It's about $50 for a Macbook Pro. And I have my music on 4 devices. Sure, I could throw $100-200 at music storage that I can't hear any difference in, but why the fuck would I? Again, this is golden-speaker-cables stuff.

Why carry it around on portable device? I've been streaming FLAC from a NAS for close to 10 years originally over sshfs and then later via plex. In 3G era I just used Google Music which transcoded my FLAC collection to 320kbps mp3 and I streamed it this way on the go. This was feasible around as early as 2009?

I only have 3 GB of data in my data plan, which is always more than enough for me, unless I'm working over my cell connection. I could get more data, but doing that just to stream music (when I already have a working solution for such) seems silly. I think in the US people often have much more expensive and large data plans than elsewhere. (My entire cell phone bill is €12/month, including 3 GB data, and unlimited calls and texts.)

I also very regularly go places with mediocre cell service: country side, airplanes, boats, and festivals.

> Why carry it around on portable device?

Well, because you're carrying the portable device around anyway. And it doesn't require a network connection, so it works even when you have no cell coverage.

I don't quite understand how your "streaming it this way on the go" worked?

It's pretty rare I go anywhere that lacks good enough cell service to stream FLAC with. I don't even live in a city, but I get it if you're really remote or can't afford cell service.

It's rare for me, too, but just last week I was up near Volcano, CA, and there's no Verizon there.

One cannot simply add more SSDs to one's laptop, regardless of price.

But one can buy a multi-TB drive that plugs into the laptop's USB 3.0 port. The "multi" part of it keeps getting larger, for the same price.

And you can keep an extra one at another site in case your house burns down.

...or $150 if you want to store it on your phone.