Christmas

It's Christmas! That joyful time of year where love and family prevails over all. People far and wide can put down their prejudices and truly appreciate their fellow man, if just for one day. Everyone looks forward to the future with wider eyes and a bigger heart.

It's such a beautiful thing.

Coincidentally enough, it's also a fine time for gifts, and what better gift could one give but the Bastard Groove Orchestra's debut album "Fuzzy Jank?" With those great melodies, and danceable rhythms, it can make the perfect gift for someone you know, or even for yourself!

And as luck would have it, Fuzzy Jank is now available on all the major online stores! Horray!

Alright, the bullshit pitching aside, it did surprise me greatly to see that the last holdout music store, Rhapsody, finally put the BGO online. Especially when I consider that every other store had the album online weeks ago. Even iTunes, the number one online music store on the planet, got their shit together a lot quicker than Rhapsody did, so what gives?

Naturally, I assumed they were targeting me. What with the revolutionary nature of my music, and my tendencies towards revolution, I felt that the father company of Rhapsody, Real Networks, was out to slow my path towards world domination. Also, I've been heard saying a few mean things about Real's buddies over at Sandisk, and their line of underwhelming Mp3 players. It's possible some retribution was occurring.

Of course, there's the distinct possibility, however small, that this was the problem.

Yep, it appears that Rhapsody may be having some problems. From what I can tell, Napster isn't doing super great either. Alas, I fear that we may be looking at the end of days for subscription music. Tragic people tragic. Excuse me whilst I hold back my tears.

SNIFF SNIFF. So sad.

If you hadn't noticed by now, I am less then surprised by this news. From the day I heard about the inception of this type of business, I figured it wouldn't be long before it would be history. They just have a structure that goes against human nature. People may have different preferences and religions and stuff, but one thing holds true: people like to own stuff.

Having something that can be owned is always more preferable than borrowing it. If money wasn't a factor, wouldn't it be nicer to own a home instead of renting an apartment?

The same logic holds true with music. When a person wants to hear a particular song, they want to know it's right there, waiting for them. And while it may be easy to access a subscription service, and it may cost so little for all the music in the world (their words, not mine,) it's still borrowed goods. Forget that monthly payment, or have the need to spend your cash on things like food and heat, and all that musical goodness goes bye bye. If you spend money on something, you want to know it'll always be there. That's basic human nature.

“But Boogie,” you may cry, “What about the ability to listen to all sorts of new music any time you want to?” We had something like that back in my days. They called it radio. And it still exists in a haphazard kind of way. But now, instead of dealing with communications conglomerates and getting ads crammed up your ass every twelve minutes, you've got services that stream music over your computer. Couple that with blogs, and social networks, it's entirely possible to learn about any new music without the monthly fees.

So, you may be asking yourself, “Well, if he feels this way about subscription services, why did he sell out and slap his album on them?"

Easy.....because I want fans.

People listening to the BGO, by whatever means, is a good thing to me. And while, I think that the whole idea of music subscription is laughable, there are tons of people who seem pretty cool with it. So, if the people who dig on renting tunes also dig on the BGO, well then I'm gonna try and make it convenient for them to have at it.

So Merry Christmas to all, May your day be merry, and your hearts be filled with peace.

Oh yeah, and go buy the album.