What’s on the Shelf, Not the Cloud
1,000 songs in your pocket. Apple paved the way for liberation through variety, and it taught us we don’t have to choose just one album and live with it. We have endless options all with the click of a dial, and eventually a subscription to a truly infinite library where we can swipe and tap (Spotify).
So despite this expectation and cultural shift. Why did this work, but at the same time it didn’t?
Just two years ago, in 2024, vinyl revenue reportedly grew for an 18th consecutive year and reached over a billion.
Access isn’t ownership, and that’s becoming apparent and favorable as a mindset to adopt. A cloud library can vanish as soon as a server goes down or a license expires. A physical disc can’t. The ritual of choosing said record, the commitment of sitting through side A before you flip it, is euphoric.
This is an instinct I’ve seen the people at House Rules adopt. Maybe some things were never meant to be weightless.
“Access isn’t ownership, and that’s becoming apparent & favorable as a mindset to adopt. ”
