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I have a Spotify subscription, a Spotify account in the UK I access through my VPN, and my wife has Apple Music that we share on family plan. US Spotify has mos

by ralphc 11y ago

I have a Spotify subscription, a Spotify account in the UK I access through my VPN, and my wife has Apple Music that we share on family plan. US Spotify has most of what I listen to, UK Spotify has some guilty pleasure girl groups (Girls Aloud, The Saturdays) and Apple Music as the best selection of K-pop in the US.

dublinben 11y ago
Think of how many albums you could add to your permanent music collection for that $300 a year! Before you know it, you would own everything you want to listen to, and wouldn