The tyranny of instant access

This fellow below has it exactly right.

I have tons more music now than I did when I was confined to vinyl lps but I value each track much, much less. It is hard to value a collection of digital information. It is much easier to love a large shiny album with a sleeve, pictures, notes. The sheer weight of carrying two or three huge crates of records up the three flights of stairs to the dorm room made them all seem so important.

Don't get me wrong: I love digital music. It is all I listen to and I love being able to carry it around and having access to virtually anything anytime on the internet and being able to listen in so many different places and ways. But there is trade off.

Alex Ross in the New Yorker:

But these meandering journeys across the Internet soundscape can be taxing. The medium too easily generates anxiety in place of fulfillment, an addictive cycle of craving and malaise. No sooner has one experience begun than the thought of what else is out there intrudes. Putting on an old-fashioned disk and letting it play to the end restores a measure of sanity. This may explain why the archaic LP is enjoying an odd surge of popularity among younger listeners: it’s a modest rebellion against the tyranny of instant access.