While waiting for someone to show up to a meeting, a few of us were chatting about music. Greg was playing a selection from his “music that’d scare you about the rest of my music collection” (or something like that).
I mentioned that we all had some of those in our collection, and that mine were probably some of the less popular one-hit wonders of the 80s. But then I revised my claim, instead saying that it was my collection of movie soundtracks.
From there the discussion wandered into how we’ve lost something with digital music. For me, I was always able to locate some of my favorite CDs based on their cover art or even the color, font, and amount of text on the “spine.” Greg commented that he’s been able to walk into someone else’s house and, at with a quick glace at the CD rack, identify some of the music they share in common.
As we move toward digital subscription services (like Yahoo! Music Unlimited), fewer and fewer people will own the physical CDs anymore. I’ve already lost the ability to identify my own favorites in my collection. Soon, being able to scan your friends music for common discs will be gone too.
I wonder what the digital version of that will be?
Jeremy Zawodny is the author of the popular Jeremy Zawodny’s blog. Jeremy is part of the Yahoo search team and frequently posts in the Yahoo! Search blog as well.
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