> accessible music and physical media

hi..... so i havent really been on here too much because im a busy college student and whatnot... but!! something that i wanted to talk about is how i have been taking the time to slowly accumulate secondhand CDs by perusing thrift shops and facebook marketplace since i've been hearing a lot of rumors about spotify adding ads to their premium plan which makes me incredibly upset, even if it is just rumors.

i have been using spotify for almost a decade, first with their student plan back when i was in middle school after i got sick of the "want a break from the ads" bullshit. however, once the price for students kept increasing and the hulu access that was bundled with the plan changed to include ads, i switched over to a family account that i split with a few of my friends.

i love music!! but oh my god the recent rise of "digital media you buy / pay for isnt actually yours and can disappear anytime" that companies with subscription plans are starting to transition to is such a scam! and with more news coming out about how spotify doesnt compensate small artists properly, i have been inclined to start collecting physical music myself.

it's so sad that vinyls are so expensive... i have an artic monkeys AM vinyl and system of a down toxicity vinyl that i was gifted, but i cant play them since i dont have a record player and they are expensive to buy first hand. also, collecting vinyls is already expensive itself, with new ones being $35-55 where i live. im a poor college student bruh i cant invest that kind of money, but i would love to once i have a nice cushy job in the future hopefully! on the other hand, CDs are way cheaper, and you can also pirate music if you have the tools to do so.

since they're more accessible, i have been trying to increase my CD collection instead of focusing on vinyls! i found a CD player on facebook marketplace that can play 5 CDs which was such a cool find!! i also thrifted a daughtry CD and a soundbar for the CD player at goodwill (there were none at my local thrift shops so i went to goodwill... not ideal but country girls make do).

i also found my dad's old burner, blank CDs, and scratched jewel cases laying around and have been slowly making my own mixes to play! it's so fun making the jewel case inserts for all the mixes on canva, i havent felt this creatively inspired in a while LOL. i inserted a photo of what my very first one looks like :333 it's all late 2000s christian / divorced dad rock though since i used to watch a ton of emo anime AMVs back in the day...

to me, if feels like having physical CDs in my hands and having to manually change them out of the player when i listen to music in my room makes me more mindful of what i am listening to and gives me a better appreciation of the music in the process :)

if anyone is reading this, i highly encourage collecting physical media if you can (especially secondhand)!! whether that be movies on DVD/VHS or game cartridges, having something you can hold in your hand is both cool and a snub to greedy companies that profit off of scummy subscription models.


- kain

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