Today, playing music has become a much more private experience.

But things changed a little with the arrival of the Sony Walkman, and then a lot when we entered the iPod age.

In the iPod age, everyone has their own private soundtrack as they walk the streets, which means the streets themselves no longer have a soundtrack

With the white buds in our ears - a modern look that sends a clear message of ''do not disturb'' - we are oddly vacant in urban spaces even as we inhabit them.

The loss is not only the music we no longer hear, but all the acts of having music foisted upon us that we no longer experience - and what these acts mean.

Though not without its critics, the blockbuster concept has huge social and ecological benefits. Exposure to international art such as that in the Dali exhibition would come at enormous cost for Australians. Air tickets for hundreds of thousands of people to go to Spain and America would be costly. And don't even think of the damage to the environment.