I’m going back to CDs and ripping them because I’m fed up of shit disappearing from streaming services. Plus having to pay for access. Plus the crappy offline experience. Plus the crappy apps you have to use. Plus the devices that play them have a million other distractions I want to avoid. Oh and all the shite that is promoted constantly.
> I’m going back to CDs and ripping them because I’m fed up of shit disappearing from streaming services.
Back in the day you could buy a CD, listen to it for a few days, and then return it if you didn't like (just like returns for any other product). Then folks discovered ripping and returned them even if they liked them, so music retailers had to stop it.
I discovered a lot of new music in the 1990s by buying a stack and returning some but keeping others.
I think streaming could still be useful for discovery, but once you've discovered a musician/group that you like, pick up a copy of their music outside of streaming so that you can actually own it (even if 'only' MP3/AAC/FLAC/OGG files and not physical media).
Yes! For me, I like that foobar2000 (1) plays Ogg Vorbis files, and (2) will spin itself up as an FTP server on my LAN so I can easily upload music to it.
I am so mad / ashamed that I tossed my big CD book not long ago. Now would be a perfect time to rip those CDs - especially as I am getting into DJ work on the side!
It’s a race to the bottom and I’m done with that.