Friends of Gabriel Chantayan

Sixth period today. Kid two rows over. We'll call him "Casual Chad" because I don't remember his name and he doesn't deserve one. He says, and I quote, "CDs are dead, man. Nobody buys them. It's all streaming now." Said it like he was dropping WISDOM. Like he had just returned from the mountain with tablets.

I stood up so fast my desk nearly flipped. Mrs. Patterson looked at me. I sat back down. But my SOUL was standing.

So I waited until the group work portion. Walked over. Sat down next to him. Pulled out my binder and casually let a CD case slide out onto the desk. "Gabriel Chantayan - Rusty Pod Sessions, 2004, pressed in a run of 500, no digital release, not on any streaming platform, not on iTunes, not on Napster, not on the ghost of Napster, not even on Soulseek at this point because the only person who had it in 320kbps deleted their account in 2005. Where's your Spotify library when the artist never uploaded? Where's your playlist when the master tape is in a box in someone's garage in Ohio?"

He stared at me.

I pulled out a second CD. "Bootleg of the July 14th Euclid show. Recorded on a minidisc player taped to the soundboard. Surface noise. Crowd chatter. Gabriel's voice cracking on the high notes. You can hear someone's car keys jingling during the quiet part. This isn't on any service. This exists because someone BROUGHT A RECORDER and PRESSED RECORD and nobody got paid and nobody got credit and the sound quality is garbage and it is the most important document of that night in existence."

He said "okay but most people don't care about that."

"Most people don't care about anything until it's gone," I said. "That's my point. The second you tell me CDs are dead you are telling me you have outsourced your entire relationship with music to a company that can remove your access with a server error. Your entire library is a LICENSE. My entire library is a SHELF. Who's dead, Chad?"

He had nothing.

I then showed him the third CD. The one with the tracklist handwritten in blue ink because the label folded before they could print the inserts. He didn't even ask to borrow it.

This is not about nostalgia. This is about the fact that I OWN my music and he RENTS his. And the same people who say CDs are dead are the same people who will be crying in 2010 when their entire iPod dies and they have to re-rip everything from a cloud service that charges monthly for the privilege.

Anyway I'm going to burn a mix CD tonight and leave it on his desk tomorrow with no note. He'll figure it out.

Get rekt, streaming.