an entirely written in the morning blogpost part two (whatever happened to the record buying public?)

good morning! good morning! good morning!

it's a greyish morning already. (brightening up this afternoon)

horsemouth will almost certainly re-use portions of an online discussion with a friend to pad this one out.  

'tell us: what do you spend on music in a typical month?' - asks the guardian. 

recorded music? - £0 

live music? - £10?/ £15 or so. replied horsemouth. 

last month horsemouh bought an actual physical first-hand record (£15) but then he had been going to see the band for about 5 years and the decision was more influenced by their graphics than the need to own a piece of plastic (that he will (probably) never ever play). he has a cassette of them also (similar story). he streams their stuff off bandcamp or youtube or soundcloud if he feels the need to listen to it. 

possibly the previous one before that was the alice coltrane luaka bop spiritual music CD, or perhaps the odd CD single at a gig by stick in the wheel or the owl service. merchandise? - a gweniver raymond t-shirt, two leigh folk-festival t-shirts. 

that's not a lot over the last ten years. 

horsemouth's friends (the musicians) download from bandcamp, he has done it once or twice (again the music of  friends). he will not pay streaming service (if all services were to become paid he thinks that could be the only situation in which he started playing his CDs again).

this doesn't necessarily stop him from buying CDs but seeing as he has spent 40 years living in london with its many second hand record shops/ charity shops etc. this is where he has mainly spent his money. 

'following on from our coverage of the financial difficulties faced by musicians and venues in 2024, we want to know about your music spending habits.' - the guardian has noticed there's a new economy of music (and basically it means people not spending money on recorded music - as all musicians  know you can't even give that shit away).

'what do you spend on music – records, streaming, tickets, merch, anything else – in a typical month? has that increased or decreased over time?' (it has flatlined) 

'what motivates you to splash out on music?' (absolutely nothing can persuade me to 'splash out' on music)

'otherwise, what’s prompted you to cut back?' (horsemouth mostly listens to it for free on youtube) 

'is it affordable to be a music fan in 2024?' (very. the lost horsemouth pays for it is a 'like')

horsemouth's friend (a former bandmate) who works in the music industry reproves horsemouth's low consumption attitude to music. there is of course a real music industry, one with budgets and touring and releases and suchlike but again it functions on a reduced scale. it is an industry designed to take money both from 'the artists' (money they have been loaned by the record companies) and from the 'record buying public'. 

and there is a semi-pro economy where making music is a useful side-hustle. 

the end of music predicted by jacques attali in noise in the circuit of composition (we all make the music but it no longer does what it once did) has come into existence. horsemouth has watched a few videos (for free on youtube) by rick beato mourning the end of the music industry and orienting us towards the brave new world of music the side-hustle. (the trouble is the music that rick mourns was just awful so there seems little reason to mourn its passing). the most he feels obliged to pay for it is a 'like'. 

once upon a time (ok ok twenty years ago) horsemouth wrote about attali. attali's scheme is frankly lifted from adorno. he thanks the people who published him. it marked the start of his re-engagement with writing (and of course it was all facilitated by the internet). horsemouth subsequently went on to write about adorno and improvisation,  and various other things. good days.