In the 70s and 80s you didn’t download music you owned it. If you cared enough about an artist or a song you had to wait for the vinyl to be pressed. Sometimes you waited in line hoping that EMI or Sony had sent enough copies to your local store. There you met other fans, just like you.

Along with a copy of the record you bought the artwork on the sleeve, a tangible reminder of the music you cared about. Buying a single or an album was an event, a layered experience. Taking the record from the sleeve, blowing the dust off. Being careful not to scratch the vinyl each time you played a song. Owning the music and the feeling meant having the album.

Today you don’t have to own the music to experience the feeling. And while there is trend away from ownership the experience and those feelings of connection and belonging will always be the currency of now.

What people want might change but how they want to feel stays the same. The feeling not the thing is what you need to focus on delivering.

Image by Rob Lambert.