---
date: '2024-01-08'
title: 'I found the music I love on the internet'
description: 'My roundabout journey of musical discovery on the internet.'
draft: false
tags:
  - 'music'
  - 'Last.fm'
  - 'tech'
---
I was born in the late 80s and grew up in the 90s. My musical journey started with tapes. First it was *The Traveling Wilbury's Vol. 1*, my parents playing that until the tape snapped. That tape lived in an old brown van we had, the interior covered in shag carpet, a bench seat in back. Next up was Nirvana's *Unplugged in New York* that made it from my dad's old Chevy Nova to the Honda Civic that replaced it.<!-- excerpt -->

Eventually we graduated to CDs, my first MP3 player being a near-indestructible [Dell Digital Jukebox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Digital_Jukebox). That was the first time I ripped a CD and realized I should tag the MP3s — a two disc compilation of Led Zeppelin's greatest hits[^1]. When I was old enough to drive those MP3s were burned to CD-Rs, kept in clumsy cases on the sun visors and yellowed with age. I traded mixed CDs with friends at school. I didn't understand the quality implications of re-ripping CDs for my clumsily assembled collection until l got a bit older.

I drove to the local record store and got acquainted with what they stocked. I called and bugged their staff to special order CDs for me. I checked the local Borders and Barnes and Noble when it made sense (which was rare). I ripped the CDs, I bought a shelf to store them in, I loaded them on my Juke Box.

I found forums frequented by kids my age. I hung out in the music sections. I slowly gravitated towards the metal sections. I found European power metal bands. I loved [Blind Guardian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Guardian). I never quite got Iron Maiden, I still don't and I don't know why, but music is subjective[^2]. I branched out to metal-focused forums — some bands hosted their own and I saw a few posters older than myself getting logos and art tattooed.

I went back to Borders, I picked up *[Deliverance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deliverance_%28Opeth_album%29)* by [Opeth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opeth) expecting it to sound like *[Damnation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnation_%28album%29)*. I joined Last.fm, cycled through accounts and began tracing similar artists to find new bands. I found [Encyclopaedia Metallum](https://www.metal-archives.com/) and, if there was a band I liked, I'd click over to the members tab and listen to the other projects the musicians in the band participated in. I'd go back to Last.fm and sift through the similar artists for those projects. I bought those CDs, I swapped my Digital Jukebox for an iPod and swapped [Musicmatch Jukebox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicmatch_Jukebox) and WinAmp for iTunes.

I found more forums, this time geared towards more extreme metal as my taste edged in that direction — I set aside the power metal and started picking up music like Cynic's *[Focus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_%28Cynic_album%29)*, challenging myself to pick it apart with repeat listens until it sunk in. I found online CD distributors and music shops like The End records. I fell in love with [Agalloch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agalloch)'s music and bought everything they released until they broke up. 

I swapped my iPod and Motorola Razr for an iPhone.

I found [Augury](https://augurymetal.com/) as a recommendation for fans of [Cynic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynic_%28band%29) and I helped them set up their Facebook fan page when pages launched. I helped them with their website, I helped Cynic with their site and their pages. I found [Gorguts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorguts) and [Atheist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist_%28band%29) and briefly did the same. I interned for Augury's record label — I flew to Montreal for the release of their second LP. I crashed with the band and I got to see them rehearse, meet their fans, buy an unreasonable amount of merch and hang out at the local record shop.[^3]

I found [my favorite band](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomeansno) when someone, trolling, posted [their marquee LP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrong_%28album%29) on a forum asking if it was the best punk album ever or **the** best album ever.[^4]

Coding became a career, streaming became a thing and I begrudgingly made the switch to Rdio[^5] and then moved to Spotify. I sold my CDs and I kept my MP3s. I stopped collecting audio files (like most folks have). I stopped using Last.fm and I stopped visiting the local record stores.

I tried Apple Music when it launched — it performed horribly, duplicated tracks and even overheated a phone to the point the battery had to be swapped. I went back to Spotify. I met my wife and we bonded over a mutual love of [The National](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_%28band%29). We met [Matt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Berninger) backstage at a show once and we mentioned this to him — he remarked that he wished he could blame [Michael Stipe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Stipe) whenever anything went wrong in his marriage. He was gracious and kind. My wife tolerates all of the death and black metal. We drove 500+ miles to see [Tom Waits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Waits) play live. He hasn't played another show since.

[I've tried to get away from streaming music](https://coryd.dev/posts/2023/i-dont-want-streaming-music/), but continuing to cycle through Last.fm, Metal Archives, RateYourMusic and friends I've made along the way makes local storage hard.

Now I've got too many band shirts — some of them are older than our kids. The internet keeps churning, often feeling like it's inexorably getting worse but, at least, there's always more music.

[^1]: Rush came later and have endured in my collection far longer.
[^2]: The Trooper is a fantastic tune though.
[^3]: This is still the only trip I've taken abroad (I don't really like to even leave the house given the choice).
[^4]: The correct answer is ***both***.
[^5]: RIP.