Blog #4

Amanda Petrusich, in her article "The Lofty Optimism of Spotify and the Influence of the Streaming Revolution", argues how she prefers her music to be traditional rather than modern. She thinks Spotify is pointless and disagrees to streaming but, thinks that Spotify is growing as a business. "Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by these creators". This quote is a great example of her thesis, because it explains how she believes Spotify is growing due to the business and sales they're making through their subscribers. Also, another great example quote would be "Of course, Spotify did not invent creation-nor the idea of making a living as an artist but, since its launch, in 2008, it has changed the way we think about all of those things. My second quote explains how Spotify helps us as people realize that the way we think of music is more about how an artist presents his/her self or whether they can vibe to it or not. Finally, my last quote to represent her thesis would be “The popularity of streaming has lead to obvious changes in how music is being produced- in 2018, a pop song needs to sound excellent piping out of a laptop’s tiny speakers and on headphones- but streaming has also resurrected the idea that the medium through which an album or track is made available is as much an aesthetic choice as anything else”. This final quote helps support her thesis by expressing how people could only listen to song if its energetic.

Me personally, I do not use Spotify. I never really liked the streaming app, I preferred Pandora instead. I must say that I disagree with her thesis, because streaming music is part of this generation, technology continues to grow more and more every day. It helps us as people get the opportunity to hear new music from our favorite artists quickly, rather than waiting several months for an album to drop. The very first piece of music I owned or continuously listened to would be Hannah Montana’s “Just Like You”. When Hannah Montana first came on Disney Channel, I would literally get so excited to hear all the songs she performed on the show. I loved that song so much, I even had printed out lyrics that I would read over and over to fully memorize the song that way I could sing it all I wanted. I also enjoyed plenty of other songs by her as well but, this song was on replay constantly. I owned 1 copy of Hannah Montana’s first soundtracks, which included “Just Like You”. It was gift from a friend that loved her just as much as I did. Then, that same year for Christmas I got an MP3 player, which helped me add on my other favorite songs by Hannah as well. Overall, I believe that streaming is and can be beneficial for all those who enjoys music to be presented right on the spot.