Music ownership vs. Streaming subscription

I am generally against the monthly subscriptions. I dislike greatly the thought that someone else has that control or power over me.  What happens when company x decides that $10 a month isn't enough and suddenly goes to $15 per month.  So they can change drastically and I would be left with nothing!  

I think that streaming could be a great way to discover music/albums that you may want to then go purchase.

Born in the 70s and against streaming as your only way to access the music you like. 

If it gets to the stage where decent broadband is universally available at adequate speeds, and streaming services are able to provide all the music I might want to listen to for the right price, I'd certainly consider ditching physical media. In the meantime, I'll continue to buy dirt cheap used CDs and rip them.

I'm the other way to ChrisSU,  I have good broadband speeds & have no wish to pay a subscription for music.   For day to day casual listening its FM & the vast multitude of world wide iRadio stations for me.  If I hear something I like, then I add it to my consideration list.

My serious listening music is made up with 95% NAS stored .wav files & the remainder 1960/70's vinyl.  This is "my" music & when I do buy something I am looking for high res, not CD quality.  

Finally having tried DSD I am hoping my early experiences are indicative of how it performs across all recordings.

 .........    & when will Naim Store have DSD ?

Actually, Mike, as a 'baby-boomer' I instinctively prefer to own my music, even though I prefer to store it on a NAS...but if all the music I own, plus everything else I might ever want to try, was reliably available at any time, at consistently high quality, it's something I would have to consider. 

I can say that now, because it's nowhere near being a realistic option. When it is, I reserve the right to change my mind 

Streaming subscription doesn't appeal to me. I've had the trials from Qobuz and Tidal but, after an initial enthusiasm, I found it wasn't for me. I have a large collection of music, about 2000 LPs and nearly 4000 albums on my hard drive. That's enough to keep me happy with the odd purchase of original vinyl and the occasional HD download bargain on Qobuz.

Hi Chris,  I own up to being slightly pre-baby boomer.  

As to streaming,  I will probably reserve the right to change my mind if & when DSD streaming is available,  problem is I haven't seen a lot of 24bit around yet,  so not holding my breath.

The other thing I would add is that I really like to play my long owned music, memories, familiarity etc. Classics don't change that much & I have no wish to go exploring different recordings of the same Brahms & Mozart's,  & TBH the new modern music (& I do mean modern of most genres but definitely not "pop")  does not really do it for me & as a result I may buy maybe about one new album per month, hardly justifies a streaming subscription.

Nothing is ever black and white and probably a balanced picture will prevail with most people in the fattest part of the normal distribution.

Paying for anything under 16/44 is of no interest to me. I make my own low quality copies of CDs or HiRes files for playback in the car etc. That’s not a problem. I won’t pay someone to sell me a file or rent me a stream of less than CD quality.

If I go for a CD quality rented stream it will cost me, for the sake of a conversation, £20 per month. Not exactly extortionate.  And it will give me access to a lot more than I could buy with £20. What would £20 buy me at CD or higher quality? Maybe 3CDs? Maybe 20 – depending on availability of special offers and box sets that interested me.  Or a couple of downloads? Or maybe more?  Certainly nothing compared to the millions of songs at my streaming service finger tips.

After a year I could have listened to thousands, maybe tens of thousands of songs streamed, or own maybe 30 – 50 albums of CD or higher quality. If I stayed really into music and music exploration for ten years (likely as so far my thirst has not diminished in 40 years) I would have a collection of maybe 300 to 500 albums of CD quality or higher. Or if I had instead subscribed to a streaming service I would have precisely nothing. Apart from memories.

I expect the reality is that most of us will end up dabbling in a bit of everything, although I prefer to download/buy physical media own a copy and play back locally at will, on as many devices as I want, as often as I wish.

When I was young I spent many a happy evening pumping money into pub juke boxes.  Different technology, same model. Very little really changes.

Music ownership and streaming for me. Through the Sonos Connect interface it just feels like one giant library. Sometimes I forget if I'm streaming from my NAS, Qobuz or Deezer.

To quote Neil Young - 'It's all about the music' - as far as I'm concerned.

G

Interesting thread.  I've been buying CDs for around 25 years, and yet have quite a modest collection I would suggest compared to many around here.  Being something of tight-ass I've always treated spending £12 or whatever on CD as something of a considered purchase, and while my musical taste and collection is quite diverse, it is not very experimental as a result.  They're all albums I knew I would like when I bought them, through listening with friends, hearing stuff on the radio etc.  What I love about streaming services is the option to just explore everything, and with something like Qobuz, no compromise in the end result vs CD, IMO of course.  

Having a vast catalogue available online has really expanded my musical horizons.  A favourite game when I am not sure what I fancy playing, is to simply pop over to the 'What are you listening to....' thread in the music room, and pick an album at random and let it play.  And boy have I discovered some great stuff by doing that, audiophile types really do have good taste in music, but I would have paid £10 for the album to discover that?  No, I doubt it. 

I'm a total convert to Qobuz and RP although I won't be throwing away my own collections of ripped files and vinyl - the two approaches are not necessarily exclusive, as has been said above. However I won't be buying any new physical media unless every lossless music source on the planet disappears - something I rather doubt will happen.

