The stone tablet of the music world Photo: Creative Commons 0.0
With CDs well on the way out, Yadana Saw explores how to give the gift of digital music
Once upon a time, you just walked into a music store or big box retailer and shelled out for a bunch of CDs, cassette tapes or LPs.
Or if you were feeling particularly generous you’d carefully place some concert or show tickets into a card. Presents under the tree - job done, go reward yourself with a mince pie and glass of sherry.
Photo: CC BY 2.0 Marta Crowe
But in today’s world of digital music, where delivery is dominated by streaming music on personal devices, the gift becomes an intangible and less unique gesture. After all, isn’t the whole point of a present to convey our social bond and obligation to the people whom we want to - or have to - be connected to?
Making physical music isn’t cheap for artists either, so says Troy Kingi whose sophomore offering Shake that Skinny Ass All The Way to Zygertron is only available as a stream or digital download.
This wonderful slab of 70s spaced-out Maori funk would be my go-to stocking stuffer, but how barren is it going to look neath the Christmas tree when my gift to you is a download link in a unopened email in your inbox?
Worse yet, nothing says “Merry Christmas, I love and cherish you” like the generous gesture of throwing open the world of premium streaming to your giftee's deprived ears - for limited time of just 3 months. After they’ve become dependent on this method of musical appreciation, you've left them the monthly subscription bill for all of eternity. Joy to the World, indeed.
So here are some tips and tricks that might help you bridge the impersonal digital gift with some analogue aroha:
1. How to make a 3-month music subscription not seem like a backhanded gift
Spotify cards Photo: (Flickr user Andrew Mager CC BY-SA 2.0)
Including a handwritten letter with suggestions of albums, artists or genres and why you have recommended them, or a thoughtful, lovingly curated playlist (#lifehack: search 'Radio NZ Music' on Spotify) will make the consequent monthly tithing to a music streaming mega corporation less of a financial blow.
If a playlist or mixtape is your chosen avenue for Christmas cheer, your pals here at RNZ Music have your back.
Have a flick through our favourites over the years and make them your own. Nine to Noon’s Kathryn Ryan reckons “if someone gifted me that, I would be extremely happy.” and who wouldn’t want to make Kathryn happy? Which brings us to our next problem.
2. How to make a mixtape when there are no more cassettes and players?
Why not buy a super cool novelty USB stick and ram that RAM with gigs of wonderful noise? Or if you have the means to burn a CD, get your inner desktop publisher or artiste out and bedazzle that jewel case like nothing before. Leave it to your recipient to figure out how get that onto their preferred listening platform.
Your office’s blank CDs, their cases and the stash of highlighters behind reception could bring a personalised panache to otherwise generic and seemingly bland gifts. Disclaimer - we don't advocate full-scale pillaging of precious workplace resources.
3. Give them an “experience”
While you’re taking liberties with the office stationery, if you’ve got your department’s Multifunction Document Machine spewing out the concert or show tickets bought as presents, don’t forget to email those tickets to your loved one too, in case that straggly piece of A4 gets lost in the Christmas wrapping detritus.
Again the RNZ Music crew have got you. Here is a fairly thorough list of the deluge of concerts planned for early 2018.
4. Let’s get physical
Of course this entire digital-tech strategy is hopeless if you have someone who isn’t very tech savvy. If you’re thinking of setting Mum or Dad up with Spotify you’ll have to be prepared to be the on-call tech support.
So why not go back-catalogue and shell out for the numerous vinyl reissues? And fear not if your music fan doesn’t own a turntable because a large number of today’s vinyl releases come with a digital download - so all bases are covered!
Photo: Supplied
Radiohead's OKNOTOK 20th anniversary reissue of their 1997 album OK Computer stands out as a most desirable collection of band ephemera.
The boxed set includes a remaster of the album, b-sides, demo cassettes, sketch books and artwork. Drool.
Ultimately, a Christmas present is to show you love someone and that you have thought about them.
So it is totally okay to rip that smartphone out of your loved one’s hands and load it with music they might like.
Because, sometimes it’s nice when someone just takes the decision-making right out of your hands. Literally.
