Yes – It Is 2019 and We Should Still Be Buying Albums [OPINION]

Maybe I’m just a sucker for nostalgia, but I refuse to let CDs die. I refuse to sit in silence as the value of music in its prime form is nearly eliminated. The experiences and memories that come with purchasing and playing a musical compact disk is something that this generation cannot murder.

With on-demand streaming services taking over the music industry, many consumers ask the question – do we really need to buy CDs? When you have all the music you could ever want at the touch of screen, do we still need them?

Absolutely. CDs are more than just a medium to consume music through. While, of course, that’s the whole point of them, just purchasing and holding a physical CD hold so much value on its own.

I’ve been a consumer of CDs for pretty much my entire life. With a collection that hit its peak at over 100 albums, I could probably tell you my experience in purchasing and obtaining every single one. From doing miscellaneous chores to save up for the newest Love and Theft album to begging my mom to drive me to Target right after school to buy One Direction’s “Up All Night”, being able to purchase physical albums becomes about so much more than just the music.

One of my favorite memories (and the one that inspired this entire column) comes from when I was a junior in high school. Harry Styles had just released his debut solo album, and I needed it. The only issue was no one was willing to drive me to Target to get it, so I had to drive myself which, at the time, was the biggest challenge for me. I had only driven once or twice alone before this, but I was determined.

Amazingly, the drive was the least eventful part of this story. Everything kicked off when I decided that on the way home from the store I wanted to listen to the CD. So, without second thought, I popped the CD into the radio of my dad’s decade old Jeep Liberty. Upon my arrival home, I went to take back the CD, but the Jeep was not giving it up. Panic started to settle in, but by like the fifth time pressing the “eject” button, the car decided to give me back my precious cargo. Not to be dramatic, but I thought I was going to pass out from the stress.

But no matter how terrorizing that story may seem, it made me appreciate the CD. It gave me a story to go with the CD that stretched way beyond its music. This one experience, for how scary it may have been in the moment, gave me a memory that pulling up a streaming service and pressing “play” never could.

I promise, though, happier memories can be created, especially if that adrenaline inducing story isn’t your cup of tea.

Buying a CD on a whim can sometimes be the most rewarding experience. You’re taking a chance on something, and statistically speaking it shouldn’t go all that great, but times come where the stars align just right.

This happened to me when I went out to buy Taylor Swift’s debut album. All I knew about her was that she was a country artist and her song “Tim McGraw” was constantly stuck in my head. So, I just got her album at Walmart.

The music was absolutely wonderful, and truly fresh for a genre that was male-dominated, but there was also something just special about the item itself. The disc came packaged with a lyric booklet (as they all usually do) but within the lyrics, something stood out. Some random letters in words were capitalized. For example, the word “and” may look like “aNd.” When put together, the capital letters revealed a message about each song.

This was unlike anything I had ever seen before. This actually helped me appreciate the music from some newbie on the scene. To have this much care and dedication for your songs was so fascinating to see. This really was something you would never, ever be able experience without purchasing the CD. You’d, essentially, be missing out on the whole story. The music, disc, packaging… everything just become one to make a cohesive album.

Sure, it’s easy to just pay $10/month and get all this music at the touch of a button, but you aren’t really experiencing the music. The care and dedication for songs goes out the window with streaming services, and the consumers settle for mindless tunes.

With CD’s, I believe you are forced to enjoy a whole production. There’s the adventure to buying the CD, then the enjoyment of it on the way home, then the life you begin to create with it when you become obsessed with it.

There so much more to an album than just the music, and you cannot recreate any of it by opening Spotify and hitting “shuffle.” With these services, music is turning into some “fast fashion” kind of thing where we constantly want music because we can just have it. You don’t even have to put out albums now. It can just be a string of singles and you’ll make as much as you would normally.

That’s a scary thing. No one is taking the time to appreciate the music, to even want to understand the story albums are meant to tell. The love and the care shown before is slowly drifting away, and that’s not fair.

Consumers are missing out on a whole world of recollections or experiences purchasing a little round disc of plastic packaged with a lyric booklet can bring. It’s like taking time to smell the roses.