Evolution eats through sanctity with no regard for legacy. It’s an undeniable fact that applies just as much to music as it does to outdated social sedative mythologies- just ask vinyl. After the clunky, short-lived 8-track brought a new portability to the listening experience, cassettes came along, and as a format they were a damn sight more convenient, in both size and playback versatility, than the alternative.

While they certainly didn’t push to any new heights of artistic potential from the source, cassettes blew open the doors of listener involvement. As tape decks, Walkmen and boomboxes popped up everywhere in the eighties, the mixtape was also born, and quickly rose to fame.

For years, a heated discussion raged on about the atrocities of ruthless internet pirates and the crippling impact their cruelties had on the music business, the artists, the record stores, and even the music itself.

Finally, that ridiculous discussion is being put to rest, as more and more artists and music listeners are educating themselves beyond label rhetoric, and challenging antiquated business models and distribution paradigms.

The record labels are still trying to charge for a product that others (more and more brave souls each day) are providing for cheaper, or free, as convenient as a couple clicks of a mouse button. Even when the record labels timidly test the water by giving a little bit away for free to “see how it goes,” they do it wrong. They do low quality so as not to devalue CDs. Or they only release samples. Or they make you sign up to a mailing list you don’t want spamming you every Tuesday when they try and cram their brand new garbage down everyone’s throats. Their websites and online tools don’t work right. They don’t understand the internet like the kids do, and they don’t have the passion or vision that artists like Trent Reznor has.