The Last Nail in the Coffin for Physical Music Media?

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By: Greg Miller

“Any track, any time, anywhere. And it’s free!” Yes, my friends. Spotify has landed in the good ole U.S. of A. I got my invite this past week and must say that I listened to eight hours of non-stop music today alone.

Sure, Pandora is great and Slacker Radio is a personal favorite of mine. Having used both of these services, there was always a time when I just wanted to hear a specific track or artist. Spotify is the answer, and much, much more.

One thing you have to understand is how we’ve arrived at this point in history. Napster, which was a peer-to-peer file sharing platform, helped usher us into this new way of listening to music. When Apple introduced the iPod, the hammer truly came down, and the age of digital music was solidified.

Now with Spotify the question becomes: Why are you still purchasing music in a physical format? Seriously. At this very moment, I’m listening to Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO. This is a song that is currently in heavy rotation on the Pop radio charts and I didn’t even purchase the album or the single. I’m doing this completely free and can listen to it as many times as I want.

With the free plan I can’t listen to the song on my mobile device, but for ten bucks a month ($9.99) subscribers can. Think about that for a second. For $120 bucks a year, we can listen to any song whenever and wherever we want. Last time I checked, the price of a new CD was still hovering around $10 bucks. To get all the songs I currently have access to, I would have to spend way more than $120.

It’s simple math, people. We can either spend $0 bucks a month to get access to virtually all the music that has ever existed or pay $10 bucks to go get the latest Nicki Minaj.

Did I mention that Spotify is a social music service? Yeah. Just one click and we can share what we're listening to with our friends on Facebook.

Let's look back at the original question. Why do you still purchase physical music media (i.e. CDs)? Sure, CDs are easy to play while driving in your car, but is that the only hold up? Why does the CD still exist?

And if services like Spotify aren’t the last nail in the coffin, what will be?

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About the Author

Greg Miller is an IT Support Pro, digital evolutionist, NBA fanatic, and the founder\editor of LifeAppolution where you can learn to get more from life one app at a time. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @LifeAppolution.

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