At the risk of being Old Man Yells At Clouds, it's 2019, The Future™, and somehow our music-listening technology has gotten broadly worse.
I was listening to old albums today, stuff from the 90s that I've heard 100 times, and all the song transitions were ruined. Opening beats were clipped, fades that carry between tracks were missing.
Music does it. The last version of iTunes does it. YouTube Music is trash. Don't even get me started on the wrecking ball that is Spotify.
iTunes didn't used to do it. iPod doesn't do it. The new stuff is so all-in on singles and infinite randomized playlists that already existing albums are getting mulched in the process.
We peaked with the iPod. Now we live in an algorithmically-delivered, region-locked subscription hell full of perverse incentives for both artists and listeners.
It's not even that big a thing. It's an extremely small thing. But it's just such a profound symbol of apathy, like listening to an entire album is just a use-case no one at a music company bothered to check.
