Stevewatch: Digital Music is Taking Over!

By Tankboy in Miscellaneous on Jan 15, 2008 6:25PM

Oh Steve. Steve, Steve, Steve. We had really hoped that with the new year you might finally catch up to current trends and we could put this column to rest. But, alas, your foot once again finds your mouth.

Now we understand that you are writing for the general populace, so some of your more obvious observations could be forgiven as trying to bring "mom and pop" into the digital age. But we just read your "Digital music taking root as CD sales slump" column dated January 10 -- which oddly only JUST made it into our RSS reader, so we're gonna assume The Trib is, even more oddly, holding distribution of your print column about the online world offline for a couple days before posting it, um, online. And Steve, even "mom and pop" could tell you the following statement that opens that column is beyond obvious.

It's looking more and more as though digital music, delivered mostly over the Internet, is headed for a marketplace victory. But the experience of some artists, including Radiohead, who have experimented in various forms of digital offerings, suggests there will be a price to pay, both in terms of revenues earned by artists and in the appreciation of the full-length "album."

Really Steve? Digital music is taking over? The idea of the "album" format is shifting? The industry needs to adapt to shifting revenue streams? Johnson then goes on to bullet-point a few blurbs about recent development in the music industry, but with a lede like that, who wouldn't be so insulted they'd immediately discount everything that follows? (O.K., we did read it, but the whole point of this column is that we read Johnson so you don't have to.)

You know what? We don't even have the energy to call you out on the invalid point you tried to make yesterday, wherein you posited the fact that Gizmodo acted like a bunch of dumbasses at the CES might reflect on all other bloggers all over the world. Right, because when the New York Times screws up we blame The Trib. Great point.