The magic of CD's
There is something amazing about actual physical media.
I recently got my hands on a Philips CD371 from the year 1987. It's a great little guy and it has a very retro techy style which I adore. It also has a sought after DAC chip inside, the famous TDA1541. But let's not get too technical.
As I now have a CD player, I obviously need CD's. So I got them and let me tell you. They are amazing, it completely changes your listening experience. Let's compare it with the now standard, Spotify.
Spotify, as we all know, is the currently the biggest music streaming platform. Encoded in around 96~160kb/s it has every song you would ever want, except the ones you like ofcourse (they change those with different versions, why? "Because fuck you consumer!" ~ Spotify, probably). You can customize every aspect of your listening experience with tailor made playlists suited to your needs. Even algorithms are able to make playlists they think you need.
But that's it, you stick to what you know. The algorithm decides and you stay really close to that selection. You press play and go along with your business. It's perfect.
Enter the father of digital audio, the CD. With all it's PCM 16-bit/44.1kHz encoded goodness, which is around 1411kb/s! You press the "Eject" button on your CD player and you hear the beautifally mechanical motor buzzing open the CD tray. So, what now? You grab an album! You don't press play on a loosely curated list of hundreds of different artists. No, you listen to one artist (except if you buy compilation CD's ofcourse...). You close the CD tray and hear the CD mechanism start spinning, you see the length of the album illuminated on the tiny screen. You press play "Play" and here you go. You like some songs, you dislike some songs but ultimately it's great music. A weird feeling of achievement comes down onto you when you realise you just listened to the same artist for a whopping 45 minutes or so!
You have finished you CD, but it's only a random one you got from your parents. Now it's time to gamble, or so it has started to feel. You start going to thrift shops to find more CD's. Little by little you make your own little physical media castle, ungovernable by huge evil companies. You try some other artists and even other genres. You explore music.
In this day and age, music is what you hear on your favorite social media. And that's where it ends. CD's make you explore the vast structures and ruins created by the artists in the past and unknown artists now.
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