The Inconveniences of Music Convenience

To this late adopter, digital music feels like the Wild West.

November 25, 2019 is a day that lives in infamy — a day when a split-second of lapsed judgement by a stranger led to intense personal struggles that I still deal with today.

That morning, I was taking my son to a high school job-shadow I’d set up with a local business, the owners of which are friends of mine. My son was excited about it, and so was I. The business was Distortions Unlimited, a company that manufactures wildly creative Halloween masks, props, and animatronics for haunted house attractions all over the world.

Talk about a cool experience for 15-year-old.

My son and I were sitting at a red light at an intersection, musing over what kinds of monsters and aliens he might see in production, when suddenly… BAM! Another car slammed into us from behind.

Everything changed. And by “everything” I mean the enjoyable music-listening setup I had in my car… because my son and I were thankfully just fine.

(Sorry for the misdirection, but that sort of thing comes with being a thriller novelist).

My 2013 Kia Sorento was totaled. Among the losses (when I signed the retired vehicle over to my insurance company) were its factory CD player and satellite radio. (Yes, I listen to more than just vinyl records).

These seemed like pretty small things at the time, and to a lot of people they certainly would have been. But when you’re a late adopter, as I am, to pretty much every technological advance in the arena of music and entertainment media, such moments set you up for a long, downward spiral of frustration.

While waiting for the insurance check, I decided I wanted another Sorento; one with fewer miles. After all, I was really happy with the old car (including how well it protected me and my son during the crash). Unfortunately, the newer models don’t come with a CD player (a sign of the times in an era of digital downloads and streaming services). This wasn’t a fun revelation to come to terms with, being that I’ve accumulated hundreds of CDs since college. For the longest time, just about any song anyone wanted was available on CD. And because I don’t buy new music all that often, I hadn’t been in a rush to catch up with today’s mediums. I certainly didn’t feel like buying downloads of music I already owned.

“No worries,” said my wife. “Newer cars have Android Auto which works with music apps.” She suggested that I download any songs I wanted from my CDs to my phone. Then, when I’m in the car, I could plug my phone into the new car’s USB port and play the music through Google Play (which would also let me purchase, download, and play other stuff off the Internet).

Moving music sounded like a lot of work (and time), but at least it would work.

What didn’t end up working, as we discovered shortly after buying a newer Sorento from Carmax, is that former rental cars (which make up a lot of Carmax’s inventory) aren’t necessarily satellite-ready (even though they’re supposed to be, according to the vehicle specs). Ours unfortunately wasn’t.

What a pain in the butt. I just want to listen to my favorite music.

“No worries,” my wife said again, explaining that SiriusXM has a streaming phone app which too works with Android Auto.

So, when I wasn’t copying music from my CDs to my phone (an indeed lengthy and space-consuming process that I sort of gave up on after a while), I was familiarizing myself with the SiriusXM app. I didn’t really like it because the user-interface was kind of clunky and the sound quality wasn’t as good due to file compression.

On a side note, when it comes to quality, vinyl is still considered the purest and most authentic medium. Of course, vinyl records don’t work so well in cars… though this great old picture of Muhammad Ali may have, at one time, provided some hope:

What really drove me nuts about the SiriusXM app was that it became useless whenever I’d lose my cell signal… like when I was driving in the mountains or waiting in the parking lot of my kids’ school. This was never the case with my old car (for more than a few seconds anyway), because it used a satellite signal.

What a pain in the butt. I just want to listen to my favorite music.

Thus… I ordered a separate SiriusXM radio for my car so I could get back to listening via satellite. And since I didn’t feel comfortable trying to run wire through my car, and mount an antenna, I paid Car Toys to do it.

Music listening got a little simpler after that. Though I had to switch back and forth between my separately mounted SiriusXM radio and Google Play (though Android Auto, through my car console), I could at least listen to the stuff I wanted to listen to. Plus, I kind of liked Internet-purchasing individual songs I hadn’t previously owned.

But, as luck would have it, Google Play was discontinued (or at least the Google Play Music portion of it). It was replaced with YouTube Music, which lets you migrate over previously downloaded music… but doesn’t let you purchase and download additional music off the Internet.

What a pain in the butt. I just want to listen to my favorite music.

“So…” I said to my wife. “How can I listen to songs I don’t already have?”

“Maybe it’s time we look into Spotify,” she replied.

Spotify, as I’m sure a lot of people reading this are well aware, is an audio-streaming subscription service that gives subscribers access to an enormous library of music… including brand new stuff. It too works with Android Auto.

We subscribed to Spotify, and there are definitely things to like about it, including easy access to some of my favorite podcasts. You can also download songs to your phone, which is a good option for mountain trips (if you remember to do it beforehand). But, as was the case with the SiriusXM app, the music quality isn’t as good as a CD or even mp3 downloads. And while I’m pleasantly surprised by how many songs and albums (including some pretty obscure ones) I’ve been able to find on Spotify, I’ve also been surprised by how many they don’t have.

The app does let you import standalone music files to your account, but only through the Desktop version. The feature isn’t very intuitive, but it at least lets me purchase songs from bands’ websites and retail websites like Bandcamp, download them to my computer, and then upload them to Spotify. It’s kind of a pain, and it takes time, but it works.

But then there’s the issue of certain music being exclusive to other streaming services. For example, I’ve come to really like some of Adam Taylor’s orchestrated music from the television show, The Handmaid’s Tale. There’s a soundtrack for each season. In the old days, they would have all been available on CD. Today, season 3’s soundtrack is only available to subscribers of SoundCloud. And since you can’t download music from SoundCloud, I couldn’t add the album to my Spotify playlist. I’d have to switch back and forth between apps.

It’s a Wild West world of digital audio… and it’s a pain in the butt. I just want to listen to my favorite music.

I get that there are lots of conveniences with today’s mediums (some of which I touched on and some of which I didn’t), but broadly speaking, it all still seems awfully inconvenient.

If only I would have taken a different route, or left a few minutes earlier or later, that fateful morning of November 25, 2019.

Are you a fellow, crotchety, late adopter who’s irritated with such things? Do you find yourself annoyed at people who insist it’s all a cinch? Tell me your story, just so I can feel less old and out of it.

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Random Thought

I really wish cheese rolling was a thing here in the United States. I’ve had hills (and people I want to see topple down them) in mind for years.

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Obligatory Dog Shot

Piper and Squiggy are getting into the Christmas spirit.

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Featured Vinyl

To me, National Lampoon’s Vacation is one of the funniest films ever made, and I’m confident I’m not alone in that opinion. But one quality of the movie that I think is probably underappreciated is the music.

Lindsey Buckingham’s “Holiday Road,” which launches the movie’s opening title sequence, is so catchy and emblematic of the Vacation franchise that it appeared in every subsequent film. “Little Boy Sweet” by June Pointer immediately evokes images of Chevy Chase getting groovy with a sandwich as he flirts with Christie Brinkley. “Blitzkrieg Bop” by The Ramones is of course great in any context. And then there’s Buckingham’s “Dancin' Across the USA,” which sends us on our way, at the end of the movie, as the Griswolds and company enjoy one last Walley World roller-coaster ride.

What’s particularly unique about the soundtrack (besides the fantastic poster art) is that it was only ever released on vinyl. There was never a cassette or CD version, and it isn’t available for digital download (though some of the individual songs on it are). So, the item is actually pretty are. I was lucky to find it at a used record store in Loveland, Colorado a few years ago.

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That’s all for now. Thanks for reading today’s Daly Grind.

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