Do You Still Purchase Digital Music?

Now that streaming is mainstream is there a point to buying digital? Remember the days of buying a song from the iTunes store for 99 cents? Today Chief Product Officer Andrew Welker ponders the question of; is anyone still purchasing digital music files? After all, streaming is reasonably priced and holds an enormous catalog of music for you to enjoy.

There are people who deeply enjoy the HD audio tracks and pursue those files to have on their music server. What about you? Are you still using part of your music budget to buy digital music that you love and want to keep? We love your comments as so many of them are passionate about music and the artists, please keep them coming. 🎵

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#DigitalMusic #StreamingVsBuyingDigital #MusicOptions

I don’t listen to new music a lot so I did a quick math. I’ve paying for streaming monthly fee for a few years now. With that money I could have bought my entire music library twice by now so that’s what I’m doing.

[JamesLauricia]

Yes I’m still buying music on iTunes. I like the fact that I’m able to download it to my iPhone and listen without any data or Wi-Fi connection. Thank you for this video I enjoy the topic.

[NatalieLadd-Fuller]

Yes, I still like to purchase electronic copies from itunes--i like that I can then play an album directly from my phone (as it sync's to my car) when I am driving. I like to listen to EXACTLY what songs/artists I want WHEN I want, not drudge through similar songs/artists that streaming services seem to curate. So I like to buy the song, that way I have immediate access to it. However, I feel like the last year or so when I try to purchase individual songs from itunes, i get steered in the direction of the "streaming" service you are mentioning. Frustrating. Doing the streaming service means if ever I stop the service I would have NO access to music : o ( I don't want to HAVE to be tied to paying a monthly fee.

[sjbenes]

Ever since I was young (10-11), I've always "collected" music. In those days it was LPs. These days, I find I've amassed a good size digital collection that began with MP3s. Over time, I sought higher quality digital files from places like HDTracks, but only after going through the same collection process with CDs, and re-ripping my collection to flac. The HD digital music sounds great but they are not cheap. I personally don't stream much, only when I workout, but from Pandora, so I don't pay for a streaming service. One thing I'm sad to see go away and I guess this might be a comment on the way things have become more about instant gratification, is when you used to buy an LP or CD, you sit down and listen to it. There were always songs you loved right off the bat and then there were the rest of the songs on the album. But I love finding songs on an album you own, that you didn't appreciate when it was new, or you weren't in the right frame of mind to like it, or it just plain grew on you. These days, with streaming, or even buying individual songs, that's something that doesn't much happen because you're only going to buy the songs you like. When I buy digital music these days I try to buy the whole album so I still have a chance to discover all the songs on it and not just the one or two I initially liked.

[vista]

I've moved from buying when I was growing up to streaming and now back to buying. The reasons have been that at £10 a month, £120 a year is a lot of music that I could own and keep for as long as I maintain my equipment. I run a homelab so I already had the hardware for it and I've just run Navidrome on my file server and that streams my music. The music stored on my systems are mine to keep and no one can take them away from me without notice or reason unlike on a streaming service when your music can vanish whenever. Privacy is also another reason, my own music server is my own, no one else controls it, no one knows my listening habits and that's important as your music habits can tell people what's going on in your life, especially when you combine it with other data.

[cavsomecadence]

When I'm jogging, walking, swimming, running or traveling...what is a stream going to do for me with no wi fi or blocked internet? My songs must be downloaded prior to going in and out of range. I don't want to be at the gym and have my music fail.

[johnmilner]

I'm 15 years old and I download from iTunes all the time!

[cbgbsteve]

I haven't been in the iTunes store in years. All of my downloads are from new albums that include the digital files or I buy under $10 CD's and rip to my PC then download to an old iPhone that I connect to my system for non-stop music. I only stream internet radio stations

[erikT]

I use streaming as a way to demo stuff, and then slowly buy my favorites on download/physically.

[edwardlouis]

I don’t want to keep relying on Wi-Fi when I want to hear music.

[Andrebonifacio]

I wish I could buy music, so I could be sure to keep them and help the artists more. But in my country (Brazil) there's no legal way to buy it. Only Bandcamp sells here, but it's in dollars and only some albums. Sounds weird, but for example, one of these days a song I really loved from fears for tears was removed from Spotify. So I can't listen to it anymore. This kind of thing makes me feel really in the hands of Spotify and not the other way around.

[Phosfit]

I’m concerned with iTunes terms of service. I want to ensure that the terms of my purchases are, I buy it, I fucking own it.

[praetorxyn]

I have traditionally bought CDs and ripped them to FLAC, because I've found what's available on HD Tracks limited and such. But I bought Machine Head's Of Kingdom and Crown album straight from the band's website as it was (at least spec wise) higher than CD quality anyway. I'll basically take the highest quality version I can find, and if it's digital, that'll save me the hassle of ripping it.

[daveginter]

Streaming is wonderfull but what if your on a beach outside the US and have no signal or Wi-Fi and can't stream. Yea there is Wi-Fi on most planes but some still charge for it. It's nice to have MP3's on your phone.

[reqausxobi]

I do both. Stream to discover. Buy what I like (when on sale or not).

[KevinHollisWI]

Totally purchase albums! I respect the Artists I choose, so I purchase their albums to make sure they get their share of the royalties.

[garlicdawg]

i loved the days when I could go on amazon and just buy the single cuts I wanted off a cd for like .99 cnts...now i cant find that

[CafesJustSayNo]

In the case of my parents, they only find about 30 to 40 songs each year that they want to buy so a streaming subscription is relatively expensive. Plus they want the mp3 so they can upload it to their lightweight mp3 device to listen to during exercise. So not only is streaming more expensive but they would need to carry around a smartphone while streaming, which is more bulky when exercising.

[ajesparza]

So here is something that I recently stumbled on. As a beginner, I have been toying with the idea of learning how to djay. I have been an Apple Music subscriber for a long time and have an extended list of songs / playlists in different genres. Yet, a lot of these DJ apps won’t sync with Apple Music. iTunes on the other hand, does. This would be the only reason why I would probably have to download music vs. streaming. Unless you know of any other djay app out there that is able to sync with I would really like to know. Thanks.

[sWonSwon]

Id rather use streaming as a way to sample music and still have the option to purchase the songs I want. I don't like streaming service as being an exclusive way to access music, even if it's unlimited.