Saturday 1 December 2018

Harmony And Consumption

I was preparing a review earlier, which will be up tomorrow but while I was doing that I was thinking about a conversation I had last week over a meal with family. That conversation was about why I don't have Spotify and instead have a wall of cd's, tapes and vinyl records. I unsuccessfully tried to justify the way I consume music and it's been annoying me ever since, so I felt it was a prime subject for a discussion post.

Annoying is a strong descriptor but while said family member tried to sell me the pros of Spotify as the monthly digital subscription service it is, I felt something stir inside and I realised (rightly or wrongly) that it had something to do with musical tastes. As my own tastes have evolved within the confines of metal and punk music, trying to explain it to somebody whose unfamiliar with the genres and indeed never had a "metal phase" as a teenager, I was fighting a losing battle.

There are DIY movements within most genres of music for sure but none are more tangible to me than in metal and punk. When you pick up a record or a piece of merch from a band you know the money is going straight to them, instead of it taking 1 million streams for them to receive 0.03p in royalties or whatever the rate is. Even going into a bricks and mortar record store still feels special to me. Crate digging is a joy when you have no idea what's nestling in the racks. Being able to hold the record, pour over the artwork and discuss it with shop owners/staff is part of the whole experience.

When I bought the first cd that formed the basis of my collection at 15 years old, I had no idea that it would spark a passion that would still be burning inside me at the age of 32. There will always be those who say that Digital is better and while MP3s make sense (heck, most of my review material comes in digital form), for me you'll never be able to beat a physical copy of that music you love.

Feel you free to share your thoughts below or on my Facebook page. I’d love to hear from you.

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