In a previous post, I espoused my affection for Beck's Deadweight. The nostalgia it filled me with led me to purchase it on iTunes. From the music video, the song is about 4.5 minutes long, but iTunes' only version is 6+ minutes long from extra material in the re-release of Odelay. Oooo, more song for my listening pleasure. Sadly no, the extra minutes is the song trailing off in bloops and bleeps ruining a wonderful experience.

I find this aspect of the digital age depressing. When we were analog and copying our music onto cassette tapes, we had control of the process. A song too long can be shortened with the simple press of the button or a fade to silence. Fade ins and cross fades were done easily. The addition of snippets of other audio materials was easy as well.

Yet, with digital music all that is gone or at least suppressed in a process that takes some time to set up, understand, and learn. We are stuck with hard boundaries in our music -- a track.

In other songs I've purchased, there are extraneous bits that I would not like to hear. This is prevalent with rap music and the skits between songs. Somehow the music distributors mash one track with the skits. This sucks as I just want the music, and I am forced to hit next to avoid listening to the crappy skit. I don't need no crappy skits. If I had wanted it, I would've kept the cassette running.

Anyone hate this too?

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