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Why media fans want to escape algorithms with CDs, DVDs and vinyl

70 points · 109 comments · beardyw

  1. jonplackett · · focus · HN ↗
    I just finished making a ‘physical’ music system for my daughter.

    The inverted commas are because it’s actually all MP3s that are stored on a phone.

    But the phone is in a box

    Connected to a speaker

    Running an app I made that plays playlists when she places an nfc card on the box

    Basically it’s a bootleg Yoto / Tonie box but completely free, and our own music.

    Also got a desktop app where I download stuff, make plays lists and it auto syncs to the phone.

    She actually really likes it. Having a physical sense of what you own feels good!

    I wish I could take all the credit but Codex helped, a bit…

    1. sixtyj · · focus · HN ↗
      I saw a new Walkman yesterday in one e-shop. I hadn’t dump audio tapes… so kids will be all right :)
      1. jonplackett · · focus · HN ↗
        I was in shop the other day with my daughter and the walls were covered in cassette tapes as decoration.

        I has to take SO MANY steps back to explain what they were.

        I realised she thought all music was just magically created when you ask Alexa for it - so we had to start there to explain someone has to make the music first, and go back though streaming services, digital downloads, to having to literally go to a shop to buy a single song for £4 - which is probably about £20 now adjusted for inflation.

        1. sixtyj · · focus · HN ↗
          Phone booths, landline phones, Atari or Commodore computers with modems… 25 years is history now.

          People born before WWI had to feel similarly when WWII started.

          1. jonplackett · · focus · HN ↗
            Funnily enough I have also set her and 3 friends up on a private landline network for them to call and chat old school.

            One thing I love most about old tech is that it is single purpose = no distrations!

        2. thunky · · focus · HN ↗
          > she thought all music was just magically created when you ask Alexa for it

          This is becoming more and more true.

          1. jonplackett · · focus · HN ↗
            Yeah she was just 18 months early on that one eh.
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