Music Ownership

Hey there guys.

Hope reading this finds you well.

I started to write this post almost a month ago.

I really want to thank my good friend Drew for telling me I haven't wrote in a while.

Sometimes, you have to accept help when you don't want to hear it.

That being said, I want to talk about music ownership.

The society we live in today is so digitally inclined that we are motivated to just rent things and purge ourselves of things that we might perceive as taking up too much of our precious space. I've done the same thing at various times the last few years. I truly believe that we spend so much of our free time that we neglect to enjoy things that aren't internet connected.

So, I'll tell you how this all started. Last year, I bought a car and finally got my driver's license. I was 43 and it was long overdue. Anyway, the car had a Pioneer head unit with a CD player. I still had my sister's collection of about 250 CD's and I thought it would be great to take them with me in the car and just drive. Then I started shopping for CD's again. I've bought at least a hundred this past year and burned a ton from stuff I had in iTunes and in my Google cloud collection. Even broke out my old Walkman CD player. Got an old iPod Nano from my girlfriend. Bought a turntable for my shelf system. Bought some cassettes. Got a CD burner for my MacBook.

The point of all this is that no matter what the situation is, whether I can't afford my Spotify subscription, or even if I can't afford my internet bill, or, heaven forbid, we lose power for a day or two, I still have music. I own it. It's mine forever. I love having Spotify to fill in gaps in my collection, but it's not really a necessity anymore. Owning and shopping for music is a fun experience that I think everyone should have.

I look at these kids today that stream music off YouTube, or Spotify, and I'm like wow. Is this really good for them? They'll never know the experiences that we had back in the day. Like when we didn't have much money and would go rummage through used CD's and cassettes at little mom and pop shops and finding that hidden gem. Digging through vinyl. Reading magazines to find out about the latest fashions. Reading reviews of our favorite albums. The anticipation. Kids today think we're backward, and I hate to rag on them, but I think it's the other way around.

I'm not some bitter old head who thinks I know everything. But honestly I'm glad I lived before the internet and I wouldn't trade that for anything. The memories have lasted me a lifetime and always will.

I =know I just ragged on YouTube, but I'm gonna share a video that was one of the first songs I heard that made me want to go out and buy the album. Shout to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for being the first production team to really make me love music even more. And shout to my man Drew.

Writing again made me realize that it's truly therapeutic.