The Problem With Music

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/

• https://www.simplemusiccontracts.com/the-problem-with-music

• https://louderthanwar.com/steve-albini-streaming/

• 2014 Face the Music Video: https://youtu.be/Lz_CPzuwSk4?si=PDHcZV4kKZErnI7R

• 2014 Face the Music transcript: https://genius.com/Steve-albini-keynote-address-at-melbourne-australias-face-the-music-conference-2014-annotated

• https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/11/david-byrne-internet-content-world

• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/16/why-david-byrne-wrong-spotify-thom-yorke

• https://freepresshouston.com/the-steve-albini-interview/