What is the “correct” way of listening to music? I saw a post online recently about how it’s rare to see people nowadays simply sit down and listen to music. Not putting it on in the background, not using it as noise or chatter while you do something else, no. Just sitting down and listening to music simply, as it is.

I think it is important to deconstruct this concept of listening to music, and examine it a little more closely. A reply I saw to the aforementioned post said something along the lines of music being reserved for a select, privileged few in the past. This was in reference to Opera performances and such. While this is technically true, it is a rather superficial observation to make.

When music is being performed, live, in front of you, whether it be an Opera or a nu metal concert, your attention is drawn to it in an irresistible fashion. There are humans in front of me and they are doing things! It is loud, the people around you are all focused on the music, it’s a conducive environment for your brain to absorb what is happening. However, listening to music at your own leisure is a drastically different activity.

Listening to the music that you want to has become almost stupidly easy. I am literally a tap away from all the music humanity has ever created. The human brain needs a sense of scarcity to be present to truly enjoy something. The act of purchasing a CD, going home, slotting it into your CD player and listening to it is a more wholesome and rewarding experience. You’re automatically more present and mindful when you’re listening to whatever you've just bought.

Right, so that is two things. If you combine the sense of scarcity with a sense of sacrifice or loss (in this case the purchase of said CD), you’re almost guaranteed to have a better, more focused, auditory experience. All this is fairly obvious once you start to think about it, but I really wonder how you can apply this to digital streaming.

For one, you have services like Bandcamp, you purchase the digital files and you have them forever. Or, if perhaps you are a little tight on the money front, there are always the high seas to explore. A subscription to a streaming service is simply too cheap and sporadic for the conscious mind to register as an active “loss”. Music today feels…available in an almost unlimited sense. Naturally, if you take a moment to think about this it’s simply mind boggling that you have access to all this. The feeble mind however does not register this every time you open up Spotify.

What, then, is the solution? How does one in this age of absolute abundance manage to appreciate art as though it were scarce? I’ve been guilty of putting music on and forgetting it’s there far more than I would like to admit. I don’t like it. I genuinely do want to be more conscious and aware of what I am listening to. Perhaps a return to physical media may be my only recourse. Once I can afford it, of course.