Digital Dieting
Talk: Eurobest 2014, Helsinki, Finland. (verbatim)
I joined the BBC in 2013, shortly after our division, BBC Digital, launched an online music service enabling our signed-in users to curate playlists of any music that they hear on the BBC — be it on TV, Radio or online. They can then be exported to third-party streaming services such as Spotify. It’s pretty neat, and is engaging our younger audiences — offering a more personalised BBC experience.
At the time of its launch a developer friend of mine questioned the need for “yet another” means of consuming music online, when the opportunities already appear endless.
This got me thinking. Not about an answer to his question, but about the sheer amount of digital content that’s available to us, and our increased rate of consumption.
It struck me that we no longer “chew our food”, so to speak. We gorge.
So is it better to gorge or to savour? Both are satisfying for different reasons. So having a choice is great. But may I suggest we encourage the latter from time-to-time? Savouring what we consume is much more rewarding.
Bringing this back to music — we all know the internet made an enormous impact on the music industry, which had to adapt to the new streaming norm. Recording artists changed their approach and their expectations. And as fans we changed the way we consumed music.
So it’s no surprise that said artists and their management now focus way more effort on crafting the live experience. On touring and gigging, which is now where they earn their money. And we, the consumer, spend more money than ever before on going to concerts.
It’s at a concert that we actually listen to a band’s entire track list. There’s no option to skip. And this is good. We leave the event feeling satisfied. We’ve experienced something memorable, out in the world, with other people. And, importantly, we spent time with that artist.
As a child of the seventies and eighties, I experienced the vinyl years, the CD years, and now digital, (not to mention tapes and mini-discs along the way). And as a designer who cut his teeth working in the music industry, I’ve designed packaging for all the above formats. Fear not, I’m not about to mourn the loss of physical product. I can assure you I’m quite comfortable owning less plastic. I do however miss the pre-digital quality time that I’m sure many of us used to spend with an album or an artist.
The more we snack, track by track, artist by artist, the wider we open the flood gates for those X-Factor folks to pour in their delicious pop treats. Yes, the first bite is tasty. But it soon loses its flavour, leaving us caught in an endless cycle of selection and disposal.
If the tech world can create such conveyor belts of ‘endless everything’, could it not also create some different ways to consume?
How about an app that limits us to one album, artist or playlist a month? This would give both the listener and the recording artist a chance at a relationship, as opposed to endless speed dating. No one wants to speed-date forever. We want to fall in love.
This idea isn’t regressive. It merely offers restriction. An alternative way to consume. A diet! And diets can be healthy.
There’s no denying that when ‘digital’ disrupted the music industry, something far more important than money was lost. So then perhaps ’digital’ should be the one to bring it back.
(end)
I gave this talk at Eurobest 2014 — a tech conference in Helsinki. The format of the session, devised and presented by Tech Dept, afforded three tech creatives 5 minutes in which to pitch their idea to the audience who then voted the winner using a clap-o-meter. (I came second. ;-)
Read a review here.
