Producer Rick Rubin recently shared his thoughts about how music has changed due to streaming, noting that listeners’ relationships with their favorite albums differ from before streaming. However, he also expressed that streaming has done some good, allowing music lovers to listen wherever and whenever.
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In a recent conversation with Rick Beato, Rubin was asked if he felt music has been “devalued” streaming. His answer was insightful and a little surprising.
“I think both are true. I think the convenience is incredible. I love being able to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, wherever I am. It has changed the way we listen [to music],” said Rubin. However, he then noted that relationships with albums and new releases have changed from the time of physical media.
“In the past, when you would buy a particular album, and live with that album, you had a different relationship to it than when it’s something that’s just in the stream. And even today, when a new album by an album artist that I love comes out, I probably don’t listen to it as much as I would have in those days,” he posited.
Producer Rick Rubin Shares Thoughts on How Streaming Has Changed the Music Landscape
Rick Rubin further explained that he’s not sure of the outcome of this new relationship with music. Still, he seems satisfied with where it’s at nonetheless.
“I don’t know if it’s a negative or a positive. It just is what it is,” he said. “I suppose I could choose to force myself to listen as much as I used to, but this feels okay.”
When asked if he thought music could be new and unique in 2024, Rubin shared some important insights. “Everything’s already been done, and your job is to find a new way to do it. And it happens all the time,” he said. “One of the magic pieces of the formula is when things that are not normally put together, are put together — the example of Aerosmith and Run DMC. That, again, wasn’t done with the idea of it being popular, but it was an unusual combination. And the unusual combination allowed something to happen.”
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