Dear John — They Put Music in a Phone

Letters to John, No. 1

Dear John. It's David. I'm still here. Still on the corner, still playing, still getting told to keep it down.

I gotta tell you what happened to music, man. They put it in a phone. The whole thing. Every song ever recorded, right there in everybody's pocket. Sounds great, right? Sounds like the revolution we talked about. Free music for everybody.

Except it's not free for the people who made it. They pay you a third of a penny every time somebody plays your song. A third of a penny, John. And half the time they're not even listening. It's on in the background while they're doing something else. Our songs playing in a dentist's office while somebody gets a root canal.

You always said the revolution would be a song everybody sings. Well, everybody's got the song now. They're just not singing. They're scrolling.

Miss you, man. Still walking past the Dakota. Still can't look up at those windows without hearing Strawberry Fields in my head. The music's still there. Somebody just needs to play it louder.

See also: A Third of a Penny — the math. The Original Algorithm — the street was better. A Machine Writes Songs Now — now the phone writes the songs too. Lennon Never Left New York — the walk past the Dakota. The Algorithm Cops — the algorithm enforces what the phone enables.

David Peel Letters to John — No. 1

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