#303 Muzak 2.0

The music industry is known for its hyperbole. I was taking out an old CD the other day and when I attempted to play it, it skipped a lot. Sir Skip-a-lot, wasn’t he one of the Village People? Anyhow, when I took the CD out of the player I couldn’t help but notice it had more scratches and dings than the jewel case I’d stored it in. Hmm. One of the reasons I use the always-falling-apart jewel cases is because I’ve seen what happens to CDs when my kids put them in their little notebook soft plastic sleeve thingies. Or worse, the car visor slip-in organizers. One of my sons always had his on the visor so they faced outward, into to the sun. He found out that CDs not only scratch and ding, they warp. Or possibly he teenage-drove fast enough to go into warp drive. Seems to me the original hype on CDs was they were indestructible. But only if you don’t touch them or put them in the sun. Now they’ve come out with new combo CD DVDs. Why can’t they figure out a way to put all the data on the same side? I get so confused loading the wrong side into the wrong player. And the labels are no help. I stopped being able to read print that small when I was in my late twenties. Teeny-tiny nano-print in the center of the CD-DVD does not constitute readability.
Course it’s my own damn fault for insisting on listening quality. If I was smart I would invest in a Mp3 player of some sort. I mean hell, my hearing is getting as bad as my vision, maybe if I get a Mp3 player with a big screen I can read what song it is I can’t actually hear.
So maybe I should get one of those I heard XM radio advertising the other day. The ad showed a guy at a café listening to his XM radio. Presumably, he liked the song he was listening to as the announcer said, “just push one button and it’s yours.” Wow, a national company encouraging song piracy. It’s on the margins of legality to record a song off the radio. Oh sure, people do it, and they only do it for, um, personal use, but it’s not supposed to be encouraged or facilitated by a big company. I suppose a recording industry lawsuit is the least of their worries. XM and Sirius have to sell something. Because people aren’t listening. They like terrestrial radio cause they like ads and they like local announcers. Just music is for elevators. Nobody’s buying XM and Sirius radios for the radio. Sirius’s investors are seriously miffed—and suing. Sales aren’t good enough they say, and Sirius isn’t marketing as aggressively as it should. Oops. You know you’ve got a bad satellite radio when people just buy it for the built-in GPS. The Securities and Exchange Commission isn’t too happy either—there’s talk of bringing charges about exaggerated earnings claims and all that. No penalty is expected though, Sirius will probably just get off with a stern warning.
America, ya gotta love it.