I used love the freedom Spotify, and similar music streaming platforms, promised. You have access to a vast music collection for a small amount of money everywhere. Then I faced reality. The freedom offered was just an illusion.

• I spent lots of long hours putting together playlists on Spotify to listen to my favorite music and share it with friends. Until one day I noticed that tracks started to disappear from the playlists because of whatever licensing issues Spotify had with the respective labels.
• I also realized that I didn’t want to depend on a paid service for the rest of my life just to be able to listen to music. I want to own a digital copy of the music. Furthermore, I want to be able to listen to my music without internet connection and even if I go poor.
• Finally, I do want to support artists and make sure that the money goes to them.

Today I use Bandcamp to explore and purchase music. About 80% of the artists income recieved through Bandcamp goes directly to the artists. You can download your music in high quality. And Bandcamp is a great platform to discover new music and recieve the updates of the artists you follow.

Last year we made an agreement with my partner that each month we’d purchase one new album. In 2021, we bought the following albums:

• Root Down Deep by Sam Garrett, Mollie Mendoza
• Designer by Aldous Harding
• Rasti by Laboratorium Pieśni
• EURIE by Belako
• Dysnomia by Dawn of Midi
• Call of the Wild by Curawaka
• KIKIRIKIKÍ by Alicia Álvarez
• Belesia by Ignacio Maria Gomez
• >>> by Beak>
• Perlas & Conchas by Fémina

In 2022, we bought the following albums (I ended up purchasing more than one per month):