A Few of My Favorite Things (to talk about…Google, music, and France)

I was forwarded this link today on Sarkozy considering charging an extra tax to companies like Google for taking business away from established advertising/marketing companies (publishers, record labels…). This is a BEAST of a topic, so we’ll see how I do at tackling it, even if it’s just a little piece of it.

First, a little background. I’ve lived in France, on and off, for just over a year. I recently received a three year visa to live there permanently (well, three years permanently anyway) and I can say most of my discourse over the last year has been surrounding the process of getting established in France and the incredible amount of paperwork involved and hoops to jump through. As of today, the bank account I applied for in August is still not completely open and I have yet to receive my bank card (after no less than 10 visits to the bank). While this may seem unrelated to the topic at hand, there is a little relevance that will hopefully become obvious along the way. In addition to having that experience, I dj. Completely digital, I buy all of my music online. I would say I spend an average of ten to fifteen hours a week looking for music. I use blogs, Itunes, dj pools, online memberships, and any other number of sites to buy my music.

Finally, I like talking about Google. The man, the myth, the legend. The beast.

In this particular case, I find myself defending Google. Whoah. What? Yep. The Google I know and love came from a good place once. Record companies, labels and distributors are useless to me. While I will still seek out vinyl on occasion, in a store, it’s always old music.

The idea that the past should be protected at the cost of the future is ingrained in the French culture and is what makes Paris a beautiful city to this day…I think. However, a resistance of the absolute and obvious – that record companies, distributors and labels are going extinct – is both ignorant and only slows, not halts the inevitable. But the French do love to resist the inevitable. A small example: It was only about two years ago that train station ticket vending machines started taking bank cards/ credit cards. And most still won’t accept bank cards that have been issued outside the EU, which infuriates me and I’ll move on before I’ve hi-jacked my own post with absurdities about living in Paris. In New York, however (just for example), train station vending machines have been taking bank cards/credit cards since about 1999.

All of this to say, I suppose, that it’s all fine and dandy to make it difficult for foreigners visiting and living in France, though I think it would be better for their economy if they didn’t. However, protecting the recording industry from Google will help neither France’s economy nor their culture. And, it’s just too late. The website www.deezer.com, one of my favorite sites for discovering new music, comes from France. If this doesn’t encourage people to take the next step, digitally, and buy and download music, I don’t know what does. Sites like deezer, shout 4 music and the sixty one (my newest favorite for good music, even if the site is difficult to navigate) are not flash in the pan sites promoting crap music. I suspect France will keep being France, though, with or without the tax.