I cancelled my Spotify account some time ago due to a band I liked at the time (Thank You Scientist) having their catalogue dropped making me realize that I do, in fact, own nothing -- but I was not happy about it.
During a trip back to my parents a couple of years ago I found an old CD binder of mine that was packed full of old music that I thought I had lost, so I took that home with me and started the slow process of ripping music to my hard drive. Foregoing MP3 I decided to rip them as WAVs since I have a big disk and a pair of Sony M4s and it was like a new sonic universe had been opened to me.
I have about 200 CDs in my collection now, a lot of them old ones that I did end up losing but repurchasing. There's apparently a niche enough market for them that some arbitrage can happen. For instance, using Amazon as a spot market I found a CD for $5 used at a local book store that sells for $40 minimum at Bezosland (Dance Gavin Dance - Mothership for those curious). My mom has also come in clutch, finding Drive Like Jehu - Yank Crime at some flea market local to her and throwing it into my Christmas stocking last year.
I can't stress the quality of the music with a good set of headphones and a lossless rip. And best of all I own this music forever.
We must be roughly the same era. Loved napster at college. Kazaa? eMule?
I remember one year at college there was a job fair, and one company was giving out USB thumb drives. Probably like 8mb or 16mb or something. Awesome!
People were waiting in line like 20+ minutes just to get one.
Truly the glory days of the Internet.
I will also have a soft spot in my heard for 90s Something Awful and JeffK.
No love for Limewire?
I used Kazaa. Never like Napster. I have about 650 CD's - I ripped them to 320k upon purchase and then just burn them as required to blank discs so the originals can stay unused in storage.
I must truly be the old fart here. I remember when the only way to get your music on the high seas was to download multi-part compressed archive files on NNTP servers, aka news groups, or on IRC channels.
Now pardon me while I make my way back to my rocking chair. Lol