Browsing, Sampling, and Consumption
This essay/confessional by a music fan who has started 'stealing' music is--poetic. The passage regarding the lack of long-samples for artitsts whom, for whatever reason, have compositions which far exeed the typical 3min. pop hit was particularly keen.
For many years I have enjoyed reading comic books and graphic novels. In my occasional ventures to local comic/book shops, I can, at my leasure, sample as much or as little as I like of a new title by doing nothing more complicated than picking it from the shelf and thumbing through it.
Without signing any agreements and without any additional software/hardware combination, I can sample-at-will. I admit to, on more than one occasion, actually reading and finishing an entire issue while browsing in the store. Thus, my initial sampling turns into full-blown consumption. Yet, the irony is IF I end up consuming in the store, I almost always buy not only that issue but many, many subsequent issues of the same title. Imagine if comic shops and bookstores did not display the full works on their shelves, but merely a title page and, perhaps the first 5 pages of the work. Browsing (i.e. sampling) at your local vendor becomes the analog equivalent of shopping at Amazon. Not a happy prospect at all.
This is the state of music retailing today—sad. And people wonder why all the local Mom & Pop record stores have closed and even megoliths such as Tower are suffering while local bookstores and chains such as Borders are thriving.