As a kid, I vividly remember waiting 541 days for the release of Kanye West's The Life Of Pablo. As release day got closer, Kanye announced that he would exclusively release this proejct on a new platform called Tidal. Streaming services were a pretty new concept at the time (I'll never forgive them for what they did to you, Rdio), so the idea that listeners were expected to "rent" music was still strange, especially for people like me who had grown up around two iTunes parents and three Limewire cousins.

Real ones remember that for almost two months, you needed to be a Tidal user to experience The Life of Pablo. This meant paying anywhere from ten dollars (basic brokeboi tier) to twenty dollars ("HiFi" or "Lossless" tier). This was SO fucking annoying. But back then I loved Kanye West like a family member so I didn't mind being open to his new idea.

Given that I was 16, broke, already an Apple Music user, and not in the mood to ask my dad for his credit card information, I had to use an empty visa giftcard as a payment method for a 30 day Tidal trial. I wasn't totally sure it would work, but when it did, I was THRILLED. After doing this, I listened to the album in my ktichen at midnight on release day while my parents slept. I was a severely depressed teenager. This was a moment that made me so happy I cried. This album meant everything to me.

wolves

Over the next few days, I watched Kanye West livetweet his issues with the record and crowdsource ideas for what changes he should make to it - the first time an artist had ever done that for a major album release. Like I said, this album in its initial form meant everything to me. Even the bits that were unmastered or vocals that clipped a little too much. Kanye did not share the same feelings. He went on to change a several songs on the album. The intro to one of my favorite songs on the record, Feedback, was changed pretty significantly. I have not heard the original release version of that song in almost a decade. To this day, I still wince when I hear the edit on the new one.

Back then, I turned to piracy to fix this issue. I ripped a copy of the OG song from Reddit (which was almost immediately nuked by the copyright overlords), put it on my iPhone 6, and kept a smug sense of pride when I had aux cord privileges in my cousin's Corolla - because I had the special version of this song that I knew would never be heard again. I don't know where that song is now, and had I not transitioned to a full reliance on streaming out of convenience, I would probably still have it.

A few weeks ago, another album from this era, Travis Scott's Rodeo, went through a similar change that I could only call...devastating. The cunty valley girl adlibs from my bby angel Chantel Jeffries ("Honestly...God bless"...etc) that open 90210 were fucking deleted from Spotify. I acknowledge this sounds hyperbolic, but I must say - these adlibs serve a real thematic purpose on this song. Removing them takes away from the original vibe of the whole record.

After seeing post release edits and sometimes even full deletions from streaming services happen many times since 2016 (I'm looking at you, Computers Smarter Than People), I'm inclined to call this sort of creative post-nut-clarity nothing other than PUSSY. I hate it. I srtuggle with perfectionism myself so I understand the temptation, but over and over again, we see that this sort of neurotic refinement does nothing but piss people (especially ones who have cherished memories with the music) off.

Prosperity Gospel Lesson #1: NEVER RELY ON COMPANIES TO STORE YOUR DATA, ESPECIALLY IF YOU DON'T OWN IT.

This brings us to one of the main pillars of this blog: data stewardship. Data stewardship is pretty much being responsible and intentional with when, where, and how your special information is stored. This can be anything: bank records, family photos, your favorite music, nudes - no matter. If you care about your data, take care of your data. Make sure it stays in your possession.

I practice data stewardship through storing my data on the old computer turned server that hosts this website. You don't have to get that nerdy though! Being a good data steward can look like saving pictures from your iPhone onto a USB instead of iCloud, or downloading (through purchasing or through piracy) your favorite albums directly to your device instead of only using streaming services. Physical media is booming in popularity for this exact reason.

Taking this approach with your data keeps you in control and out of training sets for huge AI models. It keeps you out of analytics dashboards that companies use to sell you shit and stalk you. It's one of the easiest ways for you as a working class person to stand against commercial interests that encroach on your freedoms. It's also a great way to curate your tastes independently of an algorithm!

xoxo,
Joey