Pros and Cons of buying music in 2017 as opposed to paying for a streaming service

[qawes]

Not sure if I'm special but I wouldn't say I collect them. I do buy vinyls from time to time but my main source for my music purchases is still the iTunes store. Although it's nice to have this little, um, "collection" still going, and still growing, albeit quite slowly.

As mentioned several times in this thread, it's the experience that is different, it demands attention, and care. In this age of very short attention span, listening to music on vinyl reminds you how great it is to actually listen to it, in proper conditions. But of course I enjoy and appreciate iTunes a lot, it's convenient and "good enough" in terms of quality, it also saves a lot of space!

As for Apple Music, I guess I'll take the plunge at some point, but one thing I'll never do is stop buying music. So for me Apple Music will never be a subsitute, it's just like a big radio where I get to choose the programming.

Hmm.. not really. It's the biggest online music streaming database which uses an advanced algorithm to help you discover new music VERY easily. Think of it as "your personal modern and mobile digital cratedigger".

I'm glad people still think of records in this matter, and how you've described it is nice, but it's much more than that. A quality pressing can still be used 100+ years later, while other analog/digital storage environments degrade easier.

 

[thizisweird]

My wife can'tpossiblwy buy al the music she listens too unless she wins the lottery but I still tell her to buy new albums and new bands music.

I love that people still buy music buy the album/EP/etc, even if most people no longer buy it on physical media. It's nice that the audience is that dedicated to keeping the music alive. Music is one market that is pretty much "you're going to be around because we want you around." About as democratic with the marketplace as it gets, even if we don't think so.

I'm glad people still think of records in this matter, and how you've described it is nice, but it's much more than that. A quality pressing can still be used 100+ years later, while other analog/digital storage environments degrade easier.

If records weren't such a fragile method of storage, I'd agree lol, but I think sometimes we forget just how easy it is to ruin a record. Most people (which really means uneducated/non-collectors) store them flat like a stack of pancakes, which every collector knows is a death sentence. I received about 100-150 albums from an uncle about 4 years ago, and all of those were stacked in a storage unit stacked about 60-80 high, like a freakin 40lb tower of plastic. Most of them survived without too much groove flattening/cracking, but you'd need to clean up the audio if you were playing it through anything more than desktop speakers. Even worse is the album cover looks terrible when stored flat actually had a some Led Zepplin, AC/DC, Guns n Roses, Eagles, Judas Priest, Kiss (and more) that lost sound quality and aesthetic points just because he stored them in a massive stack. Eh, it happens..... just painful to walk into a room and see that.

Also, you can get archive quality CDs/DVDs/BR discs. For anyone looking to save master copies of their record collection, I'd say a cloud backup with archive discs on hand. And even for average consumers they're not terribly expensive: $90/50pk, so $1.80 per Verbatim CD; $78/50pk of Verbatim archival DVDs on Amazon; $67.50/15pk M-Disc Blu-Rays on Amazon. Not the cheapest solution, but you do retain the best physical storage of your digital media, and with audio being in FLAC and other lossless compression formats....... idk, I really enjoy knowing these exist. It's how I'll store my future record collection... once I settle down in a place I can stash a wall of records

 

[Cayden]

I personally like to do a little of both. I am an Apple Music subscriber (I do get the student discount though) and I love it. I have over 3600 songs on my phone and my library is constantly changing with my tastes. I really enjoy the For You tab as I've found dozens of albums that I absolutely love that I wouldn't have heard of otherwise. For long term, I prefer physical media such as CDs or vinyls. I don't really see the appeal of buying digital media personally as all of my physical media either comes with a download code or it can easily be converted to digital if need be.

 

[thizisweird]

I personally like to do a little of both. I am an Apple Music subscriber (I do get the student discount though) and I love it. I have over 3600 songs on my phone and my library is constantly changing with my tastes. I really enjoy the For You tab as I've found dozens of albums that I absolutely love that I wouldn't have hear of otherwise. For long term, I prefer physical media such as CDs or vinyls. I don't really see the appeal of buying digital media personally as all of my physical media either comes with a download code or it can easily be converted to digital if need be.

