(Originally published at http://christopherengland.com - reproduced
here for the entertainment and commentary on the Anorak Nation)

Why do people bother buying and hoarding things like films, DVDs,
CDs, mp3s, etc., etc.?

It seems to be quite a pointless and old fashioned exercise in this
modern day and age.

Let's examine the concept.

Let's say I hear the latest from Skrillex. I decide I love it.

Now then, were this 40 years ago (Hey, wow, imagine if dubstep had
actually been around in the 1970s, yay!), then my instinctive and
only real option would have been to run off to a record store,
purchase the single or album and bring it home and play it over and
over again on my little record player.

Whenever I wanted to hear it again I would drag it out of its
sleeve and wop it on the turntable. If I wasn't at home, then maybe
I could record from my record player onto a cassette and listen to
the cassette recording on the move using, well, a portable cassette
tape player.

In the context of what was available in the old days, I would have
needed to have had my own collection of singles and albums in order
to be able to instantly access any specific tune as the whim caught
me.

Not today.

Today I do not need to actually own or hold my own personal copies
of any song or tunes whatsoever. Why would I? Everything is
instantly available online for the moment I want to hear it.

Any song I can think of, I can get to instantly play to me across a
number of platforms, whether they be attached to my super-dooper
hi-fi system, or to my mobile phone and associated headset. Indeed,
even just starting at Youtube, I can search for and play not only
any song from the last 100 years, but also I get to be able to
watch the associated video as well. And it's free. So, why should I
need to store a copy of the song 'locally'? That's just senseless
duplication, or over-the-top fanboiism, surely? Heck, I remember
years ago when 'fans' would buy every format of their idol's new
song. But, for normal people there's no longer a need to buy
anything, it's all already just there waiting for them to press
play.

When Youtube isn't the answer, there are plenty of streaming music
sites. Some are free, others cost virtually nothing to subscribe
to. Again, this gives me instant and unfettered access to whatever
I want to hear, whenever I want to hear it. So, why would I also
want to actually download a copy and store it locally, let alone
buy a physical version? It's all pointless, isn't it?

I mean, if I lived at the seaside, why would I need to keep
hundreds of barrels of seawater as well?

Some people boast about how many songs they have copies of. "My six
different 3-terabyte portable drives store over 50-gazillion
songs," they'll crow at me.

Well, nurr nurr nurrr, my collection is far far bigger than that
and I didn't have to buy anything to store it on, did I?

Free thought + Free speech + Free radio = Anorak Nation
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