Simon Woods

Just now, over my morning coffee, I’ve been listening to an album from the 70s, deep in the Era of LPs. Fortyish minutes long, twenty-odd minutes to a side.

Robert has been considering the language used between LP and CD, and it immediately made me think of a conversation within this household as of late.

My wife and I have been talking about our plans for music; we’re both in agreement that we need to get CDs back into the home, and she even surprised me by suggesting the addition of vinyl. My memories of the latter are much weaker, though we do have a five-year age gap and she grew up in more of an affluent environment.

My feeling of resistance against streaming and all of its internet-dependent and closed infrastructure has only grown. Given how digital music removes the enforced structure of physical storage (there are no sides in bits, of course) and yet there are still people who apply arbitrary limits on the web, I feel even less inclined to include streaming at all; it just feels dishonest, you know?

At this point I have Apple Music but have set it as no-download, stream online only; it is entirely an option only available whenever I happened to have access to a decent internet connection, and I think that works well since it is now in a distinct and appropriate context.

I’m confident that, at least for now, we’re ready to stay clear of what is bound to be an absolute mess of phrasing within the ever-muddled world of streaming and online music.