A while ago, I started trying to rebuild my media library. Making sure I had local copies of everything, making sure all the meta-data was all copacetic, that sort of thing. Part of that was building a NAS. The other part of it of course is the not wanting to be reliant on streaming services.
Not just the ephemeral nature of it mind. The not being able to rely on something being there is definitely something that factored into my thinking. Another thing was the discovery. Music-wise, with streaming you get access to a lot of things you wouldn't otherwise have access to. Flicking through some of my old mp3's though, I came to the realization that there are genre's of music out there that I used to listen to, that I still enjoy, that will never come across my feed. The discovery part of music streaming is broken. There's occasionally a new drum and bass track that I'll favorite, but that's about it. No new genre's, no exploration of the edges of genres. Launch a track mix of Irish punk, 30 minutes later you're listening to 4 different versions of the Irish Rover.
So I set off to build a NAS and a media library. Which will be good for longevity (once I get my backups sorted).
So I started going through my favorites list to make sure I have local copies of all of them. And I've found for a significant number of them, it's quite hard to find somewhere to buy them. Not even just physical media (I'd like vinyl, but that shit's expensive these days). Bandcamp is good for maybe two thirds of the things I'm looking for. There's a few sites for classical music. For a lot of other things, you just can't buy them. If you find a bands or a dj's website, there's just links to spotify, deezer, tidal and youtube.
I feel like upon reflection, this is something that I've sort of been aware of. Or maybe it's that I haven't been buying - looking at my local music collection before I started doing this, it had probably been 4 or 5 years since I added anything new. I just haven't been thinking about places to buy. I am very much noticing that change now though.