Digital music files a love/hate relationship.

I love listening to music on many different formats: vinyl, cassette, reel to reel, and 8-track tape, even compact disc. The idea of holding a tangible object, putting it on or in the applicable player, and then being able to read the liner notes while also gazing at the artwork fascinates me. 
So predictably I have a love/hate relationship with Mp3's, WAV's, and other digital music formats. Let us list the hates first. 

Hates: Digital music files play with lower quality sound; they also allow you to listen to music virtually anywhere which takes away from the idea of sitting down and actually listening to music. Digital music is extremely easy to steal without getting caught which takes away from music sales, in-turn musicians are less likely to produce quality music in the future. If people do purchase digital music they are limited in what they are able to buy, iTunes, one biggest sellers of digital music files only has about 1% of the worlds recorded music available. Lastly digital music does not come with fancy, beautiful, sometimes collectable jewel cases or cardboard vinyl slip cover protectors, which makes the idea of having a music collection almost pointless, you cannot have collectable digital music files. 

And now the loves.

Loves: Digital music files are portable, you can run/walk, drive, work, and do so many other active things with your entire music collection on a device the size of a half dollar. Digital music has brought the rise of many user friendly file sharing websites where artists both good and bad, signed or unsigned, popular and not can share their music for free, for purchase, or both. There are many people without the money, space, or the mental capacity to have music collections of compact discs, vinyl or cassette tapes and are required to listen to music on digital music players. Etcetera.

Most of these points are self explanatory, however I would like to expound on a few of them.

File hosting and sharing sites such as Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and Drip, just to name a few have opened up brand new ways for people to bring out their musical creativity. Soundcloud a music hosting site where artists signed or unsigned can upload their music on a stream listening format, that artist can then make the track available for download or even set a link so listeners can purchase the song from iTunes or Bandcamp.  Because someone cannot play music well, or does not have the money or resources to release a music project on CD or vinyl, does not mean a barrier should be put up for them to not play or share their music with others. Music is for everyone, it should be played by everyone. Drip.fm is also a very interesting site and new way to share digital music, where record labels are making their catalogs available to fans by a monthly subscription. For example you sign up for Stones Throw Record Label  on Drip for $10.00 a month and you get every single new release (and some old ones) from that record label downloaded straight to your inbox whether you like it or not. Interesting concept.

For people that are unable to have large music collections because they are in nursing homes or have a small amount of living space there are wonderful organizations that exist to help people in those situations bring their favorite music to them in the form of digital music. Many amazing results are seen through this process, some people are healed, “come alive”, and are highly impacted by this music and amazing results are seen. In the past I have donated to Music and Memory ; check out their website to watch videos on how music heals people, even digital music. My favorite is Henry. Like stated above, when digital music files are condensed into smaller files, you lose sound quality, there is a GREAT article about that Here. The rest of the reasons do not need to be expanded on.

All this said I have a digital file music collection, a vinyl collection, a compact disc collection, an 8-track collection, a reel to reel collection and a cassette tape collection, if I had to give up any of them; digital music is defiantly going first. However if I ever have less space or eventually end up in a nursing home, I will always choose music, even if I cannot physically touch it.