[copperx]

> This is a phenomenon I really don't understand.

It's status signaling.

Anybody can send pseudorandom numbers to their audio device, but some people are rich enough to do it on a thousand dollar device, using a paid subscription to download megabytes of pseudorandom data over mobile data, storing it on expensive flash to achieve the same result.

Don't judge it through a rational lens. It's primitive status signaling.

[rchaud]

I don't think that's it. If this conversation was being had a decade ago, more people would be saying "download an MP3, keep it forever".

The younger generation grew up with Spotify having everything available for a subscription. We grew up with OG Napster, which really did have everything.