Reflection on Purchasing Music

TLDR

Last year (2024) I started purchasing music again. My primary motivation at the time was to monetarily support artists. I’ve noticed it has changed the way I’m engaging with music for the better.

Streaming does not support artists

I hope this headline is not controversial, but in case it is, I’ll restate it with more detail: streaming platforms do not monetarily support artists. Streaming is a great way to grow your audience or attract new fans, but most artists do not make any meaningful revenue from streaming royalties. (Of course there are exceptions, I’m interested in the majority case.)

Much like my journey to vegetarianism, this is an issue I’ve been aware of for a long time. But, to use an English idiom, it’s much easier to “sweep it under the rug” than to address hard issues head on.

In 2024, I finally decided to take action by purchasing music that I value. Of course, purchasing music is not a panacea, but I felt it was a good way to start (à la “something is always better than nothing”). I continue to use streaming services for my daily listening, but when an album really strikes me as special, I buy it.

Purchasing music has unexpected benefits

Initially, I didn’t interact with my purchased music very much, but it made me feel good about supporting artists. Slowly that began to shift.

As I accumulated more and more music in my personal library, I found myself listening to my purchased music more and more, and listening to streaming services less and less. There are two primary benefits I’ve found to this:

1. Avoiding a crisis of choice. Streaming services have an amazing catalog of options, but it can be overwhelming to decide what to listen to. If you reduce the number of choices, sometimes it results in a more pleasurable experience.
2. Listening to music more deeply. When I’m streaming, I have a tendency to listen to a lot of new music. The consequence is that I do not revisit old favorites very often. My listening pattern is (predictably) the opposite with purchased music - I spend a lot more time relistening to music I love, which deepens my appreciation for it.

Interestingly, I’ve found myself thinking about albums from earlier in my life that I love but haven’t listened to recently, and thinking that I would enjoy purchasing them (again!) to have in my digital library. Of course all of these albums are available on streaming platforms, but it’s so easy to forget about hidden gems when you’re faced with thousands of options every time you open an app.

I’m not sure how deep I’ll go with this journey, but I’ve enjoyed the ride. It has been a pleasant and somewhat unexpected experience for me and I’ve been grateful that it has kept my listening experience fresh.

If you use a Mac and need an app to listen to purchased music, shout out to Petrichor, I think it’s great!