Going old school

Right from childhood, I used to spend a lot of time listening to music. I guess I picked it up from my parents - dad was into music a little bit, mom used to listen to the radio every day. Even though I never learnt music or learnt to play any instrument, to this day I spend a considerable amount of my free time listening to music. And over the years my taste in music has changed quite a lot too.

When I first came across Spotify, I immediately fell in love with the service. The curated playlists, music suggestions, friend feed all were great ways to find new music. But like what happened with Instagram, Spotify too has lost its soul now. It's becoming more and more about podcasts and shows and less about music. On top of that, the licence restrictions removing songs from your library randomly made me think why I am spending money on the service if I don't get to listen to the songs I enjoy.

I guess I'm not alone in sharing the feeling as evident by the second coming of physical media, at least here in Europe. After my move here, I was really surprised when I found music stores still selling vinyls, CDs and now cassettes too! I'm no more a Spotify subscriber and my music collection is now slowly growing. It's been a lot of fun building this budget system. Scouring the classifieds for good deals, buying equipment many years older than myself praying that they don't break down too soon and of course going digging in the local second hand music store to add to my collection.

The last piece of the puzzle was this cassette deck and it brings back a lot of memories from childhood. I really hope that these make a comeback in India too by the time I eventually move back.