Audio: Listen to this article.
I thought about titling this article, Vinyl Is So Much Better Than Digital, but that would be a bit over the top and misleading. Instead, I tipped my cap to The Ramones' 1978 single. The one thing I believe vinyl has over current digital is anonymity. Vinyl lovers can walk into a local record shop, put a C-note on the counter, walk out with two albums, and spin them until they fall apart, without anyone knowing anything. Just typing that feels freeing.
On the digital side of this wonderful hobby we can’t even search for an album without it going on our permanent record, and having that record linked to a thousand other databases full of information about us. Perhaps I’m an outlier for even caring, and in some circles I’m probably a whack-job, but just because I’m paranoid doesn’t meant mean my music apps aren’t out to get me :~)
It’s hard for me to believe we’re at a place where the largest music streaming service in the world, Spotify, not only tracks everything its users do, but it sells that information to record labels, and at the end of the year it packages the data up nicely and presents a portion of it back to its paying customers. And, wait for it, people want more of it! They proudly share the results of Spotify Wrapped with everyone following their social media accounts. Some day we’ll look back on this the same way we look back on medical doctors in cigarette advertisements. WTF were we thinking?
Oh come one, who cares if “they” know I stream ABBA every morning at 7:00 from Tidal, in Minneapolis, MN, to a zone titled Living Room, on a product named dCS Rossini APEX that used report being a dCS Lina, using room correction titled Wilson Audio Alexia V, controlled from an iPhone 15 Pro Max using an app that says its collecting data specifically linked to me containing my location, search history, contact info, identifiers, diagnostics, user content, usage data, and something titled other data?
Who cares if this information is collected globally and provides a view into how many devices manufacturers are selling, have sold, have upgraded, how the products work, their feature sets, how people use the products, who uses the products, and this information is tied to a thousand other databases full of information, and if a company holding all this information also has the ability to design and manufacturer any products for which it knows there’s a market?
This is all happening right now.
Change is neither bad nor good in and of itself. As I was thinking about this article in the car on the way home from dropping my daughter off at school, a couple other topics came to mind. I remember being five years old in 1980. I used to sit on the armrest between the two front seats in my dad’s station wagon. Every day, on my way to preschool, hockey practice, and through snow storms because it provided me the best view. Seatbelt? Come on, nobody I knew had ever worn a seatbelt. I’m unsure if they were even functional in my dad’s car. Plus, my mom use to hold her arm out horizontally across my chest, from the passenger seat, to save me from going through the windshield during sudden stops.
When I was a few years older, my friends and I got to sit in the rear facing backseat of the station wagon. This way we could at least see the 18-wheeler bearing down on us, as its brakes smoked and the driver looked for the nearest runaway truck exit ramp.
Fortunately, all of us who survived, travel a little safer now. The change was good. Although I would still like the freedom to legally not wear a seatbelt if I wish, and to not have my car scream at me if I choose to do so.
The other topic I thought about, and trust me I will connect this with HiFi, is agriculture. Back in the day conventional agriculture used no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial agents. Everything was organic, not by choice but because it’s all that was available. Now, organic and conventional agriculture couldn’t be more opposite, and the definition of conventional that pertains to following traditional methods and being ordinary, is out the window.
The same can be said of HiFi and music listening. Conventional HiFi now means that we as consumers are the product in most cases, and we pay for that “privilege.” I’m not pointing fingers at any company or my fellow audiophiles. This is about balance. If we get something for giving up something else, and that exchange is acceptable for consenting adults, then I have no problems with the situation. The change from anonymous listening to big brother with a database of everything you search for, click on, look at and listen to, does seem to be OK with most people.
If the data collected is used to enhance our enjoyment of this wonderful hobby, that’s a great outcome. Unfortunately it isn’t the only outcome. When the data collection and statistics influence listening behavior, something is very wrong. I personally know people who listen to specific artists at specific times, solely because they know Spotify is keeping track and it will show up on their Spotify Wrapped yearly numbers. Sounds like a personal problem, that all the self-actualized members of this community can safely ignore. Plus, we don’t use Spotify do we?
We do use plenty of other music apps and services that are, “all up in our business.” It can be hard to ignore the fact that for digital audiophiles, privacy is dead. The days of voluntarily sending in an informational postcard that shipped with a product seem quaint. Now, we are the product. In addition, for HiFi manufacturers who are “partners” with other companies, their privacy is also dead. More data about their products’ usage, than even the manufacturers know, and direct access to their customers is now in the hands of competitors.
Each audiophile and HiFi manufacturer gets to decide if the tradeoff is a good one. For the most part, I’d say the tradeoff is worth it. But as time goes by, and more information about what’s done with data becomes available, and smaller companies are purchased by larger companies with different goals, I get more concerned. Can’t a guy just search for an artist, click on an album, and listen to some tunes without being tracked each step of the way by the man? It makes me want to put a CD into my nonexistent CD player, or god forbid unwrap that pristine Pearl Jam Benaroya Hall vinyl boxed set and spin it on my nonexistent turntable.
About the author - https://audiophile.style/about
Author's Complete Audio System Details with Measurements - https://audiophile.style/system
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