Jake Gordon

So maybe I will update

12 March 2003

Hmm… updating this sounds fun, so why not? Yeah!

Anyway, I’m at home for the weekend and have played around with Wifi networking. I was in the kitchen with my laptop actually on my lap, with no wires, chatting with Gwil on MSN and browsing Gwil’s favourite site which involves a fetish he has for nasty brown stuff that only belongs down a toilet. Oh well, every man to his own.

Let’s talk about the music industry. But before I can start, I need to explain that my general take on the world at the moment is this: There are fewer and fewer jobs in the world, as technology replaces them, with no new industry (like the service industry has been in the past) to replace them. Full employment is no longer a possibility. The result is a society with increasing mass-unemployment and associated high crime rates and other social problems. There is no getting away from this reality: never again will the possibility of full-employment exist.

But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sure, not everyone can get jobs - but that can mean that as a society we can do less work for the same rewards. The problem comes with distributing wealth: if only a small percentage of the population works, and with increasing individualism, what happens to the unemployed masses?

Well, this is where my anti-music-industry bit comes in. If full-employment is no longer a possibility, then it is wrong to protect jobs merely for the sake of protecting jobs. Its selfish protectionism. If music (and anything else in the world) can be distributed at no/low cost, then this is the way it must be. This way, even the increasing unemployed masses can afford it. If an artist still wants to make money then the can by charging people to attend gigs, or by asking for donations to listen to their music.

Umm… that’s enough of my non-sensical rambling for today.


Next: Mr Bump Previous: Should I bother updating?

Other stuff...

by Jake Gordon, some rights reserved