Years ago, all my music was on my iPod. I made my own playlists and collected music by buying albums, or borrowing them from friends or the library. I don’t remember when or how I moved to Spotify, or how I lost my digital music collection. I had the whole world of music at my fingertips for only $12 a month. It seemed like a miracle. But I didn’t see myself losing touch with my music taste. Spotify wrote the playlists and recommended me artists that sounded like what I was already listening to. The power of curating my music collection had slipped through my fingertips.

I got a digital audio plater (DAP) because I felt like Spotify was sucking the fun out of discovering new music. After I listened to an album Spotify’s algorithm would feed me songs that sounded similar. Whenever I found a new band or artist this way, I instantly forgot them. I couldn’t find what I had discovered again and listened to whatever the next song was on the AI music pipeline.

A DAP is basically an mp3 player that also plays other format such as flac (a lossless file format). You download music onto your computer, load it to your DAP and you’re on your way. There’s no algorithm or followers. It’s just you and your music.

My DAP has helped me be more intentional about my listening. I scour Reddit, Instagram and online magazines for recommendations. There’s less distractions than my phone. You can’t doomscrolling a DAP or be interrupted by a notification. A DAP doesn’t let you listen to a playlist generated by AI. You actually have to think about what you want to listen to and select it.

My DAP encourages me to go in deep with an album or artist rather than adding a song to a playlist and moving on. Latest I’ve been listening to an artist called Soccer Mommy. Pre-DAP I might have just listened to the ‘Best of ‘artist’’ playlist that Spotify automatically generates. But I’m been listening to all of her album Evergreen without any skips.

The playlistification of modern music should not be ignored. Songs are more frequently being produced as singles or with particular playlists in mind. On the other hand, albums are intended to be consumed as an artistic whole. While Spotify designs playlist to keep you from skipping, missing a track makes the music lose some of its impact. Playlists are usually organised by moods or similar sounds, which pushes music towards the middle ground, or radio friendly singles.

I also hated supporting an evil company that robs artists, funds weapons and fools listeners with AI music. Typically Spotify pays between $0.003 and $0.005 cents per stream. This means that an artist will earn $3000 to $5000 per million streams. For ‘up and coming’ artists, Spotify makes deals to play them more but pay them less. Playlists also push users to listening to music created by AI, which doesn’t require a royalty payment. With the money I’m saving on Spotify, I’ve been able to support artists by buying digital albums on Bandcamp.

Reddit users recommended the best DAPs. I settled on the Hiby R1, which is pretty popular. It’s small with a touch screen and has expandable storage. It was easy to transfer music from my computer to the Hiby. Redditors also recommended the Hifi Walker H2, Snowsky Echo Mini and refurbished iPods.

I haven’t used an iPod in over 10 years, so I had to restart my digital music collection. I started by ripping cds I had stashed in the garage. I bought a bunch of music on Bandcamp. Some albums are available at low prices, and some artists let you pay what you want. I hear some people also use programs download music from bigger artists (which might not be legal).

My DAP has changed my relationship to my music. I actually remember who I’m listening to. It’s more effort to download music and put it on my DAP, but I think that makes me appreciate it more. When you have a more limited, curated music library, you can actually think for yourself and choose what you want to listen to instead of whatever the Spotify overlords want to play to keep you dependent on their app and profiting off your desire for convenience.

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My digital audio player changed my…