I own about 1000 CDs but rarely listen to them because streaming is so much more convenient. Kind of sad but a matter of fact. Getting my ass out of my Eames chair, searching my archive, putting it in the player seems so tedious in comparison. I think I’m not the only one
Useless is a strong word.
I think it made headlines when Tool, King Crimson and Rammstein decided to finally put their catalogue on streaming services.
My dad just smiled at me, when I told him about Crimson, because he pointed at his CD collection and said he already had their catalogue.
Similarly, I remember parts of Ayreon’s and Blind Guardian’s catalogue dissappeared from Spotify for a few months. The missing Blind Guardian reappeared in remastered/remixed editions and the originals vanished.
My point is that by owning the CDs, you’re not beholden to anyone’s interests in keeping the albums available for streaming.
If a streaming service, you don’t use, decided to pay for exclusive streaming rights of your favourite artist, there’s bog all you really can do, aside from switching service.
You are 100% correct about this, and I have thought about it greatly.
The flip side is with streaming you have access to so much more music than you could ever consider purchasing.
The “right” answer is to do both - pay for streaming AND buy what you like, what touches you. But that’s just not realistic for most.