Like father, not like daughter

I love that my dad pushes my opinions on the music industry. We have continued a long stream of conversations about CDs, MP3, file sharing. The generation gap is very clear. I have come to a few conclusions based on my intense study of our 2 small voices in a sea of how many millions of Americans involved in the music industry, translating it into the proverbial generation gap between my 21-year-old self and his 53-year-old self. (This is my disclaimer that I may be making sweeping generalizations, but I think it points out some interesting differences)

My family goes through the MP3 player shuffle every few years. I got my first MP3 player at 15, holding an astounding 30 songs! After I advanced to one that held 65 songs (even more amazing, hold one whole playlist!) my dad got the small, less capacity one. For the next 6 years, after including my sister into the tradeshow, we have exchanged 6 different iPods and off brand players. My dad and I were discussing the iPod shuffle vs the new mega huge capacity new iPod video. I told him I wanted to trash my old 6 GB mini for the video; he wanted to get the shuffle. I didn’t understand why he would waste his money on something that only holds 100 songs; he didn’t understand why I would splurge on something so big and bulky. He preferred to look for something more compact, something he can stick in his little key pocket in his running shorts or in his breast pocket for the morning commute to work. I dream of the possibility of having every song in my library with me at all times. Could it be the extent of advancement during our times? Is dad used to the old walkman innovation when people realized they could carry their music around with them. And am I just still loving the novelty of the MP3 format, being able to squish all my music onto a CD or device (This is, in fact, what I picture when I make an MP3 format CD, that all my songs are squished shoulder to shoulder scrambling to keep up with my changing the song ever 30 seconds). We stand on our respective sides of the gap.

Today dad sent me yet another WSJ article where the music industry whines on about people stealing music and iTunes not saving the world one song at a time like they wanted (Look, I realize my husband is the shit, but you have got to give the guy a break sometimes, he is not superhuman. Or is he….) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117444575607043728-email.html? Dads comment on the article:

Music business downward spiral continues!

Business idea: A record shop that only carries OLD stuff. The big stores are not going to carry that and people might actually want to buy classic stuff to have it in hard copy. :-)

love you....dad

My response:

You may be onto something. Maybe they need to shift marketing of CDs to the older generations (no offense) because they are more used to buying a physical CD then download it or get it on iTunes. I bet if they did a poll of the age of most iTunes customers, it would be my generation because we are more adapt to listen to our music on the computer, where you have grown up listening on records, tapes, CDs.

I also think they are just getting scared because there are no instant results. Its going to take time for a whole industry to change medias. its still only been, what, not even 10 years since file sharing because common? They need to chill out and just keep working at selling online for young people and keep up CDs of older artists for older generations.

We should probably just take over the music industry, ok? Ok cool ill get Steve jobs on the phone.

Problem solved. We may still be looking over the edge of oppoiste sides of the gap, but we seem to be building a bridge (Hopefully not like that hideous thing they just built over the Grand Canyon. http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/03/21/grand.canyon.skywalk.ap/index.html $75 to look at what it would be like to fall to your death from a national landmark. No thanks!)