[drpfenderson]

Well, the main reason, as I stated, is ideological. That it is not encumbered by patents, like mp3 is/was. The "paper cone" example was the most extreme hyperbole that came to mind. I just think it's neat that I would still have tunes, even in that extreme, unlikely situation.

However, in response to that: This past winter my apartment went without power for over 3 days, thanks to frost damage taking out major parts of our grid. UPC ran out of power in a couple hours, phones near the end of the day, any rechargables near mid-second-day. It was really nice to have the hand-crank player with built-in speaker while huddled up under a heavy blanket and reading. The same experience even more recently while staying at a fairly remote cabin, without streaming, signal, or convenient power. Had board games, a handful of records, and a nice lantern. Good times.

[bombcar]

Yeah, there’s a great big chasm between “listening to Spotify” and “the world has descended to caveman days” and multiple options are nice. We’ve been without power for a night and the M18 equipment was nice to have. We’ve been without internet for days and local storage was nice to have.