Just returned from a fantastic trip to Morocco where we climbed Mt. Toubkal, went mountain biking and rode camels across the plain near Marrakech (more on all this in future posts once I get the pictures up). My wife and I were part of a group of 16 people on the trip and more than half of the group had brought MP3 players (only 1 person didn't have an iPod) that they listened to while climbing, biking, riding and just plain traveling. It struck me that technology is increasing our music metabolism while increasingly moving music into the background, as an accompaniment to our daily lives as we go about our business. Think of how many people went skiing with their Discman vs. people on the slopes these days with the familiar white earphone cords sticking out of their jackets? What does this mean? I think this increase and change in music consumption is a profound one and I doubt we can yet understand all of the consequences. I do however think that:
--Filters and recommendations become ever more important. We'll be hungry for more and more music but will have less attention to pay to finding it.
--The music industry will grow larger though the pie will probably be split up differently.
--Talk and other spoken-word programming will continue to flourish.
I wrote about music in the foreground here, ironically after a trip to Tanzania.
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