How I listen to music

CD, cassette tape, vinyl, MP3 and streaming. Just a few ways in which you can consume music. In the past 50 years the way we listen to music has changed. Each decade has seen its own technological developments which enabled more and more individual listening experiences.The latest developments being Spotify and storing your music in a cloud. I came across these two articles about putting your music in the cloud and never having owned any music. As an avid music lover, with an ever-expanding collection the technological developments of the past few years sound enticing, but I haven’t yet caved. I would like to explain why and I am also curious about your music listening experience.So if you could, please just answer the questions below. I will do the same!

• How, when and where do you listen to music?
• Do you still own CDs or any other physical carrier for music? Do you still buy CDs?
• Have you switched to putting your music in a cloud/ only using Spotify/ youtube?

How, when and where do you listen to music?

I mostly listen to my music as MP3s on my phone or at home on my computer. I have my computer hooked up to my old hifi stereo as it has much better sound. Actual, physical CDs I do still play, but not that often. Only when I know I have a few hours to spare I will select a few albums and physically put them in my ancient 5 disc CD-changer. Mostly I just hit up a playlist or a CD on my computer and just listen to that. I have a few Spotify playlists, but don’t really use them.

Do you still own CDs or any other physical carrier for music? Do you still buy CDs?

Yes, I still buy CDs. Why? Because I like it. I like holding a physical CD, smell the newness of the plastic, leaf through the booklet and check out the art work. Nowadays my CD buying is limited to albums I really like. I usually download CDs first and then, when I like it, I will go to the store or to Amazon and buy the CD. I still buy CDs at random too. Sometimes that is just a great way of discovering new music.

I have hundreds of physical CDs, records and cassette tapes (the digital goes into the 1000s). The cassette tapes go way back (and my hifi set is still be able to play them too!) to when I was a child and I still have a bunch with recordings from the weekly radio chart shows. The records are mostly an inheritance from my dad and uncle, but I did add a few bits and bobs along the way. My CD collection keeps growing larger and larger and I keep my older CDs in a separate spot as I don’t use them anymore.

Have you switched to putting your music in a cloud/ only using Spotify?

No. I did put my playlists in Spotify only to find out that half the music I listen to is not on Spotify. So using Spotify with a paid subscription is not yet something I’m ready to do as the selection is too limited. I wouldn’t mind storing my music on a cloud though. It would be a great back up and I would be able to access all of my files, all the time as long as there’s an internet connection.

The only problem is that once I put my music in a cloud, I would not be able to manage my files the way I do now and to top things off, I don’t know what will happen in the future. Right now, cloud storage is free, but what happens when this goes mainstream and everyone starts doing it? Would I have to start paying for the amount of storage I take up? If so, it would cost me buckets of money, because the amount of gigabytes I have now is extensive and I add more on a daily basis.

The uncertainty of what happens to ‘my’ music in the future is one reason why I don’t want to switch to storing everything in a cloud or a streaming service. As long as the ‘rules’ aren’t clear from the beginning, I most likely won’t want to do so. I guess I’m just old school. I still prefer to have something tangible. Not only because of nostalgic reasons, but also because sound quality is often better and you support artists and local businesses.

So, tell me, what are your answers to these questions. You can answer in Dutch if you’d like!