Whiskey in Tokyo

At a whiskey joint in Tokyo it was made known to the strangers at the bar that I was a musician from the U.S. (not hard to guess where I was from being in that part of the world, but the musician part….well).

The bartender who was also the owner stopped the record player (yes he was playing records) and swapped over to Spotify (just cause he’s got records don’t mean he’s not carrying everything else).
He scrolled to my version of “Peg” and the speakers lit up with Greg Toros bass playing.

Lots of smiles, lots of great sounds coming from the whisky clientele. In short they approved, and after managing to remain there for a few hours the bar tab was picked up for us -It was an expensive and sought after place and the price of the 40 year old aged scotch and whiskeys reflected that in the bill.

My Spotify check last month was for less the 2 dollars but having my music instantly interviewed in a setting like that on the other side of the world was priceless.

While it’s true technology has blown a hole in the financials concerned with copyright, mainly nonexistent unit sales, it’s also true that in the end it doesn’t have to be for the worse: The opportunities lay in the unexpected circumstances that you may not have even dreamed of yet.