“And for many Instagram users it’s discomfiting to see a giant company they distrust purchase a tiny company they adore — like if Coldplay acquired Dirty Projectors, or a Gang of Four reunion was sponsored by Foxconn.”

Was reading Paul Ford’s excellent take on Facebook gobbling up Instagram and found myself wishing that there really were mergers and acquisitions in the world of pop music (though I suppose you could argue that the DPz already entered into a joint venture of sorts with Björk). Seriously though, just imagine how strange it would be to hear Coldplay trying to execute all those little twists and turns that Dave Longstreth writes into his songs. I’m assuming that Chris Martin and Co. have more than enough cash on hand to buy out the Projectors’ contract from Domino—make this happen, guys!

“And yet, as significant as this shift in listening habits might be for the music industry, the streaming revolution may seem like little more than a software upgrade for the average listener. While it’s true that these new services reduce the amount of friction we experience when attempting to listen to a certain song right this minute, the paradigm of how we experience music remains largely unchanged. We’re still listening to music on the computer, or on our phones or in the car. All that’s changed is that we no longer need to remember to sync our iPod before heading out the door.”

I wrote about the year in music technology for MTV Hive.