Ok no one asked but here is my take on streaming: I rly like spotify as an interface, I like being able to see an artist’s entire discography and I like making collaborative playlists, etc.

I hate the algorithms, I hate “curated playlists” for which we have no idea what humans are actually in charge of “curation,” I hate music being seen as a tool to sell moods, and therefore products.

I don’t have a problem with music being free or fully accessible. However, in order for music makers to survive under these conditions, we need a Universal Basic Income.

I don’t think we can move backwards to an older model where we successfully convince people to pay for something they don’t have to anymore, but I do think we need to recognize a lot of industries are becoming more precarious as a result of big tech.

UBI is a great way to sustain the livelihoods of creative people, artists, people between jobs, unable to work, people going back to school, people needing some time for personal development, needing time to just *relax*

Streaming is one facet of a larger problem of our lives being consumed by big tech. The wealth and efficiency generated by these companies cannot be concentrated between a few billionaires, we need to more evenly distribute the benefits.

But REALLY: if there is going to be an online platform for all music to exist, it should be a non-for-profit. Like PRS, SOCAN, etc. We can’t use our tax-funded UBI to keep funding private companies that enrich the lives of just a few super-rich people.

We can’t have the functionality of these platforms dictated by shareholders. I feel the same way about all the other social medias: they should all be publicly owned.

(This is obviously just scraping the surface of a much larger conversation. In general, I find the goals of big tech companies to be really boring. The potential of tech could be so much cooler if it wasn’t market-driven!)