I recently overheard a discussion between two male music enthusiasts in their fourties in Oslo. They were discussing their hobby; Collecting music. About how it had almost been taken away from them. By the Internet. The topic matter caught my interest and I am guilty as charged in my continued eavesdropping. How could the Internet ruin their hobby when through it they can find pretty much all the music in the world via any connected device, I wondered.
Well, that turned out to be the problem, as their discussion evolved. That everyone can get anything and everything.
– It is no fun collecting anymore. Not when all my mates in an instant can easily find the exact same thing as I spent months searching for, one of the guys said.
– And you can forget amout limited editions, mate, the other one replied and took a sip of his bottled beer, a Norwegian Ringes (drinkable beer made in Oslo, but nowhere near as good as Hansa from Bergen).
– Those editions are becoming things of the past, surreal ideas, ghosts. And you can certainly forget having the artist sign your cover, as it does no longer exist anywhere but on a computer screen.
And they continued with how the Internet threatened to take away the pleasures of going from shop to shop in a search for an album or a single, of knowing about those hidden shops, of exchanging albumss with other people. They continued with sound quality issues, and I left the guys alone with their beers and their discussion. Convenience and accessibility may not always be what it is all cracked up to be.
Then again, they can always start collecting sewing machines or ninja stars, none of which are likely to go virtual anytime soon.
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