Culture October 4, 2017

In 2014, the Wu-Tang Clan shocked the music world by deciding to sell only one copy of their new album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Wu-Tang would “tour” the physical album to select venues, and then sell it to the highest bidder. Most fans would never hear the album. This was the group’s way of rejecting the online paradigm of endless free content and of trying to get people to treat music more like art. If people weren’t willing to pay for musicians’ work, then they wouldn’t get to hear it. Music would work on a patronage system.