In the 1970s music was delivered in three major formats: vinyl, cassette and 8 track. One didn’t infect the other, one didn’t reflect the other, they were distinct but I for one used all three and the same distributors distributed all three. However, there was too much money in CDs and in the 1980s the other three formats were phased out whether we liked or not. I held out moving to CDs till I literally could not buy vinyl anymore, till my Tower records was entirely remodeled and I couldn’t even find vinyl any more.
But formatting is not music, and today we again have competing formats but now there is real competition: CDs are on their last legs and it is MP3s versus streaming and the truth is you could use both especially since companies like Bandcamp require more than one. You need Itunes and you need a streaming service, one isn’t enough, one size does not fit all.
With streaming services, you can play your mp3s on the streaming service but only at the place where you’ve downloaded, you can’t take it with you. You can take it with you on Itunes, you can save your record collection on Itunes, but you can’t play your streaming files.
The solution is simple: you need both to work in tandem. It is the only way the various formats can live together is by being separate but equal.
I know this for sure. I tried to just use Spotify and couldn’t do it.
In effect, we need to return to the 70s and embrace various formats if we want to hear all the music we love
