🔗 Birchtree: Where did the MP3s come from?

Not to make everything a comparison to what we’re living through now, but I do think that it’s notable that one of the most nostalgic, good-vibes products of many of our youths was fundamentally built on stealing from artists.

Seems to me that the nostalgia comes from having media that you “own.” Maybe not in a purely legal sense, but certainly from a technical one. To be able to manipulate media as plain files on a file system, that you can move and play anywhere, is something that’s been lost with the move to streaming.

The good news is that it’s still possible to get music as MP3 files, legally even. Bandcamp and Qobuz are two I tend to visit, and both are quite good. And yes, it may not have everything you’re looking for, but it has more than you think. Enough for me to go there to look for something before resorting to the streaming services.