My ears are starving. So I feed them Kanye. From " Spaceships" to "Blood on the Leaves," I can feed the words of a narcissistic, ( I mean that in a good way) artistic genius, cooking up music in his prime to my famished ears. I can go through every song he ever made, every instrumental he ever produced, every verse he ever wrote. The charisma, pain, and life lessons that Kanye, as well as many other artists, express through music are at my fingertips. Literally, mine for the taking. Why? Streaming of course! Streaming has bewitched music consumption and made music consumers spoiled brats in the musical candy store of life. Keeping us begging for more with our iPhones outstretched, and our white earbuds turned up louder than screaming infants. But at what cost? There is always a catch; always something we have to lose. That's just how life works. So I ask, What good does it do a person to have all the music in the world, and not own it? We use to own it. Streaming took it from us, and we gave it up freely.

Would you rather own a house or rent it? What about a car. Would you rather lease it or own it? Most would say own. You pay if off, and it's yours. Nothing else to it. How about music? In today's world of music, consumers no longer own the product, they just rent it; and though the streaming platforms that lease us copious amounts of music every month have their strong points, the fact that we no longer own the music is sad.

At no other time in history have we had some much music at our beckoning call, and at the same time never had it at all. In 1877 Thomas Edison created the phonograph. Although not portable, this was the first step on music becoming accessible to all. Before this time, the only way to listen to music was live, and you could only do that if you could afford it. Over the next 150 years, the innovations in music consumption would grow and evolve from records to 8 tracks, cassettes to cd's, and eventually mp3's and streaming platforms. The quality became better, the portability became more convenient, but the tangible nature began to slip from our grasp.

Don't get me wrong streaming is f**king amazing. I can literally listen to every Kanye West album there is! As long as it's not exclusively on Tidal. ( you know how Jay do) Every artist you could possibly think of, is on one streaming platform or another. Never before could you pay so little and have so much. New releases being thrown at you every week, endless playlist with music from the past, present, and future just waiting to be listened to. Discovery features that help you find new up and comers that fit your taste; and the list goes on. I took the Spotify route, and I think my $15 dollars a month is well spent. But too much of anything can be a bad thing. We have become complacent listeners because we have grown accustom to the luxurious lifestyle of streaming.

Take Bloggers for example. When streaming was non-existent, bloggers would get the albums from the labels months in advance. They would spend time listening to the project over and over, take a break, and then come back to it; and only after they had absorbed every element of the project would they then commence writing a review of the artists work. Today music moves at the speed of light and bloggers who call themselves music lovers, listen through a couple of times and call it the best thing ever heard, or vice versa. How is that even remotely fair to the artist and or the reader of the review?

Take Justin Timberlake's 2nd installment of the 20/20 experience. After a couple of listens, I thought it was, "...a rushed and therefore failed attempt at being a nuance." I didn't listen to it anymore after the first few rotations. I told everyone it sucked, it was wack, don't waste your money...bla, bla, bla. Fast forward 3 months, I'm on the train, and my iPhone went all fucking I robot on me and began to play the album. (By itself😱) For some reason, I did t recognize anything I was listening to. I listened to it on repeat all day and was so confused at why I hadn't had the same reaction the first go round, but I loved it so much this time.

I believe it was because it was so easy to move on to something else, so I didn't give it a second chance. Spotify had its new releases section and I just skipped to the next one without actually giving it another thought.

When buying CD's was the thing to do, we were stuck with that CD if we didn't like it. You couldn't just unsave it on your streaming platform. You either gave it away for someone else to enjoy, or you came back to it later on. This built artist loyalty and true fans. Your favorite artist and bands knew you loved them because you had to go out of your way to purchase their works. You had to take time out of your day to obtain the music you wanted. Now you can just pull it up, and kick it out when you're finished. This type of disregard for our music gives us a renters mentality. We live in such a microwave generation that every component of our life has to be there immediately and gone as quickly as it came.

When the music was ours, you knew the true fans. Now being a fan of music is a fad because you can pull up any album at any time. Back in the day, you had to have that album in your possession, and if you didn't you got called out. What happened to that? What happened to people actually caring about the music they consumed? Next time someone claims to be a fan of an artist, ask them about the albums they have. Bet you they ain't got that hard copy though.

Think about it. If you don't pay your bill to Apple Music, Spotify, etc they take that music away. Even if you have downloaded the albums to your phone, it won't stay there. That sucks!!! I mean you gotta pay your bills, but the fact that they can take it away anytime they want to blows. What happens if Spotify shuts down? Then all the music you have been digitally "collecting" goes to shit, and you no longer have it. It's the same idea as not keeping photo albums anymore. We just put everything on Facebook, and Instagram and believe that it will always be there. What if it's not though? Then every memory, smile and fun time that you captured is gone. Music is the uptempo stride to a humans beings existence. We are music. We come out of the womb making noise, and we own that. It's our right to own the sounds that express our lifetime. Don't wait until the internet shuts down. Get your music back today!

Streaming is both amazing and horrible. We have every kind of music we could ever want, but we no longer have to work for it. It's just given to us, and because music has become a handout, the platforms that hand it out make sure they can take it away at any moment. Make sure that no matter what happens to the internet, you have the music that you love and it's safe for you to enjoy for generations to come. Why? Because it's mother fucking yours!