Dogmantra wrote on August 2, 2021 at 8:43 PM (edited on August 2, 2021 at 8:44 PM)

This is an interesting read. I think I kind of disagree at the part where the author starts discussing how the post-scarcity music world means people listen more broadly and in the background. I find that because there is so much available for practically nothing, I filter through and find a few songs that really connect with me. In the days of the record, the cassette, even to an extent the CD, if you wanted to skip a track on an album you had to put physical work in. Yes you were forced into fewer albums, but you had much less of an ability to curate what you wanted to listen to. Making a playlist of your favourite songs involved buying a blank tape and dubbing them over, getting the perfect amount of silence between each track. Now you can "filter" through albums once and then add the songs you like to a custom playlist.

hollyhoppet wrote on August 3, 2021 at 4:31 AM

honestly? i feel like claims that people are listening to music more "just" as background noise comes across as really old-man-yells-at-cloud. i wonder if anyone has any evidence of this that's more than anecdotal. sure, spotify markets a lot of their playlists that way but i wonder how accurately targetd any of that marketing really is.

i've always listened to music while doing things like reading or working. and the key word there is "listened" because i'm not just having it as background noise but acticely appreciating the music. to put it as drily as possible i guess lol, i'm enjoying the intellectual stimulation that music provides, and that gives me a feedback loop to increase the enjoyment or productivity of my current task. granted, this might be an adhd or autism thing, but i doubt i'm alone in this pattern.

then again, maybe i'm the minority, who knows. until i see some actual numbers i'm not gonna buy it though.

Dogmantra wrote on August 3, 2021 at 10:10 AM

Yeah! This scans totally with my experience also. But then I also realise I'm not exactly the sort of music enjoyer that they're talking about. I suspect it's a case of the ol' typical mind fallacy.