On using a dedicated music device
When I was a teen, streaming didn’t exist, so I had to walk with my friend to her house after school and ask her to download songs for me on their family computer. It was a hassle, but I didn’t care because I didn’t have a choice for me to get music. I didn’t always have money to buy CDs and we didn’t have fast Internet at home.
Now, everyone and their mama uses Spotify or a similar streaming service for music. I can’t deny it’s been great to be able to play my favorite songs on demand; the convenience is unbeatable. But even though I have always loved music, I’ve been feeling lately that something is missing from my listening experience.
Perhaps it’s because by definition, I need Wifi to use Spotify, so when I use it on my phone or PC I always end up getting distracted and sucked into the black hole of the Internet. I literally can’t use Spotify on my phone without also checking for notifications or scrolling social media. That’s why when my husband got me a digital audio player (DAP) as an early Christmas present, I was really excited.
Since then, I’ve spent many hours listening to full albums as recommended by my best friend, instead of jumping from song to song as I do with music streaming. I now understand why he is such an advocate of listening to entire albums - with great albums especially, it feels like I’m listening to a story laid out by the artist, going on a journey they mapped out for me.
One night, I listened to Magic, Alive! (McKinley Dixon’s new album) on my way home and almost started crying in the backseat of the car. It was such a moving experience and I don’t think I’d feel the same if I listened to it on my phone and switched through 3 apps the entire time.
And yeah, technically I could use Spotify and just not open other apps, but I’m honest enough to admit that the pull of distraction is too strong for me to resist. At least with a dedicated music player, that temptation is not baked into the device or its functionalities.
The friction of using a DAP without Wifi capabilities is something that I really appreciate. Sure, it’s a bit of a pain in the ass to transfer songs from my PC to the DAP, manually update the details like album title and artist, and organize my library. But I’d argue that it’s exactly that friction that lets me appreciate my music collection even more.
Because I know how much time I spent curating my library, I’ll be less prone to dismissing songs just 5 seconds in. I’ll let the music actually linger in my mind and heart, allowing it to take hold for a longer period of time, instead of me just jumping into another playlist made by an online stranger that the algorithms decided I would enjoy.