If you’re old enough, you can remember when music was only available on vinyl records.
As the years passed, it became hard to find anything but new releases and the most popular music on records and cassettes. Even some well known artists were just available on their Greatest Hits albums. Record companies were only willing to keep their best selling albums available. Less popular artists and albums were “out of print”, because of the costs of producing the physical product.
The first major step to digital came with the introduction of Compact Discs in late 1982 and their widespread availability by 1986. Music collectors loved these handy little shiny discs, and record companies loved that consumers were willing to re-buy albums by their favorite artists in this new format. However, it was still only the most popular albums and hits packages that dominated, because CDs were another physical medium.
Then came the innovation that brought back millions of recordings that had been unattainable for decades. Songs and albums became available through digital sales. Songs on iTunes were only 99-cents. That had also been a common price for 45-RPM singles in the 1960s. The main difference was that record companies didn’t have the expense of producing a physical product. Almost all of our favorite oldies and obscure albums reappeared.
And now we’re in the age of streaming music. Subscription services like Spotify & Amazon Music have in excess of 70-million recordings available. They don’t quite have everything, but they’re close. Streaming is the way the vast majority of music fans listen to music. Some people still like owning music, whether on vinyl, CDs, or digital tracks, but that’s more of a hobby than a main source for most music fans.
Sometimes audiophiles complain about digital not sounding as good as the analog of vinyl, but the reality is that the best CDs and highest quality streaming might even fool audiophiles when played through their high end equipment. It was recently discovered that some of the half-speed-mastered vinyl albums prized by collectors were actually run through a digital step in the mastering process.
Today it’s taken for granted that almost all recordings are readily available, and we can thank the digital format for that.