Music streaming wants you to throw away your record collection. Don't.

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Today, 10 or maybe 1,000 parties were organised, many of them featuring songs like Maiyya mainu and Kala chashma on different playlists. The tracks got skipped on Spotify. No, you paid the music streaming service your dues but that’s not a guarantee you will be allowed access to all the tracks, all the time. The company says it’s about licensing issues with Zee Music but why should customers who wanted to have the best time of their lives have to pay for it? And it’s not just about Spotify. Tomorrow, some other streaming service may do the same. Day after, an artiste can pull his or her catalogue. In fact, Jay-Z did just that in 2017. You pay a monthly/yearly fee but the music is not yours.

One of my few sensible ideas (another being getting a moka pot instead of having to rely on a café) came more than a decade ago – pack all my music into a digital storage and find a safe place for the 5,000-odd vinyl records and 2,000-odd CDs. It doesn’t make sense by way of real-estate space but if I have to move, these travel with me. Sure, Spotify and Apple Music have most of my music and I have been hooked to them for years. Sure, I have a CD player that’s rarely used. Sure, the turntable needs to be serviced. But, at least, I know they are there to shower music on a cloudy day. A decade ago I called it nostalgia and, in hindsight, I call it a wise decision. If tomorrow a music service decides to pull The Dark Side of the Moon or American Pie or Camouflage, I know I’m safe.

A decade ago, many thought vinyl was as dead as a cockroach but few realise that cockroaches can outlive radiation. Look at vinyl, audiophiles, hipsters and youngsters are buying them or at least are being reintroduced to them. They cost a bundle but I would any day recommend that you buy a vinyl record over a bottle of wine just in case the two can’t be paired.

Look at books. Many threw out their collections in favour of e-books and then found out that the text can be changed, titles can be pulled and books can be banned even if you own their digital version. It could be difficult to find space to pack all the PG Wodehouses, Issac Asimovs and Stephen Kings. You can at least rely on the hardcopy forever, more than any relationship human beings are capable of.
I’m not an audiophile. At least, I don’t have the deep pockets of an audiophile. Yet, I like the idea of brewing a cup of coffee, putting it down on my favourite table, dropping the needle on a record and letting Empty Chairs or Leaving on a Jet Plane fill the room. I find it enriches my focus. From time to time, I enjoy the guilty pleasure of sneaking in a record from Jamaal’s shop on Calcutta’s Dharmatala. The wife spontaneously crinkles the eyes, knowing well I am not sneaking in something worse.

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