Esther Dyson is Boring

I really hated this article. I don’t consider myself to be particularly stupid. In fact, I think I’m kind of smart. Still, this article was boring and difficult for me to follow.

I understand that Dyson was attempting to use examples that were easy to relate to and interesting, but really I was not thrilled. I think the writing style could have been improved. Dyson’s words were definitely eloquently written, but so boring. 

Aside from being boring, this article was also depressing. Dyson says,

“The problem for owners of content is that they will be competing with free or almost-free content, including their own advertising as well as the output of myriad creators who launch products on the Net.” 

Now don’t get me wrong. I LOVE that I can go to google, find a picture I like that is relevant to a project I might be doing, and simply drag it onto my desktop and use it. I don’t have to worry about the cyber-police, or the real police for that matter, coming after me and yelling about how I stole something. I do want people to get paid, however. Especially since there is plenty of creative material on the internet that artists and creators provide for other’s entertainment and then don’t get paid for.

This is sad. If I were to one day become a successful musician and then find that I’m really making no money off of my music because everyone is simply streaming it – I would be upset. (Upset being a toned-down version of how I would actually feel).

But that IS how it works now.

I think about Spotify as an example. If I understand correctly, anyone can stream music on Spotify. If you want to stream music without advertisements you have to pay a monthly fee that is particularly small given the amount of current music you have access to. Everyone is on Spotify – including Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga. But how can these artists expect to make the amount of money they deserve when you can simply stream their album for a small or nonexistent fee rather than purchasing their album at Best Buy or on iTunes?

I mean, maybe that’s not a great argument to use for Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga since both women make more in a day than I will make in my entire lifetime as a Social Worker. However, artists that are up-and-coming and want to promote their music by putting it on Spotify might get great publicity but it won’t get their albums sold.

These artists are competing with their own music which can be streamed for free.

So perhaps this isn’t exactly the argument Esther Dyson is making in her article but it was difficult for me to understand exactly what she was saying. Maybe the point of this blog post should simply be that YOU should go buy albums instead of just streaming them on YouTube or Spotify. Support your favorite band. That is all, friends.