I'm going to start up by revealing I grew up in the 80s and 90's, and witnessed the "end" of cassette tapes and vinyls and the rise of the CDs, and today dominant technology: online sharing (mp3).
Music is a big part of my life, it has helped me through rough times which I think most of you also have faced.
Here's a strange fact to me, the more I listen to new music and new artists the more I appreciate the songs of the past even most pop.
Radio music was most of the times thought as crap back in the past century but that was surely because on different musical tastes. Being a metal dude listening to Toto or Tears for Fears was irrelevant but I could acknowledge them as music.
Today, I think it really is crap because artists are aware that they can't experiment without losing fans and therefore radio time. New artists that come with a bang come far and spaced between. Adele and Radio Gaga were pushed to the top by record execs because people weren't listening through radio or TV. Today, dance music is more on radio because that's what people hear in discos not concerts.
I remember using a tape recorder to copy vinyls to save some money, but I knew it was better to have the real deal (Having the Judas Priest's Painkiller artwork was like a Picasso's painting to me). Later on, CDs were much more affordable, easier to copy and the album artwork were less impressive. However, the music was still good but my interest for having the original CD started to fade out and began to buy stuff like t-shirts. CDs are still around but I use them now like a cheep gift more than anything.
What I still don't get is with the internet and mp3 piracy rapidly improving speeds in the 90's record companies who are controlled by technology companies (looking at you Sony) and they didn't even bothered to try to find another physical means to protect music.
It should be easy to speak with all the record companies and try to find another type of disc/usb/hd-dvd or codec that can't be copied. Instead they preferred to give out money to companies like iTunes or Spotify, a chance to make money and at the same time to let people listen on youtube to practically everything for free and for advertisers to profit.
What we are experiencing as a public, detaches us from the physical object that music should be. It shouldn't be for everyone that doesn't pay for it. Artists should make more money of course but that should be a war between them and record labels who did marketing for them.
Compact Discs have 30 years old, they had their prime, shouldn't this be the time to find a replacement that enhances music instead of clipping it and the artists?