Is music becoming valueless ?

Many years ago if I wanted access to music of my choice I needed to go to a record shop and buy it. I would have to work hard to make enough money to buy an LP, so it was played and played, shared and looked after. I needed to be very sure that I would like and value what I bought.

Fast forward to today! It's so easy now, streaming, for the most part is free, for the price of what my treasured record cost you can have a subscription to get access to practically every piece of music ever written. But the easy part is, if you don't like something or you're short on time you can bring up a new play. You can listen anywhere, any time!

In the early days, I would read the album covers, carefully hold the discs, learn all the lyrics, know all about the artists. Now we are swamped with artists we hardly know and songs produced in home studios on minimal equipment. For the most part the music is unmemorable or sounds like the one we just heard.

I realize I'm generalizing here and wikiloops music may be the exception, but even here I have to ask how many uploads do we save to play for the next 50 years and do we value them as much as those first songs we bought and still play today, 50 years on (in some cases). I wonder if my thoughts resonate with members at wikiloops.

---

I agree with you. We are in the era of fast consumption. Music is not an exception to the rule. Fast food, fast music. Everything must be "fast". No more delicacy of expectation, no more joy to love and take care, the rapid consumption of things takes away all value. No more taming, consumption is immediate, brutal and without a future.

---

I think it's the "me" generation, music is simply a background sound to their 30sec life clip, it's rather unimportant because the focus is "me", look at "me".

I also I think we have found ways to devalue music. remember when Napster came out, all this music that was traditionally paid for became free. it has continued to some degree throughout. it no longer takes a record deal, as u mention, home studios, etc...and with AI, much easier to put something out there. u hear stories of albums in the past taking years to make and perfect, now something is slapped together rather quickly. I think "chemistry" in the music is going away, bands are few and far between. Rick Beato on his YouTube channel talks about that.

---

I checked out Rick Beato, he's really entertaining, very outspoken and critical of new music and I must agree he hits the nail on the head most times. I guess I'm saying here what he says so often.

---

To maintain our insatiable desire for possession, the all-powerful hyper-consumption requires a flood of images and videos and an inexhaustible flood of music.

In this frenetic context,
- "no longer clicking" is an act of resistance,
- "taking the time to think" has become a cerebral sport,
- "working" has become a guilty pleasure.

Only the most ascetic among us can hope to preserve the clarity and originality of their judgment....

---

I believe that once anything becomes plentiful, cheap and easy to obtain, the less it matters and the further it gets from being valued.

On a serious note, we find it hard to conceive large numbers of people dying in disasters and conflicts but when the News focuses on just one death, we remember it for longer.

On a lighter note we're not impressed by millions of plays or subscriptions on social media sites. It's easier to follow the most popular artists, football teams, clothing ranges etc. It eliminates a need to choose. Whether we watch, play, use or wear what we have or not, we're just preserving our street cred. We feel fulfilled without actually consuming anything.

Value has become purely monetary rather than emotional for collection enthusiasts. Once records become rare they become more valuable commercially, therefore people don't play them for fear of devaluing them.
It's the same with other vintage items like toys, they must be unused and in their boxes.

The younger generation as a whole try to be original and unique but ironically, all in the same way, they end up with identical tattoos, piercings, reading material, food, drink and clothing and music choices. We are quickly becoming an homogenized society.

---

Interesting thoughts.

My 5 cents:
We do not need to focus on music. My grandparents said: "You will have it better than us, we work for this!". My Parents already had it much better. I had - so far - a perfect life. No hunger (ignore some exceptions), no cold, no wet, no war. Today my daughters (32 and 34 years) have *everything*. They are in Disneyland. Computer - of course. Handy with connection to ChatGPT and uncountable other KI-Software. If you would have told me as a boy what kind of cars we drive: with computer inside, navigation that speaks, Airbags, 200-800 PS, just on the normal road, colourful as you want, top seats developed by doctors... I would'nt believe. Then you can eat as NO King in history ever could: Chinese in the morning, Greek in the noon, Italian in the evening, all the week through another country. And if you do not like to go into a restaurant: let it come! TV ist like a little cinema, including sound. Vacation can be made everywhere.

The list goes on, and on and on! And, are our kids well? Is the majoritiy happy? Is mine generation? No. For me this is a key question: how comes that every dream can come true for many but still there is such a deep dissatisfaction. Don't we look on the wrong end?

For me one of the most deceiving things is to get God out of the way. Since I am a christian, I have my explanations. But still I myself have to do regularly my inventory and then ask myself: what is wrong with you (me)?

