I've heard that from others, too. I've spent way too much time cultivating my music collection.
I’m in the same camp. I own so much music that streaming isn’t such a great value.
I've heard that from others, too. I've spent way too much time cultivating my music collection.
Why does it have to be one or the other? You can instantly access the vast library at Apple Music and purchase whatever individual song you want from the iTunes Store. No need to buy a whole album, digitally or physically (although when I do I often discover a gem or two that the Masses haven’t).Pay per month, not per song. This is one of the most honest tagline from Apple.
Sure there’s certain pride for collecting physical music. At some point I did it myself. But I’ve been dissapointed way too many times. Bought a CD album only for 2 or 3 songs I like (the rest is filler garbage). There’s also dirty tricks like double dipping with enhanced, collector edition that comes later with bonus tracks I might love. What a waste of money.
On the other side, you can also never purchase or own your internet, netflix, utilities or cable tv, you can only rent them each month. Doing the same for music isn’t exactly the end of the world. It is already a familiar concept.
I’d rather listen to millions songs I rent, instead of playing 1000 songs I purchased, over and over.
As a bonus, no more double dips or garbage fillers. Any collector edition albums will also be available to stream.
Yep! And I’ll hold out as long as I can. See above your post.Apple is going to stop selling music. Soon. And that will be very sad.
Anyone else like to own, and not rent, their music? I ripped my collection (over 2000 CDs) but held on to them for a few years after. Still don’t like listening to Apple purchases but they will do until I can find the CD and rip a lossless version. But not being able to buy music....that’s gonna be weird.
And I’ll bet you Apple leads the way on this.
In 2019, I have begun a commitment to owning digital media. So far this has meant digitalizing all of my CD collection, and purchasing with iTunes. Apple Music, to me, is a way to get full song previews (and to be able to access albums that I would not otherwise buy). After realizing that the Disney vault still exists digitally (i.e. currently no Aladdin / Cinderella / etc. available), I have been swiftly beefing up my iTunes Movie / TV Show collections as well. Of course keeping local downloads for everything.
Streaming is great...until it isn't (price increases, increasingly fragmented libraries, availability changes frequently, quality control of titles, etc.)
My fear is that in the future rights holders will only offer via streaming - essentially eliminating any option to purchase/own outright.
Why does it have to be one or the other? You can instantly access the vast library at Apple Music and purchase whatever individual song you want from the iTunes Store. No need to buy a whole album, digitally or physically (although when I do I often discover a gem or two that the Masses haven’t).
And you’re wrong about owning “netflix.” I own about 2100 films and about 14,000 TV episodes sitting on a NAS and available to me or any of my invitees anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Pretty funny you equate “videos” only with “netflix.”
Also, careful with your analogy to utilities. You’re not renting anything. You do actually own the water or electrons, buying them by the gallon or kWh every month. Put them in containers or batteries and you’ll see exactly what you own. You just (mostly) use them right away. The analogy fails because water and electrons aren’t the same as data because you can’t really reuse them, while data can be reused indefinitely.
My problem is precisely that migration to content streaming perverts content from something ownable to something someone else allows me to view for a fee. And no, it’s not the end of the world when my family and I sit down to watch something only to discover that Netflix removed it from the catalog without asking me first, but it’s irritating as hell.
I own, and will own as long as I possibly can. I also subscribe to Apple Music and Netflix (never bothered with Amazon VOD) because I feel they’re complementary.
I’m blown away by 75% streaming. I never thought it would be that high. Holy smokes.
I can always see it the other way...
That's $7.4 Billion thrown away by music consumers. In the past, we'd buy an LP or CD and own it forever. Over the years if we were enthusiasts, we'd have hundreds of "Albums" we owned forever.
Now with renting streaming music, after a year of listening to music, you own nothing. Zero. And after 5 years, spending all that money on monthly subscriptions, you'd still own nothing.
Renting music via streaming may be convenient and worthwhile in the short run, but in the long run it's definitely a loser. No wonder is so excited about it.
I’m blown away by 75% streaming. I never thought it would be that high. Holy smokes.
Do you mean that you're surprised the revenue percentage is so high, given the minuscule payments per stream?
I disagree, I would argue that streaming allowed me to discover indie artists traditional media (radio, record stores, and even digital stores) would never give the time of the day to.The unfortunate side effect of streaming is that artists are forced to "play to the middle" - trying to create hits that appeal to a broad base and attract plays (since an individual play is near worthless). Amazing singer-songwriters slip through the cracks in this day-and-age. It seems it is happening with movies as well now with the "Netflixication" of the film industry.
I have a large collection of cd’s I’ve been accumulating since the early 90’s. While I still buy physical copies of the artists I love. Outside of being on display I haven’t listened to music from them since I ripped my entire library for my first iPod. I love Apple Music especially since it integrates with your existing iTunes libraryI can always see it the other way...
That's $7.4 Billion thrown away by music consumers. In the past, we'd buy an LP or CD and own it forever. Over the years if we were enthusiasts, we'd have hundreds of "Albums" we owned forever.
Now with renting streaming music, after a year of listening to music, you own nothing. Zero. And after 5 years, spending all that money on monthly subscriptions, you'd still own nothing.
Renting music via streaming may be convenient and worthwhile in the short run, but in the long run it's definitely a loser. No wonder is so excited about it.
It’s a personal preference, so there is no wrong way to do it, but I think that maybe it is not important to “own” the music you listen to. The time and resources saved by not having to own discs or even files covers the costs of streaming for life potentially.
My friends has endless bookcases of probably 8000 CD’s. It’s cool and he obviously loves his collection as part of his life, but for myself I go the streaming route and I get more space in the house I guess and I don’t have to put away CD’s and tidy up. Another computer dude has tons of hard drives and hours of work arranging files - for me streaming is good enough most of the time.
Album art is what I miss the most - but there again, that’s a vinyl thing. My buddy with the CD’s has album art, but not as good as the full size LP’s. That was a lot of fun, and you’d listen to the whole album side - another part of the art that is not as prevalent these days maybe.
Apple Music integration with my pre-existing library and playlists is one of its bests features. I have several playlists I’ve been listening and updating for years.Apple Music reeked havoc with the music that I had ripped from my CD collection which took me a very long time to untangle therefore I use Spotify to stream and iTunes and the music app on my iPhone for music that has been meaningful to me over the years. The streaming services have lots of good music for sure but an album that I love could either not be there at all or be available through streaming one day and be gone the next.
Friends and I share playlists through Apple Music constantly. You can even iMessage a link to specific playlists or albumsI can no longer share, with groups of friends, a mixtape or a cd playlist like I did with past music mediums.
Everyone seems to be on various independent streaming services. Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play Music, Pandora, Sound Cloud, Bandcamp, YouTube music, Deezer, Amazon Music, Tidal and so forth.
While I appreciate the option of different music services, I wish there was a common way to share music with everyone apart from being in the same room...
Isn't this the same sentiment espoused by every previous generation? Talented singer-songwriters always slip through the cracks... always have, always will. Somebody we think undeserving is going to be a star... it's always been that way. Artists make their money touring. Labels get the money, the artists get hosed. I could go on forever, but you get my point. There's really nothing new under the sun.
Why does it have to be one or the other?
Pay per month, not per song. This is one of the most honest tagline from Apple.
Sure there’s certain pride for collecting physical music. At some point I did it myself. But I’ve been dissapointed way too many times. Bought a CD album only for 2 or 3 songs I like (the rest is filler garbage). There’s also dirty tricks like double dipping with enhanced, collector edition that comes much later with bonus exclusives I might love, so I'd have to buy the entire album, again? What a waste of money.
On the other side, you can also never purchase or own your internet, netflix, utilities or cable tv, you can only rent them each month. Doing the same for music isn’t exactly the end of the world. It is already a familiar concept.
I’d rather listen to millions songs I rent, instead of playing 1000 songs I purchased, over and over.
As a bonus, no more double dip duplicates or garbage fillers. Any collector edition albums will also be available to stream.
Don't worry, there will always be piracy. The most dependable, reliable, resilient, and consistent data distribution system.These numbers are a little scary. It almost seems like one won’t be able to purchase music someday.![]()
Should probably compare to buying tracks rather than optical, where as you said you can’t buy à la carte. Not saying it’s practical to store water or electricity. Just using that as a thought experiment. I agree that most people stream rather than own. That’s the point of this article and no one disputes that. I just don’t like relying on it. And don’t worry about my losing anything; 30TB in a power-managed RAID will be just fine. And how many movies can you watch in a week? I’m good for maybe two, max, and we have over 2000. I’m in no danger of being bored for years by our collection, which I continue to build. But as I said, I think streaming services are complementary with ownership.Just how many batteries can you buy to store all those electricity? Even then can you sub and unsub your utilities as you wish? You just have to pay what you use every month, sometimes less or more. Maybe you can unsub, but does it worth the hassle to do so every few months?
Internet and phone service is also a good example, how can you store your internet bandwidth? Can you store 100TB of data, or 1000 hours of talk time this month so you may use it later, and not paying your ISP by that time? I don't think so.
I was specifically talking about "physical album" not digital purchase. I don't think you can buy partial cd tracks or upgrade your album to "limited edition". You'd just have to repurchase the repackaged physical album contains 90% of the duplicate you already own. And 10% new content you might love. Been there, wasn't fun. And many artists do that.
Netflix is a service, equates to music streaming services. Yes you can buy your movies anywhere else. 2000 movies, 14K tv shows you risk to lose anytime? Not everyone has the place or resource to keep all those files like you do. Normal people would just pay to enjoy new episodes.
The revenue data shows otherwise. Most people just don't care about "owning" their content anymore. People get bored watching or listening the same content they own. Would you rewatch the same 4K blurays every week? Many would just pay up monthly so they can enjoy new shows. It's pretty normal, I think.
I still buy a few good bluray copies every now and then when it's on sale. I'm talking about 1-3 copies every year, yep it is few and far between. And 90% of my media consumption is rental or subscription.