Every cloud has a silver lining. Or (more accurately) a threshold were storage stops being free. Why CD's should never die.

Being a responsible music owner is hard nowadays.  When I was a teenager all I needed to store and backup my music collection was the bottom of my wardrobe and and a steady supply of TDK 90s.  Fast forward to the current means I operate on and that prehistoric system seems all the more enticing a throw back to quickly return to.

I have a music library that takes up a mere 25gb of my precious PC hard drive.  Firstly I purchased an annual subs to Amazon, (yeah wait outside and get me as I leave the building guys) and for £22 a year (currently) I can store unlimited quantities of music as long as I pay up every year.  Now Dr Faustus I am not, I accept that I have not signed away my mp3 collection in exchange for my life should I ever decide an external hard drive is smarter means to store them. Mephistopheles will not appear and tear me apart for my soul as I transfer files to my 1TB portable device I very much doubt.  But it does irk me that I have to trust the safety of my FLACS' and MP3s to a large multi-national organisation because I lack the patience and genuine intelligence to pay a bit extra and still buy CD's.

I even burn CD's to my library FFS!  WHY??? I have a perfectly functional CD player in almost every room of my house! It's like buying a book and photocopying every page just in case I lose it or drop it down the toilet whilst crimping that bit too much when stooling.  Granted CD Walkman's where a terrible idea in comparison with MP3 players or mobile phones (you couldn't even breathe too hard for fear of skipping/ scratching your favourite CD, I spent most of the 90's taking twice as long as I needed to get anywhere I was going as a result of this rather limited range of movement).  But, I still only get to ever physically handle (yes touch) about 20% of the music I actually own!  The rest sits on a server being looked after by someone I will never know or meet.

There is a reason why only certain people get to look after my cats when I am away.  By comparison I should actually think long and hard about how I actually store all my hard earned purchases a little more carefully.  I am all for modern technology and the development of new things but somethings are just better done the old way.

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