I'm in the process of ripping my extensive collection of CDs (or at least what's left of it after countless have been stolen, damaged or lost over the years due to house parties, house moves and bi*ch ex partners).
Now the very fact that I'm doing this demonstrates that I appreciate the convenience of modern music formats, such as being able to store thousands of albums on a small HDD and being able to carry your entire collection in the pocket of your jeans so I'm not just some old 'stuck in the past' fossil. It's also far easier now to get hold of music from all over the world, cheaply or even free if you're prepared to step outside of the law to do so. No more hovering around the counter in HMV, trying to explain to the assistant who J Mascis is or watching them scowl at the DOS-like screen as they browse for the Japanese release of a The Smashing Pumpkins album, only to be told it would take three weeks to get here and cost £35.
The more I think about it, though the more I'm convinced that the negatives of moving to downloads far outweigh the positives (althought as I'm writing this, Scottish post-grunge band Stiltskin have just come on and I wonder why the hell I ever spent £15 on that crap).
When I was in my teens, I'd get my weekly wage then take a 50 minute bus journey into Hanley (essentially Stoke's city centre) for no other reason than to spend 2 hours+ in Mike Lloyd Music. I'd head to the new releases on CD and vinyl then browse the second hand section before looking through the posters, t-shirts, prints and finally the noticeboard to see what gigs were on as you could buy tickets there that included travel. I'd come back minus half of my wages but it was worth it!
Now again, although I think back to those times with fond memories, this isn't about my nostalgia trip. What's struck me as I'm sat here listening to music and browsing CD artwork is how much has been lost as physical copies are dying out.
When I'd paid £15+ for a CD, I'd spend the bus journey home looking at the artwork and browsing the inlay. Once home, it would go striaght into the CD player and I'd listen to the whole album whilst reading any lyrics that were printed inside. Then the CD would play again... and again. You really appreciated everything that went into the CD because you'd invested time, effort and money to get hold of it.
I don't mean any disrespect to those younger posters who have always downloaded the vast majority of their music but I really dont feel that you will ever have that same feeling of bringing a new CD / Vinyl / Tape home.
It's changed for me as well. I can no longer afford to keep buying CDs so I download most of my music and its rarely just one album or single but rather whole discographies or multiple albums by various artists. I still enjoy music but playing you iTunes library on shuffle just isn't the same.
Kurt Cobain once said that having loads of money ruined shopping for him because he no longer had to put the effort in to rummage around shops looking for that one gem then work out how to afford it, he could go in and buy the whole lot if he wanted. That one 'gem' was devalued because it was so easy to come by and I think that's an analogy for how I feel about music formats now. It's quite sad really and I feel sorry for my kids that they'll never understand that.
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