About this episode

The episode discusses Steve Albini's critique of the music industry and its evolution over time.

In 1993, our late, lamented hero Steve Albini wrote this gross and profane takedown of the music industry, and we've been thinking about it ever since. We try to follow the evolution of Albini's attitude about how music is distributed while also checking in on David Byrne, Marxist theory, and Tik Tok. Sources https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-music https://qz.com/202194/steve-albini-the-problem-with-music-has-been-solved-by-the-internet https://boingboing.net/2024/05/10/read-steve-albinis-famous-essay-on-the-music-industrys-problems.html https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/the-new-problem-with-music-steve-albini-revisits-one-of-his-favourite-themes-1.2013006 https://stereogum.com/1678835/steve-albini-thinks-the-internet-solved-the-problem-with-music/news https://reason.com/2014/04/30/legendary-punk-producer-steve-albini-say/ https://www.ajournalofmusicalthings.com/revisiting-steve-albinis-problem-music-essay-problem-solved-internet/ https://rocknerd.co.uk/2015/01/11/steve-albini-how-the-internet-solved-the-problem-with-music/ https://www.spinmagazine.com/2014/04/steve-albini-internet-problem-with-music-streaming-debate/…

People in this episode

Hosts: Christian Sager, Charlie Bennett

Topics covered

• music industry
• distribution
• Steve Albini
• David Byrne
• Marxist theory
• Tik Tok

Keywords

• music industry
• Steve Albini
• David Byrne
• distribution
• Tik Tok
• Marxist theory
• critique

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Baffler, Quartz, Boing Boing, Irish Times, Stereogum, Reason, A Journal of Musical Things, Rock Nerd, Spin Magazine, Louder Than War

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