I have family there, too. It can be fun to visit, but I would hate living there. It’s also annoying how people who do live there think it’s the center of the universe, and being from NYC is a personality.

Used CDs (or local library). Ripping software. Super easy. Or just buy from Amazon and download your files to local.

Many of my friends use it. I’m old school and just keep a collection of mp3s on multiple devices for backup.

When things shifted from being proud of server uptimes to being proud of constant push notifications and constant pointless updates, that’s when the tide turned. Engineers lost, MBAs won, and now customers suffer. It’s all subscriptions and lootbox mentality now.

I’m guessing somewhere around 2010, but it was a gradual relentless process.