I got my copy of The Final Cut for 17.99 on CD a long time ago. I am listening to it now. It is my favorite Pink Floyd album. Politically charged music it was then. But I suppose that concept is a thing of the past. Guess whomever makes the purse string decisions regarding music and politics found a calculus that did not add up. How else can you figure a lack of protest music today?
I will tell you. We have stretched ourselves music thin in this country. Too late to bring the masses together with a tune. That is museum stuff now. Garth Brooks is playing Drive-In theaters. “Nuff” said.
Me. Time and life have seen me be fortunate enough to make music. I must say it has all been a blessing to me. In the world of music, I am a NOBODY. I get that. With that said, music is a NOBODY in these crazy times we are looking at outside our windows. Oh yes, you can pay 100 bucks and go listen to Garth Brooks at a drive-in. That makes me feel better.
In earnest, my songs are listened to. That, I do like. Above is a page from my digital sales.
Will it make me money? Not much. I recently shared with a music artist of prominence my status in the world of digital music. I told him that my tunes have been downloaded over 7000 times. I have less than 10 dollars to show for it.
Don’t play music unless you love it enough to let it go.
When I was ten in 1978, a Bay City Rollers album cost about $7.99 for ten songs. Pay that a month today and you can listen to anything. Convert those 8 bucks in 1978 to 32 bucks today. God love my parents! I got all the BCR albums made.
I am a music rich man for sure!
Speaking the rights….
Danny Johnson