[ghaff]

I'm certainly part of that long tail. I tend not to have music on background most of the time.

You're absolutely right. Literally a couple decades ago Clay Shirky coined(?) the term mental transaction costs in the context of paying for articles, etc. It would be absolutely exhausting to have to decide whether it's worth a nickel every time you read something or listen to a song--especially, as you say, with music where it might just be on in the background.