Shuffle As Medium

By Robbie on January 12, 2009

I have a midwestern musicophile friend, Steve, who is not a musician but (maybe "but" is misplaced, for various reasons) is very serious about music. Riding in his car in Kansas City last year, I was rifling through a stack of new-ish factory CDs, most of them by musicians who get some kind of attention from the world of Spin and Pitchfork and No Depression and so on, and many of whom I didn't know. "Still committed to the CD?" I asked/razzed him. I'm getting in the habit of razzing him on that. Most of my music, as measured not in minutes but individual purchases, is bought in MP3 singles, and, given the steady shrinkage of brick-and-mortar music outlets and the marvelous ease of itunes and ipods, I'm always a little surprised to meet music lovers whose consumption methods haven't changed in the last 15 years.

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