Hacker News Reader

Comment by 999900000999 | Hacker News Reader

Another thing not mentioned is the fun in finding media itself.

I went out with a girl I met at a record store once, and I’ve met several musicians when I’m out buying music.

When you can get everything beamed directly to your house, you miss out on so many adventures. I imagine many marriages originated from chance encounters at Blockbuster.

Instead of some cool college student suggesting an old 80’s film, Netflix tells you to watch it’s new 50 million dollar movie. While I love the internet , the world feels less fun now. So many multi billion dollar companies nudging me in this direction or that direction…

View on HN

>Instead of some cool college student suggesting an old 80’s film, Netflix tells you to watch it’s new 50 million dollar movie. While I love the internet , the world feels less fun now. So many multi billion dollar companies nudging me in this direction or that direction…

This is exactly what I haven't been able to put into words without sounding and feeling like a giant hipster douche. It's not about finding smaller, unknown songs/bands/films. It's about the experience of sharing.

I know that the guy at the record store has nothing invested in suggesting this weird little indie band to me outside of being a fan and wanting to spread the word. Whereas I know that Netflix is going to suggest to me what will keep me hooked and what they need to see a return on their investment.

The internet has 100% made the world less fun. More accessible, sure, but way less fun now that it's mostly corporate (or at least seems that way).

Plus that girl I met at the record store was very much real and not a bot.

I do what I can to try and reclaim my freedom, even if I can order junk from Amazon. I vastly prefer to support local retailers. This serves a couple of purposes, first, it keeps that kid working retail employed, second I might randomly find something else I need.

I might stop by a bar on the way back, I might met my next band mate.

I never was a record store patron - I did buy physical media (mostly CDs - and actually I still do, although nowadays I order them online), but it was in big electronics markets where the staff was less knowledgeable. But I have found another "recommendation engine" for music: when going to concerts of my favourite 90s bands (e.g. Garbage), I also give a listen to the back catalog of the opening act(s). This way, I have found a few hidden gems - of course these are pretty obscure artists (e.g. Du Blonde - https://www.dublonde.co.uk/music), but as long as I like the music, I don't care...

The internet has 100% made the world less fun. More accessible, sure, but way less fun now that it's mostly corporate (or at least seems that way).

The world, especially the media world, was always "mostly corporate", from the big 3 TV networks, big 4 record labels, big 5 movie studios, etc. The Internet brings independent media to you in a way that was never possible in the past. The record store still exists, and is experiencing a boom compared to aughts. Now, in addition to the guy there, you can get additional opinions/recommendations from across the world on message boards, twitter, blogs, wherever, too. Today, you can stream video content that no TV station would show, buy albums no label would press, etc.

>Now, in addition to the guy there, you can get additional opinions/recommendations from across the world on message boards, twitter, blogs, wherever, too.

I 100% agree with your first statements - the access is way better now than it was.

But this sentence is where I absolutely see the problem. Again, I could trust that guy to recommend music because he liked the music. Now, every blog, every tweet, every recommendation just feels gamed. It seems to me that astroturfing is just everywhere. It's impossible to escape, and it ruins the experience of finding new music.

Everything is for sale and it feels awful.

Everything is for sale... including the records the guy at the record store likes. To claim everything else is gamed/astroturfing because of your feeling is pretty disingenuous.

A music blog with affiliate links and ads and SEO is very very different than a conversation with the guy at my local record store. To think they are more similar than different is preposterous.

I didn't say they were the same. Just because a blog as ads or affiliate links, that doesn't mean it's astroturfing or gamed. Of course, the ad filled blogs probably got their cue from mags like NME, Rolling Stone, etc.

Except that 10 years ago, the guy at the record store was an unaffected college student and he wouldn't give a rats ass about whether his recommendation would increase or decrease sales.

In my opinion, the rise of paid bloggers was what ruined the internet for honest people everywhere.

Or he was the owner of the store trying to make a sale, or he was friends with the musicians and trying to make a sale. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Paid bloggers sounds awfully similar to the old payola scheme. It's really nothing new in the music industry...

On the other hand: I had basic Top 40-adjascent music available to me. Nothing impressive was to be had at Wal-Mart or Target. Target had better selection than the chain music store in the mall, wal-mart was out of the question due to censorship (they'd sell movies with strong language and sexual situations, but wouldn't sell music with the same).

I've never met anyone in a movie rental place.

I currently have a wide selection of music and can talk to folks about it if I want. I get recommended movies and shows through friends online.

I met my spouse playing a silly MMORPG some years back, and wound up moving to another country because of it.

In other words, for me, the world you describe is the one I actually found through the internet.

Let me guess: Ragnarok Online?

Oh, that would have been fancy. No, this was one of the multitudes of text-based games that were out some years back, most of which had the same basic layout and features. This one was Samurai themed, but I've seen plenty of other themes.

Things are different, but also the same (obviously record stores still exist for people who want to go). I've been buying records (and CDs) via mail order, interacting only with a catalog, for decades. More recently though, there are now message boards attached to some of these catalogs. I've made friends online (who I would've never run into at my record store) to go to a music festival with and gotten recommendations from fans, musicians and label owners alike without having to go to a store.

Whether you want to leave your house and go on an adventure, that's on you and blaming Netflix's algorithm is a copout. Even before streaming, mail order was always a way to buy stuff without interacting with people (or even just going to the store and checking out without talking to anyone) and corporate backed radio DJs & Columbia house-esque subscriptions were always telling people what to listen to, too. And, look, if you're really into something like music, you'll seek out a community around it, and I understand that you can be frustrated with streaming options, which are designed for mainstream/lowest common denominator appeal. I don't "get" music streaming services the same way I never really "got" popular radio, but I do get that most people are OK with just listening to whatever the (human or algorithm) DJ tells them to.

>I've been buying records (and CDs) via mail order, interacting only with a catalog, for decades.

Time Life Collection!

Enroll now, and receive 10 CDs for $0.01! <superdupertinyassfont>Just buy $x of over the next 12 months</superdupertinyassfont>

Spending entire days in used book/cd stores has previously been the sole reason I'd visit some towns. They've nearly all vanished, often replaced with hipster bars and coffee shops where everyone's buried in their personal mobile devices.

It's no longer worth even paying for the parking, which coincidentally also used to be free.

Agreed. In the digital realm, the closest I have ever come to the feeling of browsing at Waterloo records on 6th and Lamar in Austin with my brothers has been splurging on bandcamp fridays during the pandemic, posting my haul on ig, then also picking up whatever looks interesting in my friends’ hauls.

> Instead of some cool college student suggesting an old 80’s film, Netflix tells you to watch it’s new 50 million dollar movie. While I love the internet , the world feels less fun now.

Netflix isn't the internet. Those cool 80's films are still out there.

> I went out with a girl I met at a record store once

I went out with a girl I met on last.fm once.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com