I BOUGHT my first CD in 1987. I wish I could say it was something achingly cool.

It wasn’t.

We went on a family CD shopping trip soon after we got our first hi-fi.

I bought Terence Trent D’Arby’s album, which was marginally better than my sister’s choice that of American one-hit-wonder Tiffany – but much worse than my dad’s – Paul Simon’s Graceland.

I didn’t download my first album until 2008, 21 years later and well after other people my age had discovered the medium. CDs had served me well for over two decades. I enjoyed collecting them. I liked having something physical with artwork and sleeve notes and lyrics.

But, when my collection got so big I could never find the thing I wanted to listen to, I began the mind-numbing process of ripping all that music on to my computer.

I threw away the boxes and put the discs into huge folders which now live under the bed.

And once I’d been through that trauma, it made sense to only download albums from then on.

Maybe because that journey from CD to MP3 took me so long, I still haven’t come around to streaming. But clearly, once again, I’m the one being left behind.

For the first time this week, the UK’s number one single is there not just because of sales, but also because of online plays. Ariana Grande’s Problem sold 106,000 copies. It was also listened on sites like Spotify over 700,000 times.

The Official Charts Company equates 1,000 plays to one single purchase, so as far as they’re concerned the track has a combined sales figure of about 113,000.

Me, I can’t quite tear myself away from the idea of ownership.

To be able to stream a song you have to be connected to the internet.

What if you’re on a plane or in the middle of rural Dorset where decent 3G signals are as rare as chickens’ teeth?

I understand that if I’ve bought a MP3 download, I’ve effectively parted with money for a collection of electrons. But at least they’re my electrons.