Twenty years ago marked a crossroads for the music industry with the emergence of two platforms. The Pirate Bay, a torrent site where anyone could acquire music free of charge, and the iTunes Music Store, which flowed with Apple’s strategy to sustain the record labels. The iTunes Store made songs available for purchase at the cost of ninety-nine cents, creating a demand for singular tracks that have become increasingly generic.
Nowadays, streaming services like Spotify have been taking over the music industry involving artificial intelligence and algorithmic playlists, scripting an environment where music could be easily generated and reproduced, resulting in an averagely produced background noise referred to as ‘sludge’. As a response, people have begun retaliating, by favoring alternative streaming services, using the vinyl format and paying attention to artist’s original work.
To define The launch of the iTunes Store 20 years ago as the responsibility for turning music into generic background noise is to underestimate the effects of a multiplicity of factors: the creation of The Pirate Bay, the current streaming climate of music consumption, and the way platforms like Apple and Spotify market a playlist-based listening experience designed to appease today’s consumer.
The struggle to produce high-quality music encompasses individuals like Peter Sunde, one of The Pirate Bay’s founders. Peter was motivated to make music accessible for everyone, with the thought that it would give the music industry more exposure to listeners who would later purchase tickets or products related to artists. Apple’s goal for the iTunes Store was to bring about a safe haven for the music industry so it wouldn’t be put in any peril due to free downloading sites such as Napster.
Ariana Grande recently graced the headlines for her feature in an AI generated version of Rihanna’s hit song ‘Diamonds.’ This new iteration of sludge results from the growing prevalence of algorithm-run streaming services, offering low-effort discovery and auto-generated music in exchange for a monthly subscription. This emphasizes how the fast-growing shift to streaming ecosystem has increased the possibility of unintentional over-consumption of music, and the need to actively counteract streaming platform’s guidelines in order to dive deep and find memorable music.
The real battle remains outside the context of streaming systems, as deeply connected to our own ways of presenting and consuming music and how it changes us. To break this normative cycle, we need to recognize what sets us apart from machines, and our human capacity to invest time looking for music with real substance.
