I listen to music every day, usually during programming, exercising, or driving. I have my favourite list of music on Apple Music.
What’s wrong with that? It depends on how you look at it.
I like music streaming services because they are convenient and easy to use. The monthly subscription for a streaming service is usually lower than the price of a single CD with music. You can pay a monthly fee and listen to all the music that is available in the service. They provide applications for all platforms, so I don’t see an easier way to manage, discover, and listen to music.
So why did I start buying CDs again? I have several reasons for this.
- Not all music is available in streaming services. I already have several CDs that were available only for a limited time.
- Some of the music is available only in a specific region. It happens to me very often. I want to listen to some music, I find it on Apple Music, and it turns out that I cannot play it. (The music is usually available on CD in my country.)
- Streaming services may remove music from their catalogue without any notice. It’s not your music, you just rent it.
- Streaming services pay artists a small amount of money, usually based on the number of streams. I want to support my favourite artists so they can create more music.
I’m going to still use streaming services, but I plan to buy music on CD every time I find something interesting. I don’t want to lose my favourite music.
What’s funny, I don’t plan to use the CDs. I don’t even plan to unpack them. It’s more like a backup and maybe even an investment. If some of the music is removed from streaming services or the Internet, I will still have it on CD so I can rip it and listen.
You can find my entire collection on Discogs.