Member-only story
Listening to Vinyl
I like to think I’m immune to trends, but when compact discs were coming into fashion (circa ‘83-’84) I started replacing my vinyl. I went from buying two albums every payday to buying two compact discs. Eventually my CD collection outnumbered my vinyl collection, and sometime in the late ’80s, I gave up my vinyl collection. I don’t remember how or to whom, but I was tired of moving them. My CD collection had ballooned to more than fill two six and a half feet shelves we bought from IKEA.
When my parents started downsizing, they gave me their 200 CD player, and I loaded it up and stored the empty cases either on the shelves or in a milk crate on a shelf in the backroom. This turned out to be a mistake because it didn’t take too long for me to not know what was actually in the player and despite my best intentions, there are many CDs that I really have no intention of listening too again.
Eventually I stopped buying CDs for the most part because when streaming music started picking up (circa 2001) I subscribed to Rhapsody then migrated to Napster after it bought Rhapsody then finally settled on Amazon Music and have now added Qobuz to the list as well. Yes, I subscribe to 2 different music services. Qobuz brags about streaming better (CD quality) sound. I have a streak of audiophile in me.
