Paying for digital music

 A little over three years ago, I wondered if I had bought my last CD.  I knew the likelihood was small, but more importantly, the roadmap was there.  Shopping excursions were becoming ever more infrequent, and could eventually stop, at which point I would hear new music exclusively via streaming services or blogs.  

Since writing that post, I have bought enough CD's to confidently declare that the format's demise vis a vis my spending habits was exaggerated.  My purchasing frequency did drop, but purchasing variety reached a twenty year peak.  With a mix of new, used, and bargain discs, and an increased breadth of genres (including classical, a genre I hadn't bought in significant numbers since the mid-90's), the end seemed nowhere in sight.  

And yet, I've been down this road before, where a peak turned out to be a last hurrah, bringing on a sea change in my purchasing/downloading/listening habits. 

I participated in the first wave of Napster, binged regularly on music through Kazaa and Soulseek, and had never paid to download music.  Until now.  It only took twenty years, but I finally paid to download music through iTunes.  What was the history making purchase?  Osmo Vanska's Complete Sibelius Symphonies with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. When it comes to the frozen Finnish winter interpretation of Sibelius' music, Vanska can't be topped.  It's a classic cycle that came at a great price.  And given the difficulty in buying non-bargain bin classical music on CD, it seems that iTunes and other music services give me the best opportunity to hear the exact performances I want.  

My Roland DJ505 came with a three month subscription to BPM Supreme, a record pool site offering tracks and tools for DJ's across numerous genres.  I browsed through it, downloaded some solid tracks, but decided it wasn't really for me.  But then I found myself discovering more and more great music through the site.  I also became accustomed to the convenience of searching for tracks on a whim and catching up on years of great dance music that I hadn't been exposed to because for years, I have been listening via albums and podcasts, rather than individual artist EPs or single tracks/remixes. Of course I have known about Beatport and similar sites for ages, but didn't have the proper motivation to spend money there.  With two small kids at home, my mixing has been stalled, so I might just cancel my BPM Supreme membership and re-sub later when I'm ready to devote more time to it.  

This may be how the CD will finally die out in my collection.  The randomness of CD shops will be replaced by digital services offering niche versions of songs in the genres that I'm currently interested in.