| _RapidGator, MegaUpload, and Mediafire angrily enter the chat_ in all seriousness, there really are very few reasons for sharing audio files these days. The only ones I can think of are: - finding a work that is not online (like a specific live record or like 85% of early 80s hardcore that hasn't been remastered), - pirating (which music streaming services has made ubiquitous for 99.95% of people who consume music; thanks, Sean Parker!), or - audiophiles buying $10,000 balanced headphone cables with gold TRS jacks (because mics don't belong in headphones, _obviously_)who only listen to test tracks in FLAC format (who don't have newer iPhones anyway) as far as i remember, iPhones were able to play loose audio files, but you couldn't catalogue them into iTunes, which was annoying given that iPhoneOS (only 2010's kids remember this) didn't have a built-in file manager. moreover, most of those files came compressed (_Mediafire's anger intensifies_), and iPhones didn't have a publically-usable extraction utility, which made working with them a huge chore. I think the MP3 player in its earliest form was a concession that we lived with (because it was easier than dealing with jackets of CDs and anti-skip sucking) that was absolutely destined for a streaming-only world (because my gut says that MOST people never wanted to get into the audio collection business; they only want to listen to their favorite songs from their glory days in college) |