Do you think the availability of music has devalued it?

Well, for some aboard the ill fated Titanic back in 1912, music meant a hell of a lot.
The band played on as some, resigned to their fate, eagerly listened in, strange that.

Great question! This is something I’ve often wondered, too. I think one consequence of the availability is that music is now used more as a backdrop—or soundtrack—to everyday experience than as the actual focus of attention. We’re always doing other stuff while we sort of listen. It seems like music has adapted to this use over time, demanding less and less attention and more just offering a particular ambiance that we can select from among many on the menu to suit our mood or activity.

So I guess your question of “value” can be seen in terms of music’s power to draw our attention. I remember when somebody got the idea to put Joshua Bell, the great violinist, down in the halls of the DC subway to play his Strad. Hardly anyone even paused as they bustled by. That strikes me as a pretty stark indication that we’ve become desensitized to music. For music to have the power to transport requires first that we be capable of giving it our attention.

No, but mass production, autotune and manufactured “stars” have.

@thorninmud Great answer, and along the lines of my thinking that led to this question. I can imagine the trip down in the bayou to see those blues boys play or the concert held in an outdoor ampi-theater, or the appreciation of opera because not everyone could do it and they had to go somewhere to hear it.

I do think, though, that there was a small window.. a golden era of music wherein it was highly valued but not so strongly disdained for being “of the devil” like dancing was in “Footloose”. It was sort of a perfect storm of societal influence that led to an appreciation that may never again be matched.

There’s no going back, of course, and I agree that music has certainly been used far more in different mediums and venues than it ever was back then. Perhaps that too helped to devalue it some. Music is everywhere. There are millions of bands/groups/etc. Even in a very selective genre you have a quagmire or a symphony (depending on your perception) of different takes on music.

Part of this, also, is just my bias towards classical things.. whether it be cars or music.. I’ve always had an inclination to enjoy more thoroughly those things that have already passed. Music history is nothing short of an OCD level fascination for me.

I don’t think music is devalued. Not that this is an answerable question. No one can really compare the value of music now and then.

Music is more ubiquitous now that we have the technology to record it and play it everywhere. That suggests to me that music is of great value to people. They want it everywhere. They play it everywhere—their own person musical selections on their own time; but other people are selecting music to play for us in almost every situation, in order to enhance the situation.

Of course, a lot of music kind of ruins things, especially if they play it too loud or play the wrong kind of music. I was at a bar this week, and they had some pretty good musicians playing, but the sound was cranked up to ear-splitting volume, and until half the cochlea in my ears were destroyed, I couldn’t really tolerate it without pain. However, idiot that I am, I told them I might come back and play with them next week.

I had a gig this afternoon, supporting a ceremony for prayer flags that kids in schools around town have written. They could have had recorded music, but they wanted live, and they wanted live because we can do something almost no other musicians can do: we can instantly improvise music that fits the emotions of the poetry. This is not something you can do with recorded music, either.

People want music because it enhances emotions. We feel things more strongly with a sound track. Music reaches deep into our minds, past all the words and thoughts and interacts directly with our feelings. Music has a power that words and pictures don’t have. The only thing close is scent, and we don’t yet know how to play on scent instruments.

I think music is more valued than ever. I think our seemingly endless desire to consume it shows this. Music still reaches deep inside, quickly passing our gates and fences to our emotions. It allows us to express our spirits and to get in touch with our souls. Music may not be more essential, but our access to it would make its loss seem much more catastrophic, I believe.

Back when the only music you could hear was live, when the musicians played new stuff, you learned about it when you heard them play. Classical pieces that are an hour or more long, required patience to listen to and understand. With recording, you don’t have to learn the new trend; you can stick with what you know already. With popular music, it’s easier to pick up on new things because it doesn’t take as much time commitment to listen to a new piece. And with our current communication systems it’s quicker and easier to share what you like, with friends.

No. I believe the multitude of ways to find, listen to and share music will make it better because people will have more choices and more easily dismiss what they think is too generic, copycat, what have you.

Like @ragingloli though, I wholeheartedly agree autotune does nothing to improve quality.

@Neizvestnaya
Autotune is like being served frozen pizza in an Italian restaurant.
It is fraud, pure and simple.

Music is an art form.
To me having more or less does not change the value of it. I appreciate the art of the music exactly as I do, each item standing on its own.

Well, the same old songs wear thin after a while…

What I really think has been devalued is silence. Lately it’s noise, noise, noise, constantly. Do we not want to be alone with our thoughts, or something?

Well, if you get to listen to your favorite songs over and over whenever you want, you’re bound to get a bit bored of them after a bit. The same might be said of times when music wasn’t as readily accessible as it is now, but the process would take longer? Of course either way, there’s stuff you never get bored of, just put it away for a bit and experience the awe some time later again.
Either way, I don’t think it devalues music, whether that music has value or not. It revolves around the person listening to it, and their enjoyment and all, but as for the music itself and how accessible it is or not, whatever value it has remains with the intent that created the peace.
Like I mean, if I find a piece of gold that nobody touched for a million years, it’s still gold, and worth as much as if I stole a shiny new piece from some gold processing place.
And don’t nobody be givin me no metallurgy classes.

I completely disagree. If we need scarcity to value something, it’s a false commodity. Music should be like air- abundant for everyone, but we can’t live without it.

Music has always been very important! But i think we do take the availability for granted sometimes.

I think it’s a mistake to think of autotune as trying to make music more on tube or more perfect. I think it is the quality of sound they going for. That nasal, metallic sound. They like that. It’s just a trade, not a correction.

I have often thought about this. The only thing in my opinion that can truly devalue music is the lack of talent and originality, not increased availability. Of course with availability comes taking things for granted too, so maybe in that sense what you’re asking might be true then.

One factor which I didn’t think of earlier is that musicians who are just starting out probably have a much broader influence from which to create their own music. (because they can hear more of it.. and more readily). I’m not sure that this is a realistic factor, but its something that just came to mind.

I got to organizing my music collection on my computer and realized that about 75% of it I probably don’t really like. There are a ton of bands that could swap names and I wouldn’t be any the wiser.