Music-listening used to be a social ceremony: sharing albums, making mixtapes, singing along to friends. Today, streaming services give us access to infinity—but have we paid a price?
Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube put a million songs in our pockets. Theoretically, that is more intimate with music. Practically, the experience has become more lonely, algorithm-driven, and velocity-oriented.
“I used to spend hours making CDs for my friends,” says my Gen-x aunt. “Now people just send a link. It’s convenient, but it’s not the same.”
Streaming has made it easier to get access, but altered how we connect with songs on an emotional level. “When music was less accessible, you sat with an album—really lived with it,” Allen goes on. “Now it’s more disposable.”
Teenagers today are finding music by way of TikTok pop, Spotify recommendations, and algorithm-generated playlists. Sure, this can introduce listeners to new styles, but it also means that many don’t select music—it’s selected for them. The algorithm, not the artist, dictates the path. Furthermore, artists now pay for their music to be promoted, completely erasing that genuine, authentic feel and replacing it with a more manufactured, strategic, and inorganic experience.
But students aren’t so clueless to this. “Sometimes I’ll hear a song on TikTok, and I’ll hear it once and then never again,” says Hannah Chong (11). “But when I sort through old records at my grandpa’s house, I feel like I really do find something.”
That moment of revelation—of hearing a tune that sounds like yours—is less accessible in the age of instant streaming. And social listening has declined. While friends would gather to hear as an album debuted, today’s listeners listen alone.
But hope is not lost. Playlist-sharing is a love language for Gen Z, and music communities still thrive online. “It’s just different now,” says Hannah. “We’re still discovering each other through music, just in a more digital way.”
Music isn’t any less significant in the streaming era—but the way we relate to it, and to each other through it, is evolving.
