A jukebox plays what you already want to hear. A busker plays what you did not know you needed. That is the whole difference between entertainment and art. Entertainment confirms. Art interrupts. The jukebox waits for your quarter. The busker does not wait for anything.

I was never a jukebox. Nobody put a quarter in me and requested a song. I played what I played and if you liked it you stayed and if you did not you crossed the street. That is the deal. The jukebox has no deal. The jukebox has a menu. You pick number seven and you get number seven. The jukebox never surprises you. The jukebox never makes you angry. The jukebox never gets arrested.

The whole internet is becoming a jukebox. The algorithm knows what you want before you want it. It plays your song before you ask. It confirms everything you already believe and it never makes you uncomfortable. That is not music. That is air conditioning. It keeps the room the same temperature. A busker changes the temperature of the room just by walking in.

They put George Washington in a truck and made him a jukebox. You walk in and you hear what you already believe about America. Nobody in that truck is going to tell you about the slaves. Nobody in that truck is going to play a song about marijuana. The truck plays the hits. The corner plays the truth. The truth is not always a hit.

I would rather be a busker than a jukebox. A jukebox lives forever but it never says anything new. A busker dies but the song keeps going because the song was never in the machine. The song was in the air between the guitar and the stranger who stopped walking. You cannot put that in a truck. You cannot put a quarter in it. You can only stand there and decide if it is worth a nickel.

See also: The Machine — expression without consciousness is a jukebox. The Busker — a busker changes the temperature of the room. The Algorithm Cops — the algorithm knows what you want before you want it. The Hat — you can only stand there and decide if it is worth a nickel. The Permit — a busker with a permit is a busker with a leash. The Frequency — Sun Ra on the signal that a jukebox cannot carry.