Puddles of Music and News

The year is 2004.

It's Monday morning. The instant I wake up, nervous energy churns through me. I leap out of bed and run downstairs. I pull on a coat, grab shoes, and walk out the garage. I'm back inside in less than a minute.

Off goes the plastic. Out comes the roll. My heart's beating, quick. I flip and fumble: A1, B1, C1....uh oh, here it comes...I dramatically pull out section D1, the Sports section of the Washington Post. I look and my heart sinks. My beloved Redskins had lost to the Baltimore Ravens. Day ruined, what a drag.

As a kid my bedtime was strict. Primetime NFL games went late, and I had to call it quits at halftime. To find out the winner, I checked the morning newspaper. Yes, a physical newspaper. It seems hopelessly antiquated in hindsight, but our family computer was slow. The internet existed, but had yet to pervade. Newspaper it was.

Quick breakfast then time for school. While we cruise in the car, I slip in a CD. NOW, Volume 3. Smash Mouth on repeat. I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed.

Today, the two indispensable elements of my 2004 are nowhere to be found. Receiving a daily paper newspaper in 2021 means you’re oldschool contrarian. Listening to CDs means you can't find Spotify (or Audius, Tidal, or YouTube).

So what happened to papers and discs? Software ate them. The internet shattered their atom-based shackles and flung their content around the globe at the speed of light, for free. Perhaps that's obvious. But take another angle: music and news melted into a puddle.

Two major media industries have liquified before our eyes. The ice cube solids of 2004 have melted into 100 million sites and songs. And temperatures keep rising. All puddles soon evaporate into gas.

Music and News aren't special; they're just early. Other fields liquify while you read these words. Education, finance, retail, politics, culture. All blocks of ice. Technology is a heat lamp that never turns off and keeps getting hotter.

What happens when these all become puddles? I’m not sure. But get ready to splash.