The Realm of Physical Music

The last week has unearthed some interesting anecdotes about music for me - a topic that I think about a great deal. Not so much the actual sound but what the changing nature of the interaction with it means for us. Obviously, Apple Music stands to be a big deal - a streaming music service that takes on the likes of Spotify/Rdio, Pandora and Soundcloud all at once. It's ambitious and it could be a dud but it's also entirely possible it's a huge hit.

This tweet from Robert Ashley got me thinking about my own personal interaction with it tho, and why I continue to buy and create vinyl, despite it being a huge money sink. This sums it up - "streams are ephemeral, noncommittal." It's not a debate about quality or quanity, it's about a methodology that forces you to pay attention. I'm not claiming that people listening to streaming services can't (or don't) do this but I can't.

So, all that is to say, check out this article that talks about various vinyl collectors and their relationships with the physical medium. The headline is clickbait but the contents are worth a read through.