Besides I suffer from the isolation, which was so embraced the last years. When I play live music, it is hard to find people, coming and listening. All my band is professional - except me. But music is bad payed, bad visited, badly booked. When sitting in the Underground or elsewhere: people do look into a cell-phone, not to each other. You see the best of the best in Youtube, good musicians are no longer good, but seem to be mediocre.

I regularly meet a nun, 91 years old. They have no new generation! It is today nearly unknown or looks "extreme" to just serve others and own nothing but two pair of shoes and three sets of clothings.

THIS makes me think new to be thankful to all the richness I am in! And also to think what is even too much for me.

Now I end with giving some dollars.... Sorry. :)

---

"In my time, it was better", that's what all the boomer grandpas around the world say. Music is no exception to this tendency to exaggerate a story that is soon to end...

It is undeniable that, just as much as an old photo, music can mobilize our emotions and even bring back the past in a few notes without us being able to resist it.

It is a powerful lever used in retromarketing and nostalgia marketing techniques to annihilate our intellectual resistance.

Music is itself an object of economic transaction with its storytelling composed of all fabrics of superstars who have become mythical without understanding why.

Let's not forget that yesterday's hits are recurring products, which we bought with pleasure in the past and which continue to sell, bringing in a lot of money to their author(s).

Music, whether listened to or played, has become a lucrative business that all our young musician friends secretly dream of.

Let's hope WikiLoops doesn't succumb to it!

---

Music is no longer the way to riches. It's just for selling merchandise these days. Yes, you have to make the music but that's just a start point .

In a way music which was once something everybody did around a piano in the parlour, in the pub or wherever just for the pure joy of it, became something only achievable by well funded professionals has come back to the home as a creative hobby millions of people enjoy. I don't think that's a bad thing. The equivalent to the "studio" on my computer would have cost £millions not so long ago. It's a wonderful time to be making music, I just wish I wasn't so darn old by the time the tech got this accessible.

Sure, it must have been cool to have a small part in one track that was used in a film and buy a house from the proceeds but was that ever really sane?

Making mega bucks from music was a flash in the pan. If you want to get rich now you have to con folk on youtube to pay for courses they don't need, or write VSTs, or simply talk about it like the Beato guy.

---

:)
Not everything is bad, and isn't the greatest wealth to be found here with the most beautiful of passions? We have little to lose, while the rich have only one goal: to preserve their wealth. For us, it's the pleasure of giving pleasure.:)

---

i got nostalgic it was a banger in the 1700 miss those time...
[youtube]k1-TrAvp_xs?si=qtpxMw3bMFTld8b1[/youtube]

---

In my humble opinion music will always hold immense value, regardless of whether we define that value monetarily or emotionally. Some people measure music's worth by the price they pay for a song or album whether it's bought from a traditional store, an artist's website, a digital platform, or a second-hand shop. For many, a song or album becomes priceless based on personal enjoyment and the connection they feel with the artist.

But there's another kind of value that transcends money. It's the joy and inspiration music brings into our lives every day. Creating our own music or drawing motivation from other musicians and singers enriches our existence in profound ways. Platforms like this one, or streaming sites like YouTube, serve as endless sources of musical discovery and pleasure.

Ultimately, music’s truest value lies in its ability to soothe our souls and become the soundtrack of our lives. This emotional and personal significance is far more meaningful than any price tag. So, in my view, music will always have a value.

---

I feel that I am asking this question to the wrong people on the wrong site because obviously, music, whether you make it, listen to it, buy or borrow it, is proving valuable to most everybody here.

Maybe the difference with members of a jamming site is that the end goal is not necessarily to create and produce finished songs. The whole point of this place is musical interaction, collaboration and respectful bonhomie between musicians with similar outlooks and values. It's not about making money, it's more about making friends and making memories. Thanks for all the very articulate feedback, it must be hard if you need to translate :) :W

---

The question posed, as simple as it may seem on the surface, invites deep reflection.

Musical Enchantment (V. Jankélévitch) remains a mystery that questions each of us day after day.

The question of value could very well be among those listed on Wikipedia in the section "the philosophy of music":

- What is the definition of music? (what are the necessary and sufficient conditions for classifying something as music?)
- What is the relationship between music and mind?
- What is the relationship between music and language?
- What does music history reveal to us about the world?
- What is the connection between music and emotions? (in the 19th century a debate began over whether purely instrumental music could convey emotions and depict imaginary scenes)
What is meaning in relation to music?

---

My general view is to be pleased that music is drifting towards making music for the sake of the music rather than trying to copy the latest fashion to make money... unless you make rap music, those guys and girls are stuck in a rut.

---