Owning My Music Again
Over the past few weeks, I dove head-first into the YouTube rabbit hole of the analog life, the personal cloud, less dependency on big tech companies, and more of the like. I've devoured video after video about the topic, which might actually be kind of counterproductive, given that YouTube is one of those big tech giants. Yeah well... You've got to start somewhere, I guess.
One adventurous trail I've found myself on is the one where you own your digital media, more specifically the music you listen to. I've become dependent on music streaming services like Spotify and Qobuz to take care of my daily craving for melodies. But I realized I own nothing when using these platforms, not a single note.
I do have a collection of vinyl records, but I hold myself back and only buy albums from artists I've seen live. Otherwise, it's a hobby that can become quite expensive. But, as you may know, there is another music medium that still exists and actually seems to be growing back in popularity.
CDs.
The positive side of these little silver discs is that they are quite cheap, certainly when you compare them to vinyl, and especially when you buy them second-hand. In local music stores, thrift shops, and on online marketplaces, they often come as cheap as one or two euros for a full album. Happy days!
Now I can play these miracles of music at home. Not on a dedicated CD player, but on my Xbox Series X. I've been tempted by that same YouTube I already mentioned to buy a dedicated player (digital minimalism and single-use devices, you know), but have held myself back successfully until now. The Xbox plays them just fine.
In addition, for my on-the-go listening, I have bought a new device: the FiiO JM21 music player. An MP3 player of old, you could say, but a device with more storage than the one I owned in the zeroes and the ability to play high-resolution music like FLAC.
And I've invested in a PikaPod that runs a Navidrome music server, where the music I bought on CDs and ripped now lives.
The first steps into a more analog and conscious life. The start of something new. And good.