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
