the pursuit

“In terms of digital income, we’ve made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever,” Yorke said. “And that’s nuts. It’s partly due to the fact that EMI wasn’t giving us any money for digital sales. All the contracts signed in a certain era have none of that stuff.” It’s a new era now, and 21st-century artists with much less history and influence are tentatively following Radiohead into the online breach. How it will end for both the major labels and their rosters remains to be determined, but someone had to go first.

psychotherapy:

…Another reason for increased happiness in experiences, the researchers found, was that people felt a greater sense of vitality or “being alive” during the experience and in reflection, Howell said.

“As nice as your new computer is, it’s not going to make you feel alive,” he said.

Most psychologists who study the phenomenon say people adapt to a new purchase in six to eight weeks, up to a maximum of three months, Howell said. That means the initial pleasure we get from a new possession generally fades in a matter of months.

Howell’s study builds on earlier work by Thomas Gilovich, professor and chairman of the psychology department at Cornell University. Gilovich and colleague Leaf Van Boven’s seminal 2003 paper “To do or to have: That is the question” found similar results about possessions bringing less happiness than experiences.

Experts also point out that people are less self-conscious when comparing experiences than they are about possessions. It will probably bother you more that your friend’s home theater is better than yours than if your friend saw more sights on her South Seas vacation, Gilovich said.

Experiences form “powerful and important memories that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world,” Gilovich said.

1. The Allman Brothers Band (20)
2. Radiohead (10)
3. Wilco (9)
4. The Rolling Stones (5)
5. Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds (5)

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