I bought some vinyl today. I have every CD I’ve ever purchased. I ripped them to lossless and have them in the cloud.
This feels like angry wanking because these things are choices.
I have no hopes of ever recovering tapes and some CDs I lost beyond my control over the years. Shit like flooding and had to evacuate.
Now if there’s a song that I actually love, I’d copy it to a hard disk rather than have it at the mercy of the streaming service. Then archive them as mix discs.
Still Pirating After All These Years… and that’s a reference to a song all you young uns never heard of. BTW: held on to every piece of vinyl.
As a millennial, I had the same path through media just without starting at vinyl. You apparently chose to throw your shit out, I’ve still got all of it and converted most to digital formats. Fuck a subscription though.
that’s just one aspect that ties into the real problem: we had so much ‘fuck the man’ and anti-corporate horseshit shoveled into our mouths, and look how the world turned out–it’s a corporate, gentrified hellhole.
not every gen-xer became ‘the man.’
but a sizable portion of the straight-laced, 100k a year set feel it on some level. the despair of 2026 america isn’t limited to certain demographics; when there’s a perpetual storm you’re bound to get wet even if you have an umbrella.
I’m mad that a CD selling for 15 bucks has 20 bucks shipping attached to it.
I’m gen-x. This ain’t no problem for me. I don’t pay for a subscription to listen to music. I’ve known where to find music since the summer of 99. I’m not worried about any of that nonsense in life. I’m mad that I’m more than likely not going to get health coverage, social security, or friggin retire for that matter. I may not even make it to that golden age even. Especially with how my health has declined over the last 4 years. 45 was a trip yall. Ain’t no lie.
Also, I was bit young at the time for a record collection. I remember them of course. But I never owned any. So all I had known was Cassette Tapes til probably around 1996 or so when I finally got a CD player. Then, Napster happened and I never looked back. Fuck em. I got a 500Gb USB Drive with thousands of Albums on it still.
Sorry I don’t mean to be buzzkill or “Pooolltical”… sheesh. But yeah I see shit like this, and I’m like “Hah! This is the least of my damn worries!”. I steal music. Fuck em. Peace!.. also Fuck Gen-X… We suck.
Me, the millinial who bought all your “old” records, tapes, CDs, VHS tapes, and who has pirated digital files since digital piracy was born: kingbugsbunny.jpg
The gasp I released caused my roommates worry. Then they saw the post.
They sold their shit. They helped make this happen.
Somebody should teach Gen X to pirate
My 40TB of booty disagree with you lol
Any leads on storage that isn’t batshit insane in price now? I’ve got around 25TB, but a lot of it is backups that I can’t effectively sort through without some more space to shift things around in.
I swear man, I just need 10 more TB and then I’ll go clean! I can stop anytime I want!
The best deal i have found currently are refurbished Exos X22 drives on amazon, 22TB at around 600€.
https://www.amazon.de/Seagate-Exos-22TB-Interne-Festplatte/dp/B0DFDTPR74/261-1020346-7737764?psc=1
For music you don’t need that much space, even in FLAC (lossless) encoding.
Well, these days it can get pretty expensive for that storage. But yeah, I’ve got like 59k tracks, nearly 6k albums on my NAS in FLAC, it takes up just over 1.5 TB. And FLAC is just great quality, in some cases better than the old CDs I used to buy when you can find it in 24-bit/48Khz or 24/96.
Gen X and I haven’t paid a music company since 1998, but music has been mostly shit since then, and the constant string of economic collapses left me unable to buy at full price even if I wanted to.
Side note, that’s really why we’re pissed off. We’re the ones who figured out the game was rigged from the start, and that we’d be forced to play it without ever having the numbers to affect real change.
yeah I swear Im closer to the teenerage Xer stereotype now than I was as a teen.
And I thought I was so clever encoding everything in 256K for my minidisc player…
No, you didn’t. Your old records still work. I have some that were bought by my deceased grandparents that still work fine. Maybe not all your old tapes work, but the ones that do will still play if you have a player. Old CDs may just now be starting to rot, but you’ve been able to rip them to files for 30 fucking years now so your own choice not to do that was a choice.
You can still use all of those older formats as long as you have the hardware still. That’s always been the case. External disc drives for computers are like $30. I have a cheap “modern victrola” record player that also plays tapes, CDs, AM/FM radio, and can be used as a Bluetooth speaker. Was like $60. It’s not great at any of it, but it’s more than passable. “I chose to throw away my record collection and now I’m making it everyone’s problem!”
iTunes still supports adding external music files to your library. On Android you can just toss them in a folder on it and use one of hundreds of music players to listen to them.
It might not be as convenient as picking whatever you want from the internet and getting it on demand, but none of the old ways were ever forcibly removed from you. Getting rid of what you needed to use them them was a personal choice.
There are no streaming exclusive music releases to miss out on.
The issue is that you want the benefits and convenience of the modern options without the drawbacks. Well, everyone wants the good without the bad, so deal with it.
It is easier than ever to get whatever music you want in whatever format you want it in, and easier than ever to get it for free, and easier than ever to discover new music you might like based off what you already know you like.
It is easier than ever to keep using old formats. It is easier than ever to convert off old formats if you desire.
So you’re just complaining that things change over time? Welcome to life.
TL;DR- Skill issue
You didn’t have to…
