Owning media

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

With ownership of the physical product, I feel I have a tangible experience with the music that you simply don't get by streaming/downloading. The cover art, liner notes --- just the whole package is special to me and in our current time feels like I'm holding some piece of history or some ancient relic. Of course, I don't expect anyone else to uphold these same beliefs or place importance in the same things I do as this would be unrealistic and rather egotistical of me to assume that these things should have the same meaning for everyone.

It does bring a certain feeling of melancholy to me knowing that we seem to be approaching some kind of demise of past ways, which, in turn, makes me cling to my CDs, DVDs and books even more. I'm just thankful I have been afforded the opportunity to have the collection I have and that there are other people in my life who are willing to put up with my madness after all of these years. It can't be easy to live with someone who is obsessed with music 24/7.

[LKB]

With ownership of the physical product, I feel I have a tangible experience with the music that you simply don't get by streaming/downloading. The cover art, liner notes --- just the whole package is special to me and in our current time feels like I'm holding some piece of history or some ancient relic. Of course, I don't expect anyone else to uphold these same beliefs or place importance in the same things I do as this would be unrealistic and rather egotistical of me to assume that these things should have the same meaning for everyone.

It does bring a certain feeling of melancholy to me knowing that we seem to be approaching some kind of demise of past ways, which, in turn, makes me cling to my CDs, DVDs and books even more. I'm just thankful I have been afforded the opportunity to have the collection I have and that there are other people in my life who are willing to put up with my madness after all of these years. It can't be easy to live with someone who is obsessed with music 24/7.

That bolded sentence has defined me since at least 1973. 

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

That bolded sentence has defined me since at least 1973. 

 

[Spotted Horses]

I am reminded that there are some circumstances when I feel a need to possess, and not just stream a recording. The Machonchy String Quartets are very special to me, I consider them on par with the best 20th century string quartet cycles (Shostakovich, Bartok, Martinu, Hindemith, Rubbra, Krenek, Toch, Bacewicz, etc). There is only one cycle, which has been released on several dicy labels (Regis, Unicorn). The CD set I have is labeled Regis and one track has digital defects (a halo of static surrounding the sound in the finale of the 8th quartet). Miraculously I found it on Apple Music free from any defect, but it is on an even more obscure label, Treasure Island. And no lossless download available anywhere I can find. The CDs are offered for sale, but I suspect they are made from the same defective master. If it disappears from Apple Music, I'm screwed!

When something is "important" I feel the need to have the audio data on my hard disk (download or ripped from physical media makes no difference.)

[krummholz]

I haven't bought a physical book in ages - I have very limited shelf space, so I go for e-books only. For audio files, I prefer a physical CD, but will download something and burn a CD of it if that's possible. But I miss getting the liner notes, so I consider that an inferior medium. I don't generally watch movies or even episodes of TV series more than once, so I have very few physical DVDs - but I was an avid Netflix subscriber before they shut down their rental service. Overall I loathe streaming services - especially Hulu, which charges you a subscription fee but then has the chutzpah to insert commercials into their shows. I have their free trial right now to watch The Handmaid's Tale S6, but will definitely drop them as soon as the series is finished, maybe sooner.

[LKB]

I haven't bought a physical book in ages - I have very limited shelf space, so I go for e-books only. For audio files, I prefer a physical CD, but will download something and burn a CD of it if that's possible. But I miss getting the liner notes, so I consider that an inferior medium. I don't generally watch movies or even episodes of TV series more than once, so I have very few physical DVDs - but I was an avid Netflix subscriber before they shut down their rental service. Overall I loathe streaming services - especially Hulu, which charges you a subscription fee but then has the chutzpah to insert commercials into their shows. I have their free trial right now to watch The Handmaid's Tale S6, but will definitely drop them as soon as the series is finished, maybe sooner.

Until recently l was a subscriber to Amazon's Prime Music. This was partly out of curiosity, and partly out of the desire for access to recordings which I'm either a) unfamiliar with or b) own, but the CD is in commercial storage.

Last week l went to the site, selected von Karajan's commercial DG recording of Bruckner's Symphony No. 5, and started the opening movement.

The sound quality was so bad ( even with these old ears ) that l abandoned the experience after less than sixty seconds of listening.

Once again, access to physical media proves unreplacable.