Everything is rapidly getting more sh*t. I’m not usually a “glass half empty” sort of person, but lately I’m missing the spirit of optimism that I used to feel through engaging with technology as I have for the past 30 years or so. My recent readings as reflected here in past posts are all exemplified by my recent experiences.

I love music, from listening to Radio Luxemburg as a teenager to saving up for 45s, singing into a hairbrush microphone in the garage, collecting LPs, making mixtapes on cassette and later rebuying music on CDs, every moment of my life has a soundtrack. The tunes of Bowie and the Beetles played in my head throughout my schooldays. When John Lennon was shot in December 1980 I was living in France, about to turn 20 y.o. and felt the loss so keenly. When David Bowie died in 2016 I mourned for his presence. By then most of my musical memories were on digital media, the LPs had long been sold at car boot sales to help fund a growing family. The need to immerse myself in music remains as strong now as then – but it is increasingly difficult.

Watching the story of Paul McCartney’s bass on TV this weekend reignited my desire to listen to Wings again, which in turn led me to realise that I had not replaced one of my Wings LPs with a CD version so, as I increasingly do these days, I tried to find a second hand copy on Music Magpie. Sadly no joy in my price range but I did pick up a CD copy of Band on the Run. However, thanks to the Enshittification we are subject to by techbros when I rip my purchased copy I will no longer have track listings automatically added, making the whole process of saving and curating my music – music that I legitimately own and want to listen to on my devices – really awkward.

I explained my reservations about the way the tech industry is going in my contribution to #ONL261 as shown in this recording, kindly made and shared with me by the course leaders.

Why ruin the very infrastructure that so enthused us all? Essentially because they can! The erosion of the constraints that previously kept our Internet healthy have left us where we are now. In the USA and to an extent in the UK we are suffering from the weakness of –

• Competition
• Regulation
• Interoperability
• Worker power

Politicians of all denominations have contributed to this weakness (it literally pays them to do so, in the name of growth) and it will be down to individuals like ourselves to insist on greater ethical decision making from our politicians. Our choices communicate our priorities.

We would not stand for the maker of our car turning up on the doorstep and asking for a cut of the money we get when we sell it! Nor would it be acceptable to lose access to a room of our house every year unless we pay a fee to the builder…

My access to music I have owned in the past is now limited to You Tube streams (which could vanish on a broligarch’s whim) or subscribing to a service which could be beyond my means and still leave me with nothing. So get off my cloud.