Hundreds of people commented on the entry, turning into the sort of I'm-right, you're-wrong fights between people who have a lot more courage to voice their opinions when they're sitting at a screen in the comfort of their mom's basement than they would in person.
Overlooked in the e-thuggery is that White, 20, is part of a growing glut of adults who don't know a world without the Internet. Their perception is that it isn't owning music that will matter in the future, but access to it.
That future has arrived.
In fact, the 2010s will be remembered as the era in which music went not from physical to digital, but to streaming. With the emergence of Spotify (right), Pandora, Grooveshark, YouTube and more, the need to actually own music is vanishing.
This entry isn't a call to make the switch because it's already happening. The prisoner already has escaped.
The only thing I would encourage is that we embrace it now and hit the accelerator pad, mostly for the sake of the artists.
I do have my reservations that Spotify might be killing the beast it aims to endorse. One would be hard-pressed to make the argument that artists do not deserve to be paid for their craft. Surely Cracker lead singer David Lowery, who wrote a lengthy, passionate reply to White's post, would agree.
But speeding up the process would force music listeners to make the switch and could, ultimately, move things in the right direction. Streaming services such as Spotify pay artists for each time their songs are played.
This is the model for the future. The change already is happening. But in order to preserve careers, it needs to happen more rapidly.
The Emily Whites of the world are not alone. Through a misunderstanding, many people think that it is illegal to rip an honestly purchased album to their own digital storage, but that is not the case.
I felt the reality of the streaming revolution more than ever during a recent trip to one Solano County record store to purchase a vinyl copy of Fiona Apple's The Idler Wheel is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Words Will Ever Do. (That's not even Apple's longest album title.)
Because I bought Idler Wheel (left) on wax, the sales clerk put the wax in a large, colorful bag celebrating the store's 40th anniversary last year. On the bottom of the bag is a graveyard for the retailer's late brothers and sisters in the industry — Sam Goody, Tower, Virgin, Wherehouse and many more.
In this streaming future, brick and mortar music stores such as this one will survive, but as a niche market. Collectors such as me, who absolutely need to play albums on their turntables, will seek out physical copies, but for the most part, this is a select group.
Regardless of the level of interest, there is an unquenchable societal thirst to share and discuss music. Just look at Facebook's news feed. People link to more songs per day than for which I have time or patience to listen.
We're moving to a groovy place where sharing, not ownership, is the principle driving force behind the music industry. Spotify allows access to a seemingly limitless vault of records, many of which have helped populate Our Music Year, my quest to listen to an album I've never heard every day this year.
What the streaming future of music means is access. With Spotify, Pandora, Grooveshark and their ilk, music is distilled back to its essence, back to the only question that matters: Do I like it?
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