CDs: via mutednarayan's photostream
One thing I’ve noticed is that nowadays I can buy a used, but in prefect condition, physical CD and have it cost me less than it would to buy the same album in MP3 format on iTunes or Amazon.
For someone like me this is a big deal because of the relationship I have with the CD as an object. What do I mean by that? Good question. I mean, that during my formative adolescent years, when I was working my way through the muck that psychologist Erik Erikson would call the identity VS role confusion crisis and figuring out what sort of person I wanted to be, I used the music I listened to as a way to define who and what I was. Which should be no surprise because damn near every adolescent has done and continues to do this.
However, when I was a kid, broadband internet access was a luxury that most people my age could not afford. There were no iPods, and if you were to ask ten people if they had ever heard of a MP3, 9.5 of them would have responded by saying “A dot M P what?” i.e. the CD was really the only act in town. I remember frequently paying more than $20.00 to gain a CD. I remember thinking that a CD burner was a gift something akin to Sisyphus stealing fire from the gods, I remember having to drive all over creation to find imports and rare singles.
Record companies loved this set up, and they became feasted on the money of consumers to such a point where they had an obesity problem.
Over the weekend I stopped in at Reckless Records near Chicago’s loop with the intention of finding something interesting. I had no idea what that was going to be, but I was sure that I would know it when I saw it. I picked up the album That Lucky Old Sun by Brian Wilson (of The Beach Boys fame). The cut that I bought came with the album and a DVD that had some cool bonus stuffs on it, and it cost me $8.99 before tax.
As I walked out of that shop, with an album literally in my hands I felt a like I was participating in a ritual that has been such an important part of my defining who and what I am. It was a deeply satisfying feeling.
Don’t Get Me Wrong:
I’m not saying that I hate MP3s, mind you, because nothing could be further from the truth. I fucking love MP3s, as evidenced by how many I have sitting on my hard drives (yes, that is drives, plural), and how much time and money I’ve spent acquiring said MP3 files. What I am saying is there is something about going to a record shop, taking a look around, finding something awesome, and walking out with it in your hands. That something is not a something that I can get from buying an album as MP3 files, or downloading an album via BitTorrent.
Jut sayin’.
Tags: .mp3, albums, Amazon, BitTorrent, Brian Wilson, CD, Chicago, Compact Disc, Erik Erikson, getting older, iTunes, music, Reckless REcords, That Lucky Old Sun, The each Boys