To download or not to download, that is the question

Yet another semi-rant about music. You've been warned. ;)

Recently, I was reading a article over at Music Tap about a new service called MusicStack. Essentially, it's a clearing house for hard to find tunes, especially if you're looking for used CDs or, better yet, vinyl.

I've only been to the website once or twice. If I spend too much time over there, no doubt I'll find more and more stuff to buy, and my credit card's already groaning at me. Have to back off the spending for a bit. There's still a couple things, gifts mostly, that I want to get for the family, so I'll wait until, oh maybe, June, before I go back and look again.

What got me thinking, however, was the author's comments Compact Discs in this age of digital downloads. He brings up several good points, including that more and more younger people just prefer instant gratification and have a lesser-quality version of the song downloaded in a few minutes, rather than going to the store to get the album, or worse, getting a record through mail order.

Quality issues aside, there's something more...fulfilling...about having a CD. I'm tactile by nature. It's great actually holding the case, fumbling to get the booklet out, and putting the disc in the player. It's a sense of satisfaction, of accomplishment, of actually owning the record instead of just seeing a file magically appear on my computer.

Compact discs may be well on the way of the cassette, the LP, and shudder, the 8-Track. Quite frankly, I still love them (as you well know), and will continue to collect CDs for as long as they're available.

They. Just. Sound. Better. Pure and simple, and yes, I can tell the difference. I'm a music snob, all right? I would LOVE to be able to plunk down the extra cash for a nice set of headphones (preferably Bose, just to see if I can make the Priestess drool) or speakers for my aging system.

I'd love to wire the house for sound, putting surround sound speakers in each room and maybe put in a music server (with a large honkin' hard drive and uncompressed copies of the music files on it, and play 'em all at random), but I still need my CDs. I need the original, the archival copy.

In my younger days, in need of cash, I had to sell off some of my collection. I'm trying to get some of those old discs back, but it's not easy. They're not available. They've been "remastered" and just don't sound as good. They're just generally hard to find. It's a shame, really...some of those discs were good, and now they're lost, probably forever (unless I feel like spending far more than they're worth and get them from a smart collector who didn't sell theirs off).

Music drives me. Music feeds me. Music keeps me sane. I can do without the television, the satellite dish, but I need my tunes, and having my CDs right there, at hand, when I'm ready...it's a satisfying feeling.

I'm one person who shuns this new "digital download" era, and still wants his music the old fashioned way: On a medium I can hold in my hands and play when I want. Please don't take that away from me.