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Comment by cbdumas | Hacker News Reader

> Physical media is for when you want to really enjoy the music.

Wow this is some condescending, pretentious nonsense. Also, every streaming service I've ever used is perfectly capable of playing an album in order.

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At a minimum they're different experiences.

Sitting down and listening to an album is different to playing your mp3 collection on random. You're listening to a collection of songs, as intended. You're listening to songs that perhaps aren't your first choice and in other circumstances would just skip over, but those songs often turn out to be the 'best' songs. I think there's also something to be said for having the physical disc. It just makes it more deliberate.

I don't think it's a limitation of streaming technology. If anything it's a limitation of physical media. Infinite, zero friction choice doesn't necessarily make us happier though.

Nothing is stopping anyone from listening to whole albums with streaming. I do. It's cultural, not media carrier dependent.

Agreed. I think you're understating the importance of culture though.

You're discounting the value of physically experiencing the media you're consuming. Pretentious or not, it really is a different feeling, something that streaming can't replicate.

For you maybe. It gets pretentious and condescending because obviously it's an important and strong sensation for him, maybe not as important to others. Diminishing someone else's experience of music as being less whole than your own is nonsense.

Enjoy the pleasure's you've found in life, but recognize they're not universal. I would also argue that the experience described has to do in part with nostalgia, since my young nephews feel very passionately about music and have never owned a physical album and I wouldn't dare tell them that an album they've loved or experienced and been moved by was some inferior experience because they listened while staring at their ceilings in their beds rather than looking at a gatefold.

I don't care about physically experiencing musical media. I grew out of that in the 80s when I moved around a lot and had to keep moving multiple boxes of vinyl up and down multiple flights of stairs.

If my FLAC collection was on vinyl I'd have to buy it a house of its own. Moving would require a military budget and a series of strategic planning meetings.

That would rather more physical experience than I care for.

I'm not saying one should listen to vinyl exclusively, I agree that's ridiculous. But it is important to maintain and curate a physical collection of music -- wthether it's vinyl, CDs, FLAC, or MP3, and that is something that streaming makes impossible.

Important to you. Not me

Physically experiencing? You mean the act of placing a record on the player, or something else?

So only the person who touches the album gets the full experience?

Not quite so literally, but yes. Placing the record on the player, admiring/flipping through the album art, passing it around amongst friends, actually caring/worrying about the state of the record player, all sorts of things.

Why the mocking tone?

I wasn't trying to be mocking, just more incredulous. I grew up with albums as our primary source of music, but it was always just put the record on and listen. It was purely functional, being the best way we had to listen to music.

When CDs came out, it was so nice because it was easier to handle and care for.

I guess it is just the strange feeling of someone describing something that was just the functional way of doing something in such a romantic way.

It would be like if someone in the future invents a device that perfectly cleans your teeth in seconds, and someone describes a toothbrush as being this great thing because you can physically scrub your teeth with it.

I only used it because I had to, and was happy something easier came along.

There's definitely a happy medium here which involves all of CDs, streaming and vinyl. I like listening to vinyl records (as I am right now http://oirase.annexia.org/tmp/20190908_183833.jpg) but only because it's a lazy Sunday afternoon. There's a joy (really) to the ritual of getting up and changing the record over, and admiring the 12 x 12 inch artwork. But the rest of the week I'm busy and listening to MP3s off a USB stick.

Exactly. Those of us who grew up with albums aren’t buying them now. We’re intimately familiar with the limitations of that medium. I have zero interest in going back. And this from someone who still buys a lot of music.

I grew up with albums (plus learned to DJ with vinyl) but I also strongly believe in physical ownership and find this rental/streaming model abhorrent. It boils down to feelings and one's relationship with their music

Those of us who grew up with albums aren’t buying them now

I grew up with albums. I even played vinyl on the radio for years. I still buy vinyl now.

Speak for yourself.

This reminds me of the moment where there's always one person in a group who realizes that they are the only one in the group who wipes their ass standing up.

It's a tactile feedback thing, very similar to how physical keyboards are completely different in experience than touchscreens with a keyboard.

I have some newly-released vinyl and cassettes I bought partially for the novelty, partially to support the artists (one artist I listen to releases only on digital and cassette).

I also thought there would be more nostalgia and fun in listening to vinyl, but after 30 seconds I'm now lost in the music and there's absolutely no difference in the medium it's being played on.

Until I hit the end of side A and have to turn the disc over.

(of course I don't want to diminish anyone's enjoyment of what they like - I have the stuff I enjoy doing that others find a waste of time - your statements just come off as too absolute - it's definitely a personal preference!)

There's a middleground: I'm a music collector and enthusiast that maintains a lossless, digital-only library. All the benefits of truly owning music, including rare releases not available on any streamign service, with the convenience of a digital medium stored on my NAS and online (as a backup).

Obviously when it comes to rare music I have to buy and rip vinyl and CDs from time to time, but I couldn't care less about the physical medium or romanticizing nostalgic rituals. I care about the music. If I want to read background information and liner notes my iPad is always close by.

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