Most of us weren’t so blessed. Plus, unless you happen to be musically obsessive compul-
sive, that library was more of a mishmash than something that would do the Dewy Deci-
mal System proud. Oh sure, we’d try, but our organizational efforts would usually quickly
erode into chaos. Nonetheless, back in those days, we had no other choice.
Another problem with the collector culture was finding the name of a tune. If a DJ
didn’t mention it, we were somewhat stuck until we heard it again and, hopefully, this
time the DJ would announce the title and artist. Humming a few bars to a friend usually
didn’t help too much, either.
By comparison, the capture culture focuses on digital delivery of music. An array of
apps allow us to download what we want directly to our player of choice and pay for it
electronically. To find a particular song or artist, you simply type in a search box. Volia!
Many even provide the ability to bring in cover artwork, liner notes and lyrics. How
handy is that? And, apps such as Pandora will even make suggestions for similar types of
music you might enjoy. Now, we don’t even need to worry about hard storage on various
devices. It’s all going into the cloud and following us everywhere we go. Additionally, ID
apps such as SoundHound instantly provide the name of a song and you can glean a
wealth of information about the music, the artist bio, video sources, where to buy it,
lyrics, tour dates, more. Isn’t the digital age wonderful?
All this neat stuff turns music from passive listening into an interactive experience.
Owning music, in many ways, has become accessing music. Spotify, Facebook, Pandora,
along with many other is rapidly changing the way to access listen to and share music.
And, to the labels’ and retailers’ dismay, the middleman is quickly becoming an entity of
the past.