How quickly the ways to listen to music have changed: Luka Bloom, etc.

I recently went to look up an artist to whom I listened to quite enthusiastically when I was in University, but to whom I haven't listened to in some time.

I don't like to bucket musicians into genres because, whether true or not, I secretly suspect that they hate it. But, Luka Bloom was the artist I went to look up, and he would fall roughly into the "Irish folk singer-songwriter" genre. I first heard Mr. Bloom on one of those Windham Hill collections that were popular in the 1990s, and went on to admire his back catalogue.

I was happy to find that he was still active and had released some new material. But, I could not believe that it was not on Spotify.

I pretty much listen to everything on Spotify now. I have muscles that have memorized how to listen to music in any given situation and they have only been fully-trained on Spotify.

Back in the day, I was one of those people who amassed stacks and stacks of CDs organized into multitudes of CD towers. As time went on and I moved from place to place, it got to the point where I didn't get them out of the moving boxes anymore, and they stayed in storage.

Initially, the reason they stayed in situ was because I had converted the purchased CDs into MP3 files as soon as I added them to my collection. Over time, the CDs had been mostly been for display. For many years, I listened to most of my music digitally using the Squeezebox line of digital music players, many of which were scattered around the house. Squeezebox eventually got discontinued, though I still have a number in use.

But, then came Spotify. In most cases, it became easier to listen to all of my music - purchased or not - through Spotify.

So, coming back to Luka Bloom, I was surprised to find that he'd made an executive decision to not release his latest music on Spotify and to make it available only on his website, where all of the money goes directly to the people that made the whole package possible.

I fully respect with and agree with this decision. I don't understand how great artists with loyal but modest followings manage to make any money off the platform. It seems optimized for superstars with millions of plays each month. Beyond just respecting this decision, I like it a lot. But it nonetheless threw me a curveball: I've mostly forgotten how to listen to MP3 files that I own in all the places I listen to Spotify.

I've figured it out, of course, and found a way to make it accessible wherever I am - I'm one of those technical people - but the point is that there must be many people out there who have no idea how to listen to music that's not on Spotify (or Apple Music, YouTube Music, etc.), and people who risk their visibility and income by not using that platform may be shut out of an audience altogether.

Regardless, I bought the albums blind. Another moment of discomfort occurred when I couldn't actually listen to them before I bought them. I used to visit record stores regularly and buy albums unheard, but now it feels like a huge risk even as I spend less money than ever on music.

Anyway, the albums are great and I highly recommend them:

• Out of the Blue
• Bittersweet Crimson

On music in general, I still follow the general approach to paying for music that I wrote about in HMV Canada bankruptcy and thinking about digital music and Spotify streaming, which is:

• Spotify is a discovery and convenience tool, not a replacement for buying music.
• I still buy a fair amount of music, but it is mostly digital now, via iTunes.
• After I've purchased music, I still tend to listen to it on Spotify for convenience.
• In my mind, that supports the artists twice (to the extent that you can call Spotify streams "support").
• During the pandemic, I bought a number of concert livestreams to support artists I like.

I have bought only one physical CD this year: Steven Wilson - The Future Bites

Here's one from the new Luka Bloom album: