I remember when I needed to get some music for a job I had high on Mt. Adams in New Hampshire's White Mountains. Even if I could lug them up the three-mile, 3000-foot up trail, my vinyl records just would not work in a cabin without electricity, so I settled for a buying a small, used boom box from a friend. Only one problem, the thing only played eight-track tapes. Cassettes were just becoming the real deal, but they were still too expensive. So with my $15 boom box and some blank eight tracks that I picked some records to record. In the end, it worked out alright, I had my music and great radio reception for the next four months. A few years later the eight-track was overwhelmed by the cassette tape, and it quickly became obsolete. Fast-forward almost ten years, and the compact disc was the next hot tech topic. Of course, back then the discs were $25 and the players $500, so my economic focus was still on cassettes (the Sony Walkman being the preferred delivery device). I waited patiently, and by 1996, the cassette began its exit dance into technological oblivion. The compact disc became the norm, with even the Walkman awkwardly moving to that format. I spent many hours scouring the racks at Tower Records in Foggy Bottom, looking for obscure and wonderful music that I had yet to listen to.

And so it went, technology evolved--the Internet, MP3s, Apple, and iTunes came along, making it easier than ever to listen to digital music files on the computer, and eventually on this new gadget, the iPod. I began collecting this digital music and storing it—hundreds and hundreds of live concerts from a global community of music aficionados. This digital music revolution made quick work of the compact disc, and services like iTunes became the norm. I can't throw them out yet, but when is the last time you played a cd? Pay $9.99, download the album, and then listen to it on the reimagined and vastly cheaper stereo setup anchored by the personal computer and the iPod.

Then came Spotify, and other less capable streaming services, that would deliver music to your computer or cell phone. Now, on a road trip, if an album or song was discussed, in a matter of seconds, it could be found and played via Spotify – something that was unimaginable only ten years before.

And now it is 2018. The music business has transformed, and now Apple iTunes, the largest place that you can purchase and download music, has announced that by 2019, they will stop selling downloadable music. And why not? With most areas having the infrastructure in place, this transformation of technology is logical and inevitable. At each point of change, I would feel a little sad to lose what we had. But I have to admit, I'll take access to millions of albums in an instant over a few self-recorded eight tracks any day. Niche music and media focuses have emerged involving many musical genres and media like vinyl records and cassettes, and I even buy a vinyl record every now and then – they sound great. I still have my digital music collection to draw on, now exceeding three terabytes of (mostly live) music. That said, streaming services are where I go for most of my listening nowadays, and you should too.

Whether it's Apple Music, Spotify, or the great Etree and Nugs.net apps that supply thousands of live concerts right to your phone, the state of technology for the listener is better than it has ever been – we should all take advantage of it.

My playlist this month, "Gray Knob Pop," is a nostalgia trip back to 1981 and '82, when I worked at that cabin high in the White Mountains. I listened exclusively to those eight tracks, along with CHOM-FM from Montreal, and WTOS "The Mountain" from Sugarloaf Maine. We're talking 80's rock here – from Red Rider to Asia, to Phil Collins, and everything else. The list is good for that next 300-mile road trip. Get it here: https://tinyurl.com/yboq2cz6

Steve Chase lives in Unison and streams his music loud.