I would humbly posit that 2010 is the year when online recorded music reached the " tipping point " .
There is so much freely available good quality on the internet that "ownership" seems pointless .
My listening habits have greatly changed ... I remember finding a great album like "thrust" by herbie hancock which took years of searching ( back in 1987 or so ) for me . I would listen to that thing constantly until I discovered something else . Back then my jazz teacher John Bostok told me the "kind of blue" was good and it took me a couple of years to find a copy .
Now ....
For example :
www.lala.com
I spend hours at this site just LISTENING to music ... I rarely purchase any of the stuff .... I just move on to the next great thing I havent heard before
OR
http://neverenoughrhodes.blogspot.com/2008/05/never-enough-live-herbie-hancock.html
There is a sea of live "bootlegs" of great jazz concerts recorded in the last 30-40 years on the internet .... You couldnt listen to all of them in a lifetime if you tried .... Many of these sites now stream this stuff which is perfectly legal for the listener .... Its an interesting philosophical/legal argument about the "difference" between streaming a digital file and downloading it listening to it once and then deleting it .
As a result I have posted all of my studio albums here :
www.seanwayland.bandcamp.com
If someone can suggest a better " business model" in the current climate I would love to hear it !
The cost of a digital album is going to come WAY DOWN in the next ten years . My bet is that in 2020 a whole CD will cost about $1.50 to buy online as a result ....
Cheers
Sean
