Craig Manning recently shared an article from Matt Schimkowitz of the AV Club in the forums discussing how quitting streaming services helped save the author’s relationship with music:
The albums are the same, but on streaming, there’s no friction between acquiring an album and listening to it. Low-effort acquisition led to low-effort consumption, and as soon as I put even the slightest bit of work into it, I found more to love. Reading liner notes, admiring album art, and loading a CD into the $30 burner we bought after canceling all made a bigger impression than replaying the same tired playlists I would turn to when decision paralysis made choice impossible. After all, a smaller collection is more welcoming to the lost art of letting an album grow on you. If I took the time to seek out music, be it at the library, the record store, or on Bandcamp, I would be more likely to connect with it.
As a whole I enjoyed the piece. The underlying idea is a good one: spending more time with music, letting it grow on you, letting it be a part of your life, and not becoming just a passive listener to music are all good ideas. It’s one of the reasons I love spending time with vinyl records. There’s a part of collecting, of the intentionality of the process of buying a record, spending time with it and only it, that really resonates with me. It reminds me of the joy of getting a new album when I was younger and the entire experience.
But I’m not ready to give up my streaming service just yet.
I still like using it for music discovery and it’s still very much how I do the most of my listening. But I still curate my “Apple Music” collection in a similar way as I did my old iPod/iTunes one. Cleaning up metadata. Collecting extra album tracks and b-sides. And being (trying to be) diligent about what I actually add to my collection. I’ve found just trying to be more present with my music has helped. Giving favorite artists the multiple listens they deserve. Spending time with full albums vs playlists or shuffling tracks. This is how I’ve stayed connected with music over the years.