Over the years, I have seen music transition greatly. Styles change, artists come and go. The one thing that, I am particularly struggling with is how music is being distributed these days.

I know many music listeners have turned to digital downloads, in the past five or six years, most using Apple’s iTunes. The problem with iTunes is that you don’t have to download the entire album. You can purchase a single song from the album, preview tracks, or sometimes even stream the whole album for free.

To me, physical CD’s are the way to go. I find the hard copies better to own. With the hard copy, you get the full album on a disc to blare through your stereo speakers, and iTunes allows you to import the album into your library. Thus, making it accessible from your Apple device. A physical CD has an album booklet with artwork, even though many covers mediocre in this day and age, possibly because of the transition to digital retailers. When you buy a physical CD the booklets will at times include, song lyrics, photos, and credits. All of which I feel makes an album whole.

Artists put effort into their music, to give fans a full album worth of music experience. I think it is unfair to be able to stream or download a single song when the artist has gone to great lengths to record an album full of material. If they truly wanted their fans to have a single song, they would only release that song. From the perspective of a single song, iTunes is very beneficial.

Hard copies are not a thing of the past, even singer-songwriter Grace Potter notes that she sees “more record players coming back” than even eight to ten years ago. I commend anyone who buys an album in the format of a record. Record players are a hard find these days, but if you can purchase new music on record it would bring music back to the way it was years ago. If you buy an album, you want all of it’s offerings. That is what a hard copy offers.

As sad as it is for me to see music distribution headed in this direction, it seems to gain larger audiences for artists. As an artist you want your music to get out to people, but that is why we have new things such as technology. I don’t feel any less people would buy music if it wasn’t available digitally. If you sincerely want to hear a certain artist, go buy the album.