My days of buying music on iTunes is coming to an end

[Razeus]

I've been testing the move for a while. And now with the Purchase of Beats, I'm hoping Apple integrates the service into the music app in a couple of years.

I don't want to have to use 2 Apple apps just to play music. I'm already using the Music App, Spotify, and Pandora. I'm glad iTunes Radio was added as that was one less thing to worry about. But iTunes Radio needs much work.

I'm a download an album kind of guy. But I know my days of doing this is coming to an end. Sometimes I'll buy an album and not like as much as I thought I would. I won't listen to an album in full on Spotify because I feel I won't get my $ worth when I buy an album/song since I grow tired of listening.

But with streaming, it matters not if I listen to a not so great album. I'll just remove it from the library. I will miss the feeling of collecting however. I've been buying albums since I was 7 (from 1984) so 30 years later, old habits will die hard.

 

[Menel]

Long ended for me. Spotify broke me. Everything was at finger tips, great other than the ongoing $120/yr fee.

Then iTunes Match. Recreated my playlists in iTunes. $25/yr + $45 to round out my playlists of missing tracks from my collection.

Now. I just spend $25/yr + about $15-25/yr on single specific tracks to bolster and rejuv current playlists. Its been pretty great.

Can stream or rework from wherever with the native Music app.

 

[flynz4]

I've been testing the move for a while. And now with the Purchase of Beats, I'm hoping Apple integrates the service into the music app in a couple of years.

I don't want to have to use 2 Apple apps just to play music. I'm already using the Music App, Spotify, and Pandora. I'm glad iTunes Radio was added as that was one less thing to worry about. But iTunes Radio needs much work.

I'm a download an album kind of guy. But I know my days of doing this is coming to an end. Sometimes I'll buy an album and not like as much as I thought I would. I won't listen to an album in full on Spotify because I feel I won't get my $ worth when I buy an album/song since I grow tired of listening.

But with streaming, it matters not if I listen to a not so great album. I'll just remove it from the library. I will miss the feeling of collecting however. I've been buying albums since I was 7 (from 1984) so 30 years later, old habits will die hard.

When I think about the impact of the internet onto music... I am really disappointed that it has essentially killed the "album". Like you, I have always (and still) buy whole albums. In almost all cases... there are some songs I love... others that are OK... and a few that I hate. What I have noticed is that over time, with almost any album, my preference has changed... even to the extent that the songs I hated become my favorites.

So... I am very disappointed that technology has changed buying behavior from "albums" to "songs". It is like buying a novel by the chapter, and not buying individual chapters that one might not like. You miss the bigger experience.

OTOH... technology has provided so much information about artists... that I often will research information about the album or artist while listening... and I now learn so much more than I could in the pre-tech days.

So on balance... I guess the loss/win comes out about neutral.

/Jim

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I'm a real old-timer. To me, it's not an "album" if it lacks liner notes. The way things are now, I'd consider "bundle of singles" to be a more appropriate term. Sure, one can still play the songs in the sequence intended by the artists/producers, but the existence of shuffle has to be a dis-incentive to the artists to take pains creating that sequence.

At this point, why not just give us a "buy 10 from the same artist, get 2 free" deal, and let us make up our own albums? It's not like the album artwork would disappear - those images are a marketing necessity.

I know, it's an old complaint at this point, but why, in an age where bits and bytes are so cheap, are we getting less info, rather than more? Why doesn't the metadata for each song include the names of all musicians, producers, composers, lyricists, performance rights organization, etc., or at the least, a link to a web page containing all that info?

 

[Razeus]

When I think about the impact of the internet onto music... I am really disappointed that it has essentially killed the "album". Like you, I have always (and still) buy whole albums. In almost all cases... there are some songs I love... others that are OK... and a few that I hate. What I have noticed is that over time, with almost any album, my preference has changed... even to the extent that the songs I hated become my favorites.

So... I am very disappointed that technology has changed buying behavior from "albums" to "songs". It is like buying a novel by the chapter, and not buying individual chapters that one might not like. You miss the bigger experience.

OTOH... technology has provided so much information about artists... that I often will research information about the album or artist while listening... and I now learn so much more than I could in the pre-tech days.

So on balance... I guess the loss/win comes out about neutral.

/Jim

I hate to lose the physical joy of an album. But those days are mostly gone. Does a man really need to carry 20,000 on him at a time? I guess there's a case for it, but digital files and their small size and ease of transmission won out over Sound quality.

 

[flynz4]

I hate to lose the physical joy of an album. But those days are mostly gone. Does a man really need to carry 20,000 on him at a time? I guess there's a case for it, but digital files and their small size and ease of transmission won out over Sound quality.

My argument had nothing to do with sound quality. It had to do with the fact that most people once bought albums... while today, most people buy songs.

I still buy albums (digitally)... because I believe that an album is much more than simple collection of songs... or at least it used to be.

/Jim