Okay, wait a minute…I thought we were permanently ensconced — imprisoned? — in the Age of Free, in an era where either you give it away or it will be illegally downloaded from you…or ignored completely.
What gives then, Millennials, with all the outrage over Apple’s gift – gift meaning free, the word that has completely destroyed the record industry and is on the verge of bringing down Hollywood and maybe even the Big 6 (or 5…I forget) Publishers – of U2’s new album “Songs of Innocence?”
What? You only like free when it’s an illegal download?
What? You cry “Big Brother” upon seeing the free album magically cued in your iTunes player and then forget we live in the Internet Age, which is synonymous with the Age of Free, and the Age of Open Identity, the Age where you share every possible detail about your life without any care whatsoever.
What? You already forgot Snowden?
But when Apple gives you a gift, one that cost them somewhere in the ballpark of $30,000,000.00 (that’s Thirty Million Dollars for those unfamiliar with dollars since they’re so used to getting everything free), which is the price Apple reportedly paid U2 so they could give it away, you freak out as if you had just had a mind-controlling robot implanted into your brain (which you probably wouldn’t mind as long as it was done either illegally or as a joke so you could post it on facebook or whatever social network your tribe has migrated to just so you can get a flurry of “likes” or whatever.
Give me a freekin break.
Think about it. Why shouldn’t Apple reward both U2 and you, too?
Both of you have made Apple enormous, uncomprehendable amounts of money.
It was U2 and their Vertigo commercial for Apple’s iPod that assisted Apple in changing the landscape — wrecking the landscape? — of music forever.
And it is you — or more likely your parents — who went out and bought those newfangled music players by the millions so you could be happy. Because let’s face it Millennial, it’s your happiness and only your happiness that matters these days.
So stop complaining for a change — please — and sit back, relax, and enjoy your gift of free music…