June of this year, an intern for NPR's blog All Songs Considered, Emily White, stirred up the music industry with an incredibly controversial post about how she has acquired her 11,000 song music collection over her 20 years on this earth (mostly shared music, purchasing a measly 15 CDs in her life). A flurry of responses to her article from musicians, industry professionals, anyone who had an opinion on the subject surfaced and it got me thinking.
Where do I get my music from?
At-a-glance. I would say 60%* of my collection (digital, CD, vinyl) I bought. via iTunes or record store or at a show or band website, I actually paid for 60% of the music in my collection. Sometimes twice. I paid for Radiohead's, The King Of Limbs once via download when the album came out and once more when the album was released on vinyl. This happens quite often.
*the rest of my collection shakes out to about 25% freebies from work (promotional copies) and 15% burns/sharing files from friends
Of that 60%, I would say 70% was bought off iTunes, leaving a mere 30% of my collection in physical music (mostly vinyl and albums released prior to iTunes or at least prior to me using iTunes).
People just don't buy physical anymore. Obviously, myself included.
So that got me thinking about something else. When did I stop buying CDs? I still regularly buy vinyl, for collection purposes, but when did I stop buying CDs? I had no answer.
And then I decided. Right then and there. No more iTunes. No more digital downloads. No more. Buy physical or don't buy it at all.
The Challenge: For the next year, starting July 1, I am abandoning my iTunes account for purchasing physical albums. No exceptions. I can still listen to music via my iTunes/Spotify accounts, I just can't buy anything from iTunes (or any other digital distributor).
This decision of mine was particularly upsetting yesterday. When I woke from an unbelievable sleep to find out Frank Ocean had decided to release his new album, Channel Orange, via iTunes one week before its physical release date of July 17. I openly wept...
The Gods are cruel. But it's fine. I will wait. I have no choice...