I'm sure you could make the argument, too, that buying physical media is sometimes more valuable ofa purchase, since you'd have a physical copy but still have the capability of "making the same thing" (so to speak) as if you purchased digital. I know that's an argument used in the whole copyright thing, but still lol

 

[fastlanephil]

I don't even own a CD player except for the optical drive in my 2009 MacBook Pro that I only use for bookwork now. I must have 300 CDs from a classical music magazine subscription. I'll proably end up throwing them in the trash rather than spend endless hours putting them on a HD. I sold almost all of my vinyl back in the eighties. I listen to music using earbuds now except my own when I'm creating it using Pro studio headphones and monitors. I use Apple Music which could have a much better selection but it's inexpensive. I think being any sort of an audiophile is not really worth the bother anymore. If I want that sort of an experience I'll listen to others play live or play myself.

 

[Rounder44]

I have begun collecting cd's again as I'm confident there is a conspiracy for the music business to wrangle complete control. May take a few more years decade but soon you will NOT be able to buy and actually own a physical copy of music. I buy every used CD that I have even mild interest in as you can get them for $2 from yard sales!

Plenty of music is already out of print and not on the streaming services.

Amazon an excellent option although they are changing. Used to be able to get almost any CD for ~$9 and an immediate download. I have dozens of CD's I've not burned yet and live with the mp3's for now. Recently the music I'm interested in has been in the $13 range but still worth it if you can't stream it.

I spent ~$4000 on iTunes from day one till ~2013 when I started to notice issues. Won't even start the DRM problems with modern stereo systems. I have files from 2012 that are DRM and $100's of my purchases are stuck in iTunes heII!

Rounder44

 

[sshambles]

I'm on both sides of this fence.

Growing up in the mid 90's and going from the physical media to digital in a decade was a good experience. Cassette and CD players taught me the value of an album, and I went through collecting CDs, to selling and swapping them when necessary. The digital realm though, felt so impersonal though. I liked the convenience of having whatever I wanted on one device, but do believe it made me listen to things more sporadically. I am still an avid music collector, and collect vinyl records only, apart from my 1 favourite band, who I have every single cd, including promos, ever made.

I realised long ago that my collection was an evolving mass. It changed from day to day, and there's albums I'll never get back, but wish I had backed up in digital form and kept. Switching from CDs to digital was a smart move I feel. Backing things up is expensive, but I'd rather that than storing thousands of CDs from 18 years of collecting in one room. I have a friend who is a film buff and has done that with DVDs though.

I plan on subscribing to Apple Music, but keeping my iPods with all my music. My iPhone will store the latest stuff I'm listening to, and use AM also - I hate the buffering and drop outs on cellular, and won't have one only. I used to be hardcore into backing up and iPods and storing my own, but I also see merit on AM as there's more out there than I'll ever get around to buying and storing - it's like a rental system, which I appreciate a lot, as I enjoyed renting videos a heap.

I see a lot of people thinking of the two as opposites and not friends, and can see merit in both - I'm just glad I went through the changing of technology that made me appreciate albums of music and the forms that it has gone through, so that I can experience things in the ways I currently do.

 

[Pugly]

I don't like having anything else between me and the media that's important to me, so relying on a streaming service means there are now two companies I'm working with to get music to me... the streaming company and the ISP. Internet service is still not reliable enough for me to rely on it 100% for music. And who knows what will happen to a streaming companies library. I do mean to use services as a discovery tool to find the artists I'm most interested in. And if I'm really into an artist I'd want to buy music direct from them way as possible.

Plus there are literally billions of CDs out there, in great lossless digital quality, that I can buy, rip, archive, listen to anywhere. In my mind CDs are this great technology that came out at just the right time, they were great in terms of digital quality but before the media companies went nuts with DRM. No region coding like on DVDs/BluRays. And if the format gets less popular over time, all the better for me because all that music out there will go down in price.

I just like the idea that I could disconnect from everything and still have all my media available to me. My relationship with technology is fully stuck in the Apple's "Digital Hub Strategy." My world will always have PCs, headphone jacks and physical media.

 

[Spacetime Anomaly]

I still prefer to own physical media, because if I can't listen to Miles Davis during the zombie apocalypse, I don't want to be alive.

 

[Ubele]

I do both. I love that iTunes lets me listen to music that I wouldn’t have risked spending money on by buying the albums. I’ve discovered a lot of great music that way. Most of it, I listen to only once. If I listen to something more than three times, I buy it. The reason is that I’m almost 60, and I remember times when, due to squabbling lawyers, albums would become unavailable for years. I worry that music I really like might become unavailable on iTunes due to legal reasons.

As for the format debate, I started with cassettes, then moved to LPs, then moved to CDs, and now buy either digital or CD. If I’m buying an entire album, I often find a used CD on Amazon that’s cheaper than the digital download. If I want only a couple songs from an album, I buy digital.

 

[0095059]

Here's my view on the service:

An Apple Music membership is used to discover new music.

A membership is monthly and can be canceled at any time. You might only subscribe for a few months to browse artists or albums you've never heard of, by referencing the Coachella lineup, browsing the best-of-the-week list, or visiting the Grammy nominations. You don't own the music, you're just browsing what's available at the time of your subscription. An artist or label can remove their albums.

In the future, I wouldn't be surprised if labels rotate available songs and albums. They already delay major releases for a week.

An iTunes album purchase is used to replay music.

Albums or singles you enjoy should be purchased. By purchasing the albums, you have a curated list of music you enjoy, rather than a endless collection of albums you could listen to. If you randomly play a song from your purchased collection, there is a chance you would enjoy it. You also own the album and it can't be removed from your curated list.

If you break it down by costs:

Apple Music Membership (12 months)
-------------------------
$9.99 * 12 = $119.88

iTunes Album Purchase (12 Albums)
-------------------------
$9.99 * 12 = $119.88

While the unlimited aspect of the membership is appealing, you're paying the same price to listen to music temporarily for 12 months vs. purchasing 12 albums.

If that doesn't sound like a lot, consider someone who likes alternative rock:
----------------
- Radiohead
- Smashing Pumpkins
- Nirvana
- Redhot Chili Peppers
- Pearl Jam
- Oasis
- Stone Temple Pilots

12 albums could fulfill your favorite genre collection. Perhaps you want to expand it, but don't know the new artists. Apple Music allows you to discover new artists, like Imagine Dragons or 30 Seconds to Mars.

At this moment in time, you could use Apple Music to create your alertnative-rock collection, but that assumes those artists will always make their content available on the platform. At the same time, spending $9.99 to purchase an album you've never heard is an expensive gamble.

Ideally, you would subscribe to the Apple Music Membership and purchase your favorite albums.

It might seem like a waste of money to do both, but if you look to Netflix or Hulu, you'll find that movies and shows are temporary. A similar model is subscribing to HBO (Discover) and buying Blu-Ray 4k (Replay).

 

[CLS727]

I don't use any streaming services. I've had a huge library of digital music since the Napster days.

 

[dk001]

Here's my view on the service:

An Apple Music membership is used to discover new music.

A membership is monthly and can be canceled at any time. You might only subscribe for a few months to browse artists or albums you've never heard of, by referencing the Coachella lineup, browsing the best-of-the-week list, or visiting the Grammy nominations. You don't own the music, you're just browsing what's available at the time of your subscription. An artist or label can remove their albums.

In the future, I wouldn't be surprised if labels rotate available songs and albums. They already delay major releases for a week.

An iTunes album purchase is used to replay music.

Albums or singles you enjoy should be purchased. By purchasing the albums, you have a curated list of music you enjoy, rather than a endless collection of albums you could listen to. If you randomly play a song from your purchased collection, there is a chance you would enjoy it. You also own the album and it can't be removed from your curated list.

If you break it down by costs:

Apple Music Membership (12 months)
-------------------------
$9.99 * 12 = $119.88

iTunes Album Purchase (12 Albums)
-------------------------
$9.99 * 12 = $119.88

While the unlimited aspect of the membership is appealing, you're paying the same price to listen to music temporarily for 12 months vs. purchasing 12 albums.

If that doesn't sound like a lot, consider someone who likes alternative rock:
----------------
- Radiohead
- Smashing Pumpkins
- Nirvana
- Redhot Chili Peppers
- Pearl Jam
- Oasis
- Stone Temple Pilots

12 albums could fulfill your favorite genre collection. Perhaps you want to expand it, but don't know the new artists. Apple Music allows you to discover new artists, like Imagine Dragons or 30 Seconds to Mars.

At this moment in time, you could use Apple Music to create your alertnative-rock collection, but that assumes those artists will always make their content available on the platform. At the same time, spending $9.99 to purchase an album you've never heard is an expensive gamble.

Ideally, you would subscribe to the Apple Music Membership and purchase your favorite albums.

It might seem like a waste of money to do both, but if you look to Netflix or Hulu, you'll find that movies and shows are temporary. A similar model is subscribing to HBO (Discover) and buying Blu-Ray 4k (Replay).

Yawn .... meanwhile Spotify and Google Music can be utilized on any device.
Besides, I have a 50gb+ music collection that I occasionally add to. No DRM.
Besides part deux, I was one of thos unfortunates who had Apple Music totally bork their music library. Thank good for off-line backups. Haven’t trusted them since.

 

[Dodgeman]

I stream using TIDAL Hi Fi to discover new music and avoid traditional radio. I buy the music I like. Owning a permanent music collection is the only way to go. Choice is a beautiful thing.

I have Tidal as well, but I am not sure the HIFI is worth it....?

 

[Mefisto]

To date I've bought one album off iTunes, but once it's released in physical form I'll buy it again to add the the collection.

I really can't get into streaming my music because if I'm listening at home, the whole ritual of going to the shelf, perusing the albums and then walking over to the player, putting the cd in and retiring to the couch to listen to it is an important part of the experience. With new albums this also includes checking out the artwork, lyrics etc., but only after I've listened to the music at least once beforehand. I realize I'm perhaps being a bit particular about the whole affair, but that's me. Also, there's no digital replacement for going to the record store to just look at different albums and maybe blind buying something that comes across as interesting, chatting to the staff and getting recommendations. Sure, those things exist in the digital world as well, but it's just not the same.

When I'm out and about there's the iPod Classic, which currently holds most of my ripped music. The quality in this case isn't that important, since there's always some background noise and the music itself serves as a sort of background noise while riding a bike, sitting in the bus etc.

Lastly, while I'm fairly trusting of different cloud solutions music is one thing with which I'm not comfortable compromising. I wan't the tracks with me, and available to me at my convenience at all times.

 

[sshambles]

423GB of music and counting. Still subscribe to AM because... HomePod. Don't like it not recognising stuff and taking forever to upload and match stuff though.

 

[PopBodhi]

I have Tidal as well, but I am not sure the HIFI is worth it....?

Sorry for the late response, life has been busy for me lately. HiFi is really just a personal preference. If you have the right equipment and you can hear the difference, it's definitely worth the money.

 

[Dodgeman]

Sorry for the late response, life has been busy for me lately. HiFi is really just a personal preference. If you have the right equipment and you can hear the difference, it's definitely worth the money.

It is not worth it.

 

[PopBodhi]

It is not worth it.

Hey, that's perfectly acceptable to me. I've got my CD quality files and discs. I love freedom of choice. Hell, some people still listen to FM radio.

 

[Dodgeman]

Hey, that's perfectly acceptable to me. I've got my CD quality files and discs. I love freedom of choice. Hell, some people still listen to FM radio.

Yeah, when my XM expires I will probably switch back to Apple Music.

 

[Traverse]

I use streaming for discovery and casual listening, but my main library is all purchased either as CDs or digital if CDs are available.

I do it for one reason: with streaming it isn’t guaranteed it will be there. Just like YouTube videos get pulled, Artists and record companies can pull their content.

If I’ve bought it I can listen to it now or 20 years from now. That’s my main reason, the sense of security.

 

[PopBodhi]

I use streaming for discovery and casual listening, but my main library is all purchased either as CDs or digital if CDs are available.

I do it for one reason: with streaming it isn’t guaranteed it will be there. Just like YouTube videos get pulled, Artists and record companies can pull their content.

If I’ve bought it I can listen to it now or 20 years from now. That’s my main reason, the sense of security.

I share your sentiment. I want to own my music. I love streaming as an alternative to broadcast radio but that's about as far as it goes.

 

[Muttznuttz]

My hearing has certainly degraded over the years. I'm not fussed about the medium or delivery method any more. I hate having CD's and DVDs taking up room and gathering dust. I no longer have any around, nor the means of playing them.
Apple Music is great for all the reasons already discussed and I have a classic iPod (I do still buy music on iTunes) for all the times I'm unable to stream, such as overseas holidays / no mobile data or wifi.