More thoughts on "Thoughts on Music"

One claim that really irks me is this claim that people are forced to use DRM. I really resent this. Nobody is forced into DRM. Simple reason: You can always go buy the CD. They sell them online. Place called Amazon. Have you heard of it? And it’s almost always cheaper to do it this way. Has this not occurred to you? Jesus. Wake up, people.

But even if there were no CDs, nobody would be locked in to iTunes. Friends, you know not whereof you speak. I bow to the Buddha inside you, but if you don’t like the iTunes business model, don’t buy your songs on iTunes. It’s as simple as that. Nobody is holding a gun to your head. I’m amazed by the level of hysteria and outrage over this. Folks, it’s just music. It’s not like I’m Harry Lime hoarding penicillin and little babies are dying. Nobody needs music. Okay? Yes, we love music. Music is great. But you can simply decide not to buy it, and you’ll manage to survive. You’re not gonna die if you can’t buy the new Paris Hilton album.

If you really want to devote your outrage and anger toward a worthy cause, go stop the war in Iraq. Or Iran getting nukes. Or the genocide in Darfur. Or AIDS in Africa. Or poverty everywhere. I mean, look, in the list of real problems in this world, DRM ain’t even on the top 10. But for some reason it’s the one thing that really gets spoiled, middle-class, bourgeois white people in the United States and Europe — people like Richard Stallman — worked up into a lather. They think this is just the biggest evil in the world. I hate to say this but if you are one of these people, your outrage only demonstrates what a narrow, selfish little person you are and what a tiny, sheltered life you lead.

To put it another way: If DRM is the worst thing you have to deal with in your day-to-day life — if your biggest problem is that you can’t make your iTunes songs play on a Zune — then you should take a minute to thank God for giving you such a wonderful life. And you should immediately get on a plane to some part of the world and do something good for another human being.

Or consider this: Instead of spending a few hundred bucks on a frivolous piece of electronic gear only to have that device cause you years of outrage and anger, forgo the music player and send your money someplace where it could feed a kid for a year. Honestly. Shame on you.