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Tuesday Night Tunes – Rastafarian Gospel

By Jerry Robertson August 19, 2014 Tuesday Night Tunes

Ok, I made up the title but it is what I thought about when I heard this one for the first time yesterday. Check it out.

I am on a journey and this was a part of the path. I had lunch with a friend (Bill) who is a record producer / creator and we got to talking about streaming music. The story I was telling was really about house concerts and how I was working to try and find ‘the one’ I want to start with in my own concert series. I am going to host a concert series and we’re getting closer. Stay tuned for that but on to the story.

My friend Art at Bowman House Concert Series has hosted about 50 artists and I have only heard two of them in person. I wanted to hear more so I got the list from his website, fired up Google Play Music All Access and created a play list of 3 songs each so I had a total of 150 songs +/-.

At that point Bill interrupted me and asked “how much did that cost?”.

Now I could see where this was going. He knew the answer but it was an interesting diversion in my path. The cost is $7.99 a month for all you can listen to. $8. As a producer that seems to cut right to his bottom line. If I can stream music for basically free, why would I buy anything, ever again?

That question got me to thinking. Why would I? Why have I? I have purchased music recently even though I can listen for free. The answer is because I wanted a souvenir. I have purchased CD’s at the concerts so the artist has something to sign while we are talking. I want to support them and the work they do because I love it. Truth is I have never put those CD’s in the player. I stream it when I want to hear it because it’s easier.

I have purchased LP vinyl records (yes I still have a turn table) so I can get the art work, the sleeve with the words and to have something for the artist to sign while we are talking. I like listening to vinyl too. It sounds different. Digital music and analog music are close but they are not the same thing. We can hear a difference but it’s really hard to put into words. Maybe it’s my imagination but that is what makes placebos work isn’t it?

So I wanted to know, do you still buy music? Do you stream it on Pandora or Spotify? How do you consume music? Do you want to buy a souvenir like I do? I can’t keep a huge collection like this guy but I love having some of it in my hand. It’s more about the experience and less about the consumption I think.

You might have guessed that I bought the Eric Clapton collection Give Me Strength in vinyl and can’t want to get my hands on it. Fortunately I have access to it on Google Music so I have been listening to it already.

One last piece for tonight, I found this interview on YouTube with Eric talking about Stevie Ray. It’s a great piece about two great guitar players, one to another.

I hope you like it as much as I did.

Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-231-1578 Cell