I miss scarcity

I think you’re missing my point just a little bit. No, I don’t "have to consider both sides" in a way that requires me to choose whether I would "give up what I have" because I’m not weighing them against one another to reach an either/or. There are other purposes for comparison than either/or choice. I’m considering them to compare them.

I’m not missing your point at all, I just view it differently.  Lamenting what you don’t have anymore without recognizing what you’ve gained is rose-colored glasses and misplaced sadness that I’d rather think of as fond memories.  I’ve discovered more new music in the past six months than I had in the prior six years before streaming and as a result have enjoyed being an audiophile/music lover far more now than at any time in the past — it’s really reinvigorated my love of the hobby and music in general more than ever.  So while reading liner notes, the smell album covers, talking about music with my buddies in depth was fun and I do miss it a little, it doesn’t compare to what I have now so considering one without the other doesn’t make much sense to me. It’s kinda like the guy who got his first car 100 years ago and then laments his horse and buggy — sure you can maybe miss certain parts like bonding with the horse and such but really?  Was it really that good or is it maybe more just selective memory at work?  Further, I could still do all those things today if I really wanted to but choose not to so maybe I just don’t miss those things nearly as much as you do, which is probably the case — certainly no right or wrong here at all cause music is nothing if not a unique and personal endeavor and journey.  Either way, I find myself just enjoying the hell outta myself in the present so much so that I don’t lament the past much at all or any more than I miss having to get up to find a CD and load it into my CD player, but that’s me.

another major factor in this discussion, is not the technology, but the fact that for many/most we’ve been doing this for many many decades...there are some interesting articles out there about the psychological process/impact/effects etc of listening by streaming or CD or LP ...not good/bad or right/wrong but interesting differences in the process and effects of each....from choosing albums/songs to listening habits to emotional impact...

 I had now everything i ever wanted : music and books at the fingers tips...

I dont need anything  technological,but only books and music which i would not have without technology anyway...

I miss the human aspect of life i knew from my childhood till the 90 just after Berlin wall fall, before technology and neo liberalism  begin to impose oligarchs  over nations and ideologies over cultures...(Mandeville Calvinist design )

i will give all that even books and music, for a less inhumanity  the one we see  pervading everything...

 I abhor  the new religion of technocratic techno-cultism....

I dont miss scarcity no but  i miss humanity ...

@jl35 "there are some interesting articles out there about the psychological process/impact/effects etc of listening by streaming or CD or LP ...not good/bad or right/wrong but interesting differences in the process and effects of each"

Exactly.

@soix  one last try (and good vibes to you and thanks for engaging):

I am pretty sure you’re missing my point, and it’s a philosophically significant misunderstanding. You keep returning to a utilitarian calculus: weighing gains against losses to determine net benefit. Your framework assumes that critical reflection on technology must culminate in an either/or judgment about total value. This is precisely what I am resisting.

My point is phenomenological – I am trying to attend carefully to how these technologies reshape our patterns of engagement with music—our habits, impulses, and modes of appreciation—independent of whether we’d "trade back." You treat this focused attention as incomplete analysis requiring a verdict. I am saying: no, the analysis itself has value, and premature weighing obscures important details.

So...I think we’re working with different purposes for comparison. You’re weighing to judge overall value—that’s legitimate. But I’m comparing to understand how different technological configurations shape our relationship to music, not to decide which era was ’better.’

The issue isn’t nostalgia. It’s recognizing that streaming’s abundance changes the structure of attention. When every recording is instantly available, there’s less friction, less commitment required for any particular listening choice. This can cultivate—often unconsciously—a browsing habit rather than a dwelling habit. The scarcity of the CD era forced a kind of focused attention: you made a choice, you lived with it, you went deeper because you were there. 

This isn’t rose-colored memory—my daughter and her musician friends at Oberlin are rediscovering this now, deliberately choosing whole-album listening and long-form attention precisely because they recognize something streaming’s default mode doesn’t provide.

The point isn’t that we should abandon streaming or that the old way was better overall. The point is that different technologies afford different relationships to music, and streaming’s default affordances may undermine certain modes of appreciation we value—modes dependent on constraint, not just content access.

Understanding this lets us make adjustments (like my friends reintroducing CDs) rather than simply accepting whatever habits the technology’s design encourages. That’s why comparison without choosing matters: it reveals possibilities for intentional use rather than passive accommodation.

I abhor  the new religion of technocratic techno-cultism....

I dont miss scarcity no but  i miss humanity ...

@mahgister Agreed. Even back in 1981 the Police were exhorting us to "rehumanize." Boy, were they right then and they're right now. 

@mahgister Maybe the best thing you’ve written here !!!