Then vs Now: Music Streaming
Music streaming has changed a lot from the days when my father was a kid to the days when I've become an adult. It takes me down a nostalgia trip to discuss our collective memories with music and the way it all changed.
Then: The era of Radio, Cassettes and Records
The period is considered the golden era for music worldwide. AM & FM Radio was the common man's way to stay entertained and updated with the latest and most popular music. The period was most certainly dominated by Radio Broadcasters. All the record (or cassette) sales were unanimously dependent on the fact that someone heard a Song on the Radio and loved it so much that they wanted to listen it again & again at their own desire. People used to have these fancy Hi-Fi Cassette Players that required a lot of upkeep and Cassettes to play your favorite music. People used to record songs from Live Radio to their Blank Cassettes from a device known as Cassette Recorder to enjoy their music. However, Things have changed a lot since then. We've seen the era of transition from Cassettes to CDs and CD Players. The CD was a revolution of it's own in the Music Space where people were able to enjoy their music at their desire. A CD could store music of more than 5 Casettes (or maybe 40 if You stored MP3 Files). CDs brought the creature comforts of their own by making it much simpler to skip through tracks and reduced the headache of the correct "side" of a Cassette... The next big Revolution was what brings us to the present.
NOW: Long live Radios, Music Streaming is the new Cool.
While traditional radios haven't lost their charm entirely and there are still some who still Jam to the good'ol FM Radio, the majority of userbase has migrated to the new and cool Digital Music Streaming era. This all begins with introduction of Portable music players like the iPod and Walkman which changed music forever. People could now "download" their favourite songs from an online store rather than visiting a conventional brick & mortar establishment to get a physical copy. There was no waiting period involved between the release and sale of a music album. Platforms like YouTube, soundcloud & spotify bridged the gap in such a way that once an artist released the content, a Radio wasn't required for it to be premiered. People could search for an artist on the website and get their latest release to listen and enjoy. If they liked the music they could also purchase it from online stores like iTunes, deezer etc. Nowadays, music Purchase has essentially become a thing of past. Everyone (including myself) prefer streaming music on spotify or similar apps. We save our favourite songs to our downloads and can listen to them whenever & wherever we desire. Instead of buying individual songs, we now pay one subscription fee to the platform and it serves us Music as a Service. We don't own the music we love but who cares? convenience is far superior than convention and that's what makes innovation in every avenue.
