In the age of streaming services and downloads, why would anyone buy CDs these days? I love music and have been collecting CDs for as long as I can remember. While I appreciate the convenience of streaming services and downloading songs on albums, I buy most of my music on CD. There's just something special about physically owning music that digital music just can't compare to. You can hold a CD in your hands. You can take out the booklet and read the lyrics exactly how the artist wanted them. You can play them in your CD player with a much better sound than what comes out of your phone. There's something just so satisfying to me when I buy a CD in store or I get one in the mail. I actually have to wait until that trip to Newbury Comics or until my Amazon package comes in to actually put that music on my phone. The instant gratification of streaming and downloads takes away the excitement of waiting until you can get your hands on an album. Although paying $10 a month for Apple Music or Spotify Premium is probably cheaper than buying every CD for $10-15 a piece, I can't just give up on CDs. Over the years I've built up a collection of over 120 CDs. I've gotten CDs for Christmas and my birthday for several years in a row. There's always something new on my list. Every time I discover a new artist or an artist I love puts out a new album, I have to get it. Everyone collects something, I collect CDs. Even though I collect CDs, I still listen to music primarily on my phone. Most laptops don't come with a CD drive anymore so I actually spent $80 on an external drive so I could keep putting CDs on my computer and then on my phone. It's not that I listen to music in a CD player that often, it's just that I like getting my music in physical form. I obviously can't bring my big CD player to college but when I'm home you know I'll be jamming my favorite albums.

Don't get me wrong, streaming and downloads have their purpose, it's just not my primary way of obtaining music. I use Spotify to find new music and I keep it in my playlist until I can buy it. I also use Spotify for when an artist releases a single before the whole album comes out. I have that song to listen to and then I buy the full CD so I can experience the album completely. I also buy songs on iTunes when I know for a fact they don't exist in physical form. This includes albums that are too rare/expensive/not in physical form, singles that aren't attached to a bigger album, and most EPs (unless I really love an artist it's not really important to me to have a CD with 5 songs on it).

If you were curious (you're probably not), here's my CD collection (by artist):

Against the Current: In Our bones

All Time Low: So Wrong It's Right, Nothing Personal, Straight to DVD, Dirty Work, Don't Panic, Don't Panic: It's Longer Now!, Future Hearts, Last Young Renegade

Backstreet Boys: Millennium

Bad Seed Rising: Charm City, A Place Called Home, Awake In Color

Beautiful Bodies: Battles

Bring Me the Horizon: Sempiternal

Cherri Bomb: This Is the End of Control

The Color Morale: Know Hope, Hold On Pain Ends, Desolate Divine

Counting Crows: This Desert Life

Courage My Love: Becoming, Synesthesia

Crown the Empire: The Fallout, The Resistance: Rise of the Runaways, Retrograde

A Day to Remember: What Separates Me from You

Don Broco: Automatic

Echosmith: Talking Dreams

Flight of the Conchords: Flight of the Conchords

Flyleaf: Flyleaf, Memento Mori, Remember to Live, New Horizons

fun.: Some Nights

HalfNoise: Sudden Feeling

Halsey: Badlands, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom

Hands Like Houses: Ground Dweller, Unimagine, Dissonants

Icon for Hire: Scripted, Icon for Hire, Icon for Hire EP, You Can't Kill Us

Jule Vera: Friendly Enemies, Waiting on the Sun

Kesha: Animal/Cannibal, Warrior, Rainbow

Adam Lambert: For Your Entertainment, Trespassing, The Original High

Avril Lavigne: Let Go, Under My Skin, The Best Damn Thing, Goodbye Lullaby, Avril Lavigne

Lil BUB: Science and Magic: A Soundtrack to the Universe

Lorde: Pure Heroine, Melodrama

Demi Lovato: Don't Forget (deluxe), Demi, Confident

Memphis May Fire: Challenger

My Chemical Romance: Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, The Black Parade, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

New Years Day: Victim to Villain, Malevolence

*NSYNC: No Strings Attached

Our Last Night: Age of Ignorance

Panic! at the Disco: A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, Pretty Odd, Vices and Virtues, Too Weird To Live Too Rare To Die, Death of a Bachelor

Paramore: All We Know Is Falling, RIOT!, The Final RIOT!, Brand New Eyes, Paramore, After Laughter

Pierce the Veil: A Flair for the Dramatic, Selfish Machines, Collide with the Sky, This Is a Wasteland, Misadventures

The Pretty Reckless: Light Me Up, Hit Me Like A Man EP, Going to Hell, Who You Selling For

PVRIS: White Noise, All We Know of Heaven All We Need of Hell

Relient K: Forget and Not Slow Down

R5: Louder, Sometime Last Night

Sainte: Smile and Wave

Set It Off: Cinematics, Duality, Duality: Stories Unplugged EP, Upside Down

Sleeping with Sirens: Let's Cheers To This

Stars in Stereo: Stars in Stereo, Leave Your Mark

State Champs: The Finer Things, The Acoustic Things EP, Around the World and Back

Stitched Up Heart: Never Alone

The Summer Set: Legendary, Stories for Monday

Tonight Alive: What Are You So Scared Of?, What Are You So Scared Of? (acoustic), The Other Side, Limitless

Too Close to Touch: Nerve Endings, Haven't Been Myself

The Veronicas: The Secret Life Of..., Hook Me Up, The Veronicas

VersaEmerge: Fixed At Zero

We Are the In Crowd: Best Intentions, Weird Kids

With Confidence: Better Weather

You Me At Six: Take Off Your Colours, Hold Me Down, Sinners Never Sleep, Cavalier Youth, Night People