Just like your grandpa who collected stamps, your neighbour who collects novelty bottle tops or your cousin who’s really into Pokémon, I have a penchant for hoarding. But one of my favourite pastimes of late has been collecting CDs. This first began as a way to expand the sparse remnants I inherited of my mum’s once-vast CD treasure-trove, and as a portable alternative to the vinyl collection I started back in high school, once I moved here for university. It’s now become something that brings me immense joy, and lets me take the time out of a busy uni schedule to unwind and enjoy the delights of music.

But starting a CD collection is more than having something to hoard. It gives you a way to support your favourite artists directly, giving your favourite musicians a much more substantial portion of the money you’ve spent to listen to them. It gives you full ownership over the music you want to listen to, not having to rely on a streaming platform to continue letting you listen to it. And, most of all, it helps reshape the way you listen to music, clearing away the clutter of the on-demand streaming format we’ve grown used to.

Direct Artist Support

One really great benefit to buying a CD is that your purchase makes a big impact on that artist. Traditionally, CD purchases provide artists with a much larger royalty rate than streaming services. For example, the amount of money an artist makes from one Spotify stream is around US$0.003, with royalty increases only really favouring extremely successful artists with large catalogues (think Taylor Swift or Beyonce). Your average indie artist likely won’t be able to make a living off of Spotify royalties alone. However, artists can typically receive around 15 percent in royalties from the physical album sales. That means if you purchase an album for $20, the artist who created that album could receive around $3 in royalties (much larger than 0.3 cents!).

Additionally, physical album sales are a large contributor to gaining recognition on music charts such as Billboard or iTunes, which can massively benefit the success of a smaller-known artist in future projects, as they’ve amassed a larger following through name recognition. CD royalties can be a huge support for smaller artists in continuing their careers, so spending the extra dollar to purchase a copy at your local music shop can be fundamental to benefitting up-and-coming musicians.

Full Ownership (and its extra benefits!)

A super important bonus of buying a CD is the fact that once you’ve paid for that CD and leave the shop, that CD is yours. You don’t have to rely on the kindness of a big corporation streaming platform to continue allowing you to listen to a certain song, or hope that platform doesn’t hike up its prices or introduce new restrictions to your listening. You can listen to your CD as much as you like until it breaks or dies (which, with good care, it won’t for a very, very, very long time). Spotify can’t break into your house and take it away at their whim. You own that copy, and that means you have unlimited listening to that music.

It also gives you a whole host of opportunities through the attached CD booklet! You now have artist-curated art, photography and behind-the-scenes information that you can peruse to your heart’s delight! No more looking up lyrics on google and hoping they’ve gotten their information correct because you have the lyrics straight from the source. Moreover, cutting up a CD booklet can give you a great source of hall-friendly wall décor or material for collaging.

For example, two of my favourite posters started as CD booklets to Carole King’s Tapestry and boygenius’ the record. A lot of artists take your walls into account when creating CD booklets, so you can frequently get exclusive posters or prints slotted into your CD case.

Active Listening

The most important aspect (in my opinion) about purchasing CDs is that it encourages you to listen to albums as a whole work (instead of littered throughout your playlist) and it encourages you to listen to it actively. Artists spend countless time curating an album to be an experience for the listener, but too often do we put it on as ‘background noise’ when we study, cook our meals, or go about our day. Though passive listening does have its benefits, like providing an extra stimulus we need to focus or giving us an energy boost to do something big; taking the time to listen to your music actively and analytically allows for a grounded listening experience, improving your skills in analysing music and developing your music taste, and giving that extra time and appreciation to the artist who has spent all their energy, creativity and passion creating this work for you to enjoy.

It helps you figure out what sounds or stylistic choices you like and don’t like and can develop your understanding of why you like or don’t like it. You learn to connect patterns between the music and lyricism that are deliberately crafted to evoke specific emotions, and you come to understand how album structure and album narratives showcase themselves between genres and time periods. Taking an example from my collection, The Who’s My Generation has a very different album structure compared to Jeff Buckley’s Grace, even though they are both debut albums from artists who would gain a large and dedicated fan base from these debuts.

If you take anything out of this article, remember this: when you need a break from an essay that just won’t write, or an exam that’s driving you crazy, grab yourself a portable CD player (shoutout to my grandpa’s Discman!), a pair of headphones, and your favourite disc. Take an hour out of your day to sit down and listen to an album. Maybe it can help you learn something new about your favourite songs, and give you the time to relax and enjoy what music has to offer.