Deleting One Song

Emily and I were discussing the new Wilco record, Sky Blue Sky, today. We got an advance copy and have been listening non-stop in our house the past couple days.

Emily said she loves it, but hates one song on the record called Shake It Off. She mentioned that she had the same problem with A Ghost Is Born and the song called Spiders (Kidsmoke).

I suggested she just hit the delete key and zap the song from the record in iTunes.

Now album purists like Jackson are going to cry foul. Skip the damn song if you don’t like it, but don’t maim the record, they’ll likely say.

This is the dilemma with digital art. The consumer can modify it to suit their tastes and destroy what the artist was trying to accomplish. But on the other hand if deleting one song (microchunk) makes the listening experience notably better and leads to more listens, isn’t that a positive?

What do you all think?