By Julien Garcia
I have been collecting vinyl for about a year now, and I love it. However, I am currently getting into the cassette business. I moved from vinyl to cassettes because vinyls are just really expensive. I still collect vinyl, but it’s just not my top priority when it comes to music. Regardless, I often question myself on why I spend all this money on old mediums of listening to music when I have both Spotify and Apple Music.
Spotify is way easier to listen to music on my phone. I can share music with friends, make playlists and have a huge library that is far more accessible than if I were to bring a Walkman and fifteen different cassettes.
I think the reason why I waste money on things like vinyls is because I just mess with vinyl heavy, but because I actually own the music. You don’t own anything with streaming and online services. You can spend money on that stuff, but you don’t actually own it, so you’re basically buying nothing. With Spotify, they can raise prices, remove certain music, limit access and the user can’t do anything. Imagine if your favorite album or song was suddenly removed by Spotify. Since you don’t own it, you can’t do anything.
Think of streaming websites like Netflix, Hbo Max, or Disney+… When streaming was first introduced, people thought it was cheaper and a better alternative to cable. But when you have a large culmination of online services, it’s actually more. In my experience, movies are constantly being added and removed from the service. A movie will be on HBO but then on Hulu, or there will be a movie on Netflix, but it’s only the sequel. When we pay for these things, we are paying for a service and nothing really we can keep.
If you look at students, we don’t really lug around big heavy textbooks and put them in lockers like students used to. Everything is electric and online. Things are no longer physical things; it’s all online for this new digital age. For me, I can’t read an ebook; I don’t pay attention to it, nor do I really care. But when I have an actual book in my hand, I am ever so slightly more inclined to read.
I want to own what I spend my money on, so if I buy an Album I want to own it. I know this is an outlandish thought, but I think corporations are greedy. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future we didn’t own anything. There are no longer products, only services. Think of renting something but for everything. You can’t own a car unless you have a Toyota premium or pay a BMW tax, or even a Ford service fee. Where everything is up for sale but never ownership. It’s a wacky idea, but a somewhat realistic idea.
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