Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Does anyone still 'collect' music (i.e. keep locally stored copies in some kind of organized database, regardless of format) in the current age of ubiquitous streaming?
I assume that Spotify (and the rest) has all but killed the idea of 'keeping' music on your local computer or phone amongst the youth.
As someone who has a music collection going back to when I first started obsessively ripping CDs to my PC in my teens, I find that I mostly keep doing it through force of habit, and the slight fear that things I like might disappear. Some of the older files in my collection are hard or impossible to find online these days. But with so many different streaming options and, now, an AI that can produce radio-quality music in seconds it seems like there's really no point to keeping a large local music collection unless its related to your career in some way.
So if you DO still store music locally, what are your reasons and methods?
I got my first MP3 player in about 2004, and never changed technology for listening to music. To this day I still use SanDisk MP3 players daily. My reasoning for doing this is:
1.) I like being able to listen to music without being tied to my phone. I can put my phone away, or not take it with me, and still listen to music. The MP3 players have long battery life and are pretty tough, but are also inexpensive; so I can take them into any situation and not worry about them.
2.) I desperately hate advertisements, so during the phase of my life where I didn't have much money, using ad-supported streaming services held no interest for me.
3.) I listen to a lot of really obscure music. For track which I got from some individual's Bandcamp, or from a private sharing forum, the MP3 player is the most practical option.
In terms of organization, though, I don't really have that. I just know where everything is, and if I forget, I find it using Everything.
https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/
I read a book a while back that suggested when it comes to computers, almost ZERO actual organization/sorting is needed if you have a sufficiently powerful search engine.
I don't really buy it completely, but I do often find that organizational schemas that made sense for me at the time become less scrutable later, so when I try and find, say, some videos I saved from a vacation in 2014, it's just 'easier' to sort by date and manually check files than to even try to remember the folder I stuck them in.
Music has lots of automated tools for sorting, so I've remained diligent in that respect.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link