Music streaming and revisionism
The past several years have seen a bizarre trend in pop culture: revisionism. Zack Snyder’s Justice League recently came out, being a considerably different experience than the original 2017 theatrical cut of the film. This practice, however, is not new, as director’s cuts have been giving film historians headaches and film lovers tumescence for decades (Blade Runner being a prime example of this, where, depending on the cut, Deckard is *SPOILER ALERT FOR A 40 YEAR OLD FILM* implied to be a replicant or not). It’s been going on in music for ages too to some extent, with every new playback format requiring a new remaster of the original mix. This type of remixing often brings certain musical elements hidden in the original mixes to the forefront (Genesis’ 2007/2008 remixes are a prime example of this). In the age of physical media, that’s not necessarily a problem, as you can always go listen to (or watch) the original or whatever version you desire. But what if you couldn’t?
I was recently uploading a track on digital music distribution platform Distrokid when I realised I had sent the wrong file. Thankfully, Distrokid allows you to take songs down and reupload if the song hasn’t reached Spotify and other streaming services yet (as there is a delay between upload and release). There isn’t that much stopping you from taking a song down even if it’s been ‘released’ and then replace it with another version. Possibly even a new, better version of the song? You might lose the vanity metric of number of streams, but at least you get to share with the world the ultimate incarnation of your precious song. But wait… That guitar riff in this updated version is a tad loud in the second verse. What should you do now?
Well, if you wait long enough, Spotify might change their policy so that (as long as the song is released by the same artist, has the same title, and is musically somewhat similar to the original) it can be replaced altogether, in a similar fashion to how Facebook goes about their page name change policy.
Things can go out of hand in an age where ‘digital’ and ‘streaming’ are the only ways of storing music, archiving it, and, ultimately, creating a legacy for an artist. Steve Albini’s been talking about this for years, but his argument didn’t make complete sense to me until streaming fully became the primary way in which people distribute and consume music. If we’ll get to a point where my little thought experiment becomes reality, then we will be in an unheard-of situation where the only real music history (in terms of the actual text) will be the one of the present.
If I put out a song but decide after a year that I really hate the bridge and I’m going to re-record the vocals and replace the file on Spotify, then a new listener (or even a casual fan) will have no way of telling that the original song was different, nor will they be able to listen to the previous version. Revisionism on this scale might be some years away, but I’ve worked with enough artists to know that if Spotify allows it, they will do it. Whether or not this is a good idea is a moot point — it will happen, so might as well ride the wave.
(In line with the topic of this piece, I’m sure to revisit these issues.)