about this

I’ve been trying to educate myself about the histories of modern music for most of my life, and like writing about it. (bad) monkeyX has been in unbusiness for ten years now, can you believe it? Anniversaries aside, this space will continue as it has to try and trace the vague path of what I’m looking at and listening to and learning, just in case that’s useful to somebody.

That education was made possible largely through books, DVDs and filesharing: few people on the planet can afford to buy all the music I wanted to hear; very little of the history of music is on the radio; filesharing’s a great way to build lifelong music fans, and I support the idea and practice. I also love my public library for the same reason. I should really post about more books.

I also support the idea that musicians should be able to make a living, so I make conscious decisions about where to spend my music money. If I download some music that I fall in love with, I consider buying it. If the artist’s already financially well off, I don’t bother; if they’re new, young, or out-there, I do. I always buy vinyl these days, or download. Nobody needs any more CDs in their house. I love the labels and bands that give a free mp3 download with a vinyl purchase: that’s the way forward. And of course, I try to see bands live and I try to buy their merch when I’m there – they make more off that than they do from store sales, and I love t-shirts.

So if you find music on this blog that you object to being posted for free, lemme know and I’ll take it down.

Peace out.

ADDENDUM: We’ve moved. Find us at http://misterjep.wordpress.com/