This weekend, while organizing my CD collection, I had a small but uncomfortable realization.
I was rarely listening to my CDs anymore. Or my vinyls. I was consuming music almost exclusively through streaming, Apple Music, to be precise. when I stopped to think about it, something felt off.
I Don’t Own Most of the Music I Listen To
Most of the music I listen to today… I don’t actually own.
If my internet connection goes down, if I decide to leave the Apple ecosystem, or if one day I simply can’t (or don’t want to) pay for another subscription, it’s gone. All of it.
I’m not buying music anymore.
I’m renting it.
Renting means depending:
- On a company
- On licenses
- On an ecosystem
- On monthly payments
Streaming is convenient, but it comes at a cost we rarely think about: ownership.
Remembering How Music Used to Feel
That realization immediately brought me back to my early days with music.
Waiting for release day.
Going to the record shop.
Buying the CD, the tape, or the vinyl.
Getting home.
Then blasting that album on repeat for hours.
You didn’t just listen to music back then.
You lived with it.
You read the booklet.
You learned the track order by heart.
You knew every transition, every silence, every hidden detail.
Most importantly: you owned it.
60% of My Library Is Just Rented
When I looked at my habits honestly, the number surprised me.
Around 60% of the music I listen to today is not mine.
I still have shelves full of CDs. I still have vinyls.
But day to day, I was outsourcing my musical life to a streaming service.
That didn’t sit right anymore to me.
Streaming Isn’t the Enemy, Losing Control Is
Let’s be clear: this is not a “technology bad” rant.
Streaming is amazing:
- Instant access
- Great discovery
- Multi-device playback
The problem isn’t streaming.
The problem is streaming music you don’t own.
So I started looking for another way.
A way to:
- Keep the convenience of modern tech
- While listening only to music I actually bought
Streaming My Music
That’s how I came across Navidrome.
A self-hosted music streaming server.
Your music. Your files. Your rules.
It was exactly what I was looking for.
Back to Ripping, Back to Ownership
The setup itself felt symbolic.
I had to dig out my old USB CD/DVD reader.
Plug it in.
Start ripping my CDs again.
Track by track.
Album by album.
Slowly rebuilding a digital library but one that I truly own.
No licenses that can disappear.
No catalog reshuffling.
No artist suddenly removed.
Just music.
Convenience Is Nice, Ownership Is Better
I’ll probably still use streaming services for discovery.
But when it comes to what I really love the albums that matter I want them at home.
On my disks.
On my server.
Streaming didn’t kill music ownership.
We just forgot that we had a choice.
This weekend, while organizing my CDs, I decided to take that choice back.
