In Search of a Limited Library
Ever since ripping audio from a few youtube videos so we could listen to a childrens concert on a long drive with the toddler, I’ve been thinking about the way I used to listen to music.
My music library was not a streaming homepage with multiple trailheads of algorithmically generated playlists (litered with paid placements, no doubt), but a very finite and well worn space. A lived-in room, that became an apartment, that became a house! I would thumb through my catalog with the speed and joy of someone combing their own personal library. I have the image of a librarian in a sprawling underground library, knowing just where to look when there’s something to be surfaced.
Maybe I’m being a little nostalgic. What you lose, of course, is the discoverability. But even looking back at my listening over the last decade, most of the newcomers have come through personal recommendation, acts sharing a bill at a concert, or from music news outlets. The suggestions via algorithm are there, for sure, but they feel loose in my hand. Oh no, we’re not friends, but I know of them. I see them around, but we’ve never spoken. I know their name, but I don’t think they know mine.
So what to make of this? Well for one, I’m contemplating making a return to local music. A local library of songs, wired into my phone’s storage. And also… I’ve been thinking about best-of lists too. I think the way these lists are easily commodified is a valid critique, but I think they can be a worthwhile way of holding onto things that matter. I think of Robin Sloan’s “Fish” essay. What does it mean to love something? I want to hold onto these things.
So forthcoming, perhaps, to this website will be a new page to hold some current favorites.