A Current (Kinda) State on Music

I'm gonna be honest, music hasn't really changed much in terms of technology since we always rapidly improve on the previous iterations. But now, it seems to be that (some) people are realizing how they can finally take control of the music they listen to, rather than spending money on a monthly subscription or being bought by $1 offers from Spotify; I noticed a lot of my friends have been downloading music which isn't an entirely new concept by the way, but it feels like we've transitioned to a point in life where wee MUST pay for everything we use. 

That we can't own games anymore because they're LICENSES (well, it does make sense for digital titles that are on steam, etc), but physical ones like the Switch 2 having a "digital format" is outright.. crazy. It makes sense to sell music in albums, vinyls, cassette tapes, cds but to constantly be bombarded with ads or have musics be delisted (in some instances, banned for whatever reasons; trust me I can't listen to Flower Boy for some reason on Spotify). Some services tell me to upgrade my account or whatever for BETTER audio quality, okay company needs to make money somehow but to downgrade my experience because a cashflow is needed to keep operations going is a big no for me, like having simple features (Crossfade, Gapless Playback, etc) locked when I can find music library apps for free on github that gives me it for free is well, baffling.
"But don't use Spotify if you don't want to support them" I won't, even seeing AI music existing on Spotify without any repercussions makes me want to just shut my ears forever. I won't be supporting that type of slop, AI is funny sometimes but it also kills off creativity and imagination made by actual artists, not people who think they're "artists" just because they can write a prompt. I might as well make my own music to prove that it's better than AI.

Okay, so we understand the problem; how do we fix it? Simple, physical media! MP3/Cassette/CD Players exist, and NOW we introduce ANOTHER problem! Demand. Seriously, people back then in the 70/80/90s had it easier when purchasing a Sony Walkman or any type of device, even IF the economy back then was completely different from ours! It's like an in-between, yes the economy back then was inflated but now the economy right now makes that inflation more inflated than ever. It was pricey but goodness gracious did it last for as long as it took. With demand means bigger prices, but of course you can just get a cheap outsourced product made from china and not care any less about quality which is valid honestly, but now people are reselling older stuff for higher the price than they originally were (SOMETIMES—I know there are like garage sales in the U.S or like your local thrift store or whatever where you can get it for way way way cheaper because the people selling them knows the value but wants others to experience it or because they quite literally don't know their value) and THEN you have people finding those said items are RESELLING IT, I hate those types of people that just sell stuff because it makes them more money on ebay or wherever, but for people outside the U.S (like me) have it tough.

I live in a country where the economy sucks, and the resell value on some marketplace sites are way higher, can't buy from ebay without seeing an insane shipping fee, or maybe looking at refurbished items on amazon but at the same time being paranoid of getting a counterfeit model or a completely broken device (which has happened to me when I tried buying a Sony XM4 headphones, I since returned it and got my refund thankfully), so now having a hobby feels expensive, considering getting a job feels harder with AI being the "NEXT big thing" (which it is, but is starting to get now in a bad way), freelancing gets hard for me as well.

Everyone wants to be apart of a culture but also that same group will have people that want to gatekeep that culture, that same culture also increases a demand for things that make that culture it's own thing. There's no "posers", there's just people who either want to be apart of something or just needs someone to share their thing even with their lack of knowledge on that culture (like skater culture-). But honestly, everyone wants to buy MP3 players increases the price for everything, not a bad thing, just sad it had to resort to this because everything has a limited quantity. Nothing lasts forever, it does, but not everything.

As of lately, I've been thinking of buying a Sony Xperia phone (NOT the newer ones, only the older models from 2012/2013) which might've replaced the Sony Walkman app (Yes, it existed) because of new android versions. I also recently bought a Sony MDR-A35 from a nice fella who sold it to me for 35 bucks and it's quite nice because it was originally for the Walkman (I think). Right now I'll just be rocking my Sony WH-CH720N (entry-level headphones with a customizable EQ/Equalizer) and my Sony MDR ZX110AP (budget-tier headphones with a more flat tone). But I will also be using my earphones sometimes, especially with the MDR-A35's I bought because why not! Even if the quality isn't good, the experience feels good to me and that's all that matters-

Also I'm buying that Xperia Z1 just to be able to use Spacehey on a completely outdated model lmao

I have like 4,000 songs, I think I can classify myself as a musicophile lol—on my current samsung phone with a 64gb sd card (I could've gotten a better size but I was on a budget okay!) and I'm buying a new phone just to transfer those so I don't have to worry about my phone storage (I use my phone for freelancing work sometimes, especially for graphic designing). Thinking of buying a FLAC/MP3 player one day when I have the budget for that OR perhaps a Sony Ericsson (If you can tell, I love Sony). I also need to find a disc player because I have SO many CDs lying around in a duffel bag, which my mom was gonna throw away but thank GOD that I stopped her because physical media has never been so "endangered", I have a Beatles compilation CD- that's a flex! I think... 

guh, that's all.. token out