Growing up, I subscribed to BMG and Columbia House (get the free CDs, cancel, sign up again) and amassed a pretty huge CD collection. I guess it was tapes at first, then CDs eventually when they took over. Never got into vinyl. I always wanted to listen to music "on the go" so I never left home without my Walkman or Discman. Made a zillion mixtapes.
When mp3s become a thing, I bought the first iPod that came out and never looked back. I ripped all my CDs and stashed them away. I think they're in my mom's basement.
Since Bandcamp Fridays became a thing, I pretty much exclusively get my new music that way. Really old stuff, for artists who are dead, I get most of that through Soulseek. Just grabbed some early Sly Stone recently. That's been fun.
I have a Plex server at home and just stream everything to my phone that way. But I think because I grew up listening to albums in their entirety, I mostly listen to music that way still. I've had the latest Videoflip release on repeat for awhile. New Speed Week is really good too. Sometime I get the itch for a specific song and I can just play that and jump to something else, but it's still a deliberate choice, as opposed to shuffle. Although sometimes shuffle is fun too every now and then. I find some deep cuts that way.
Anyway, never did the streaming thing I think because most of the music I listen to comes from a place of, "I want to listen to this specific album/artist/track" and not wanting random music chosen for me.
