Music Collections.

I started buying music around the time of my 14th birthday back in February 1980, and I built up a large collection of vinyl over the next 14 years. Albums, 7inch and 12 inch singles are on display on shelves in my home, but never played anymore. That doesn't matter, though, because I like the fact I have 14 years of music on vinyl that meant something to me over that period of my life. I would sell most of it if anybody was still interested in buying vinyl, but I am content to have it remain in my posession forever for nostalgic reasons.

With vinyl dying out around 1994, I concentrated thereafter on buying compact discs, of which I also have a large collection. I have sold many cds at Ebay over the past few years, but I still have a large cd collection I am proud to have bought over the last 20 plus years. I still play the majority of my cds that all sit quietly in the corner of my living room. I can show anybody who is interested that this is the music collection I have proudly built up over the past 3 decades.

Of course, the next step on from cds is mp3 downloading from the internet. Have I taken that step and "kept up with the times?" No! An emphatic no. I want the music I buy to be physically in my hands after I have paid for it. The clear plastic case with a booklet inside so I can read information about the item I have bought. I want to slide it into my cd player and listen to it. After listening to it, I want to file it away in my music collection, so I can pick it up again and play it whenever I want.

Can you do any of this with a mp3 music file? Of course not. It sits there on your computer or on your ipod, simply as something you click on to play. Nothing to look at or touch... just an anonymous file hiding away on a device. How can you show off your modern music collection now? Of course not. All you can do is show them a screen with a list of titles on it. A music collection of no character or special memories of when and where you bought the music. Soulless. The modern age of Hard Drive Music Collections.

It could be argued it's better having thousands of music files in one compact device than many cds lying about cluttering up the place. Not for me. I want to physically see my music collection, and not have it sit anonymously in my computer. I will not be converted, thank you very much.