How Listening to Music Has Changed
by Bryan Smith, LTCL Tech Coach
The weekly LTCL Tech Q&A Zoom class comes to our rescue again with today’s topic. Listening to music
has certainly changed over time and technology (again) fueled these changes. So, this week’s column will
discuss the various mediums that we have seen, which ones are still around and viable, and then the latest
ways to listen to arguably the largest libraries of music people have ever been able to access.
For many of us, the oldest medium was probably the vinyl record. Played by placing a specialized needle
attached to an amplifier, it provided amazing fidelity. Then technology came along to pack more music in
a smaller space. What emerged was magnetic tape… reel-to-reel, 8-track, or in the highly portable
cassette, and in addition to listening, we could now also record whatever we wanted on such tapes (and
re-record over and over on the same tape). This advance to magnetic tape however reduced the quality
of the music for pure audiophiles, but for the majority of us, this enabled us to play “our” music in vehicles
versus relying solely on the radio station. The other drawback to tapes is that they are fragile to heat and
the mechanics of unrolling and rolling the tape perfectly over and over.
Next came Compact Disks (CDs). These seemingly indestructible plastic gems introduced the concept of
recording music in digital form versus analog which means that more fidelity returned, although most
argue that vinyl still has better fidelity. And again, many more songs could fit on a CD than the standard
cassette tape. No worries about the tape getting unwound, and it takes a lot more heat in a hot car to
warp a CD than a cassette.
Since music was now available in a digital format, it could be saved on portable music players, aka MP3
players like the iPod, or computer storage devices. USB “thumb” drives could be used to copy songs, and
then plugged into a computer with speakers. Some vehicles even started offering a USB port and player.
It was during this time that music services like Napster and iTunes started popularizing the ability for you
to get/purchase a single song in digital form. And with Bluetooth speakers and enabled in vehicles, your
smartphone is your music source. It is speculated that several years from now, new vehicles will no longer
include AM and FM radios!
And that brings us to today where you can “stream” music from various music services. Some services,
like Amazon Music and Apple Music (previously known as iTunes) allow you to purchase songs/albums
and stream them. Others, like Google’s YouTube Music, Pandora, Spotify, and iHeart Radio, don’t allow
you to purchase individual works, but instead grant access to their large catalog of music that you can
stream. Think of these services as allowing you to rent access to their libraries of music (Apple and
Amazon Music, which is included with Amazon Prime membership, also offer this service.)
So why purchase songs/albums on-line versus streaming? In my opinion, this is not an easy question to
answer anymore. It used to be that the streaming services required Internet or cellular access, but this is
not always true anymore – services like Spotify allow you to download specific songs to play when you
are “disconnected.” So, I guess it comes down to wanting to “own” or just “rent” your music. If you only
want to listen to 100 specific songs, then purchasing these will be cheaper over the long run versus paying
maybe $10/month renting entire libraries from these services. And if you want to explore new music, I
can think of no better way than to trial a streaming service by picking a few songs and then letting the
service introduce you to songs and music that they think you might enjoy based on other’s ratings.
Most of the streaming services have a free version as well as a paid service. For example, the free
subscription on Spotify allows you to choose artists and create playlists (aka your tailored mix tape ),
but for higher quality audio, no commercials, and ability to download and listen to music when not
connected to the Internet, you need to upgrade to their paid subscription.
Happy listening!
Tech Coach Assistance
Tech Coaches are now providing remote Tech Coaching. Simply send an email to
techcoach@laketravislibrary.org and one of our coaches will respond to assist you with any questions or
challenges you may have.
