A guilty conscience

Recently the more I think about the work I do, the worse I feel about myself. I feel sometimes, that what I do is so.... insignificant. There are 100,000 dead/dying in Myanmar now. In Thailand, there are starving people, in Indonesia, India there is a significant population that makes basic minimum daily wages and here I am, trying to 'force' my local offices to sell more music.

Of course some may argue that what my company does is provide entertainment and it is not tangible/relevant to those who cannot afford this 'luxury' product in their lives. But I've been thinking grim thoughts - what with inflation and rising costs of living, I frankly don't blame the majority when they have to give up something in their lives - this is one of them. If you have S$20, I would also say - please stock up on cooking oil and rice.

I read an online Esquire Mag article that argued that it's not that people don't like and don't want to pay for music anymore, when the budget is tight, something's gotta give and when something can be shared for free, the basic human nature is 'yay freebie, TAKE'. I am of course not advocating piracy as this affects my current rice bowl but I find myself nodding in agreement with the article.

Especially with the increasing pressure from boss to 'break new acts', I ask myself "Why do I care about making SOMEONE else a superstar so they can be millionaires?" And above all, do I really want to make some kid think that it's really worth their pocket money/part time job money to part for a CD? I know I am quite beside the point but I grew this conscience recently. The industry is supposed to be 'fun' and about providing entertainment but sometimes when faced with this grim world, I feel disillusioned with my insignificant input to the world. There are more important things in the world than trying to sell 100,000 CDs in Asia. Fark that, can we make sure 100,000 more people in Asia don't stay hungry, get clean drinking water and a roof over their heads?

At the end of the day, do you know what this all means?

I need to go and market rice or cooking oil.

Hahaha!