I spent money on music in 2026

Last year, it really dawned on me how streaming music is basically socially-approved piracy. Unless you're an extremely successful artist, the payouts are so paltry, we may as well be pirating music. As such, I committed in 2026 to buying the music that I started listening over the course of this year, and I wanted to give an update as we get closer to the end of the year.

I went through my receipts and it looks like I've spent about $400 on music direct from artists this year. Basically what I've done is whenever I listen to a new album more than a few times, I go over to the artist's website and I buy it from them. Sometimes it's the vinyl, sometimes it's the MP3, but I always buy something directly from them.

I still listen to basically everything on Apple Music because it's convenient, but I do listen to the vinyls sometimes and it's fun.

Here's the thing. Think about an artist you really love. Maybe you've liked their music for a few months or a few decades. I promise you they have a website where they will more than happily sell you music or other swag that you'll probably love having and will pay them so much more than even ten thousand streams of their songs would. You don't have to spend $400 today, but throw a couple bucks at the artists you love, and I promise you they will appreciate it.