Physical music doesn’t sound better, but it is yours.
This past Saturday, April 12, was Record Store Day, an annual event that gives independent music retailers across the country exclusive access to new releases on vinyl and CD. This event is a great chance for music stores to get a nice boost in sales and for any music lovers to get their hands on rare releases or limited edition collectibles. But, more importantly, it emphasizes something that the average consumer has forgotten:
You should be buying physical music.
I mean it. Vinyl, CD, even cassette. You should be buying physical music and you should be listening to it. That’s the only ethical way to support artists and to indulge in music in a day and age where artists are no longer getting paid for their creations, and are relying on streaming services simply for popular support.
For instance, I bought a record this weekend, Harvey Danger’s “King James Version.” This band is long past its prime, with few people even knowing that they had a second album (or even a third). They get a fair few Spotify streams off of their one-hit wonder, but even the lead singer of the band admits they haven’t seen a cent of Spotify’s money despite the over 160 million streams they have accumulated. But in releasing a record, physical media, they were able to give their fans something new, with fresh art, liner notes, essays, unreleased demos, recently uncovered live recordings and more, over 25 years after the band first put out this commercially failed cult classic. Fans were able to support not only the band, but Barsuk Records as well, the independent record label that has few artists to its name and relies solely on physical sales to continue allowing new artists to record and release their music. And of course, the independent record store, Soundcheck Records, over in Jim Thorpe, PA, was able to make some money as well.
Of course, there is piracy, though I have to expressly say that the Bucknellian does not endorse this illegal option that is extremely easy to do. I want to make it clear that I am not against piracy (though the Bucknellian is). Go pirate those rare recordings (which the Bucknellian does not want you to do), the only-sold-once live album, the music you would have listened to on Spotify anyway (because sure as heck none of the cents from Spotify are ever getting back to your favorite artists). That said, if you have the money and the ability, you should be buying the music. And not buying the MP3 from Amazon, who can take it away from you without refunding your money as soon as they lose the rights, but by buying the CD and having the music on demand for the rest of your life. It’s not hard to hook a disc drive up to your laptop and scan the media into your native music app, for easy accessibility without the disc.
I could go on about the benefits of physical media for days, such as the art you get, the liner notes, the lyric sheets, the bad photos of the bands in outfits that are dated by the time it hits the shelves or even the fact it sounds better (which is debatable, but people argue about it constantly). All the fun stuff that makes owning and collecting music so great. But it all pales in comparison to the fact that our current system of streaming is making it harder for independent artists to make money. So go buy stuff, feel good about owning it and feel good about supporting artists.