I'm 63 and 3/4 so not fitting the "generations hypothesis" but I've worked with computers for 37 of those years so maybe that is a factor?

I still want to have my music in the right quality in my tagging on my NAS. I only use streaming services in the office for exploring new music, but if I found something I like I buy it. Perhaps for me the choice is also clearer as I have 5000+ albums on my Nas

I hope we never see the day when you cannot own a physical copy of the music you buy.  I don't want to have pay for access, before long they'll find ways to screw extra money out of you or even go out of business.  What happens when your internet goes down or their servers have a brain fart?......no music.With a hard copy I still have numerous options for playing that music - CD player, PC's, the rips on my hard drives, NAS, NAS backup.

I will continue to buy hard copies and will not pay for access to a collection on someone's cloud that could become inaccessible.

Soon, people will be telling us that we shouldn't have done away with our vinyl and LP12s. Hang on...

Same here!

Regards,

Michel

I use both, streaming and physicals. If I really like a recording I still buy it.. I feel comfortable owning it.

However streaming is fantastic. I subscribe to Mojo and in the past I used to select a tiny subset of CDs to purchase derived from the bundled CD or reviews. Now I can listen to far more of the albums on the reviews via streaming on Qobuz.. Therefore I have been more selective in my purchases and my virtual collection, and at the same time discovered many gems I would have otherwise missed completely.

Therefore I like my music in both forms.. but if I am honest if I was starting my music collection today.. I guess I might have mostly a virtual collection of streamable albums that I have selected and treasure the fact I am familiar with and fond of and know how to listen to them should I wish.. the fact I have selected them and judged them worthy to be part of my 'collection' in some ways feels similar to deciding to purchase and storing for future playback.... I never thought this until I actually started to develop my collection in a hybrid format.

Simon

On my desert island (or in a remote part of County Mayo, or of Ardèche, for that matter), I want a CD player - with perhaps 100 CDs, no more. I certainly don't want an Internet connection which will give me access to hundreds of thousands of recordings. Mind you, the CD player will probably fail in the first year, which will leave me without any music at all.

I'm not really sure that answers the OP's question. What I mean is I don't want to pay 15-20€ a month and have nothing I can call my own once the subscription is over. But then I'm very, very old... although I've been using computers for decades.

A fascinating point of view.  How do you feel in terms of value for money about the last live musical performance you paid to see?

A live musical performance is obviously an entirely different experience, I don't see the point you're making, to be honest. I have paid a lot more than 20€ sometimes - and gladly.

It's different, agreed, but you don't own anything, it's purely about experiencing the music.  Is that not the point?

I do both. Having your own collection obviously involves far more time and expense.

My favourite files are LP needle drops, which are growing at a large rate as I work my way through my LP Collection; these will never be on-line.

I do enjoy having access to Qubuz, and use this to listen to friend and forum member recommendations.

I do find a local CD rip to sound better than the streamed variety, but that is probably down to my unmodded Sonos Connect; still more than listenable though.

M

On a purely practical point, I am very pleased that I have a complete [in the sense that if I never added to it, then I could not be disappointed - all my favourite music is here] physical collection of CDs although boxed up and ripped in iTunes. 

If times get tough, and I cannot afford Broadband or a monthly streaming subscription, then I shall have continued access to my favourite music as and when I want. I could perfectly well plug an ear-piece in my MAC and still enjoy it if I had to sell the replay equipment. 

l did have a go at Qubus on the free trial, and found the quality excellent, but there were no recordings there that I could not easily do without. 

I know that there will never be a time when I would make a monthly subscription for a streaming service.

I'd rather go to the occasional concert instead!

ATB from George

Well, you're certainly right, you don't actually own anything, but you're experiencing the music in a special environment (be it Berlin, Amsterdam or Vienna), you're not in your home, listening to music reproduced on a good - or perhaps only average system like mine. A live musical performance with first class musicians is a very special experience, and I'm not sure I would want it to be repeatable ad infinitum. So I still don't see the point, I'm sorry.

And yes, I like to own CDs or whatever, not for the sake of being able to say "they're mine", but because I feel more independent, I don't have to depend on a provider, on an Internet connection and because my daughter, who's only 21, might wish to listen to them one day. I also print photographs, I buy books for the same reason, I suppose. That does not mean I will never buy a ND5XS or a 272...

I'm not knocking your point of view, or even making a point really, just asking.  For the record, I feel the same to a degree.  I have a playlist on Qobuz which from start to finish would last over four days, all of it is music I do not own, and it is mainly individual tracks rather than whole albums.  I don't really use it as a playlist though, more a marker for albums I want to explore further.  And I love all of it.  The thought has occurred to me, what would I do if it was taken away, or I could no longer afford to maintain the subscription?  However, to buy all of the albums that make up said list would cost more than the subscription for the next 30 years.  I do take comfort in the fact that I have CDs I will always be able to play, but if it happens, I will mourn the day when internet streaming is taken away from me. 

As far as generational realities go for the average consumer - music ownership is probably influenced by property ownership.  In my younger years the reality of moving large heavy boxes of vinyl records from one rented room to another without the use of a car was not fun.

The fact that many young people are finding it very difficult to get on any type of property ladder - could be reflected by the fact that most contemporary listening is done with a device and headphones.