Thinking about the ease of commodifying artistry.

In a world where many self-appointed critics decry our consumerist ways, the yawning gulf between producer and consumer is often pointed out. We don't meet the person who grew our coffee, glued together our fancy runners, assembled the parts that make up a computer. We probably don't wish to either, except in moments of rare altruism where someone inspired us with good feelings about smelling the roses and living in a big happy community.

Digital technology is a great buffer in the transfer of artistic media and is useful in perpetuating this gulf. The music gets made on one side, and we listen to it on the other, but in the middle it exists merely as ones and zeros in storage and in transit all around the networked globe, meaningless until something at the other end transforms it into something we can actually hear.

Further thoughts...here