While everyone’s going mad for White Lotus at the moment, my favourite telly programme is Sort Your Life Out. Each week, Stacey Solomon and her friends descend on a chaotic family home and impose order. Although this format isn’t new, what I find refreshing is the completely non-judgemental tone. Our lives get messy and this is reflected in our immediate environment. This week’s family had accumulated hundreds of CDs, which Stacey encouraged them to offload in favour of streaming. But does it make sense to rent music?
I subscribed to Spotify a few years ago. When they sent me the ‘year in review’ email in December, I made an annoying discovery: I’d listened to just two albums repeatedly, both of which I already owned on CD. In other words, I’d paid £120 to rent them. I guess you could argue that the artists (Skunk Anansie and Queensrÿche) got paid twice, but it’s still not a smart move. In the olden days, i.e. about 25 years ago, I’d copy my CDs to an iPod when I wanted to listen to music on the bus. Although it’s possible to do something similar with an iPhone and Apple Music, you still have to pay a subscription – even to listen to the music you own.
It’s not that I don’t want to pay for music, I just want to ensure that a fair amount goes to the artist, rather than to large corporations. Despite my best efforts, I haven’t discovered a platform that offers a good range of music and rewards the creators fairly. I’ve decided to keep buying CDs, directly from the artist where possible, then create mixtapes for my phone. This feels more ethical, plus I’m not going to lose my music collection if my internet connection goes tits up. And I’m not renting stuff I already own in the name of “convenience”. Physical CDs are also less damaging to the environment than repeated streaming. Admittedly, my shelves are looking quite full, but perhaps Stacey Solomon will come and sort me out if things get too bad.
This post is part of the Tiny Experiments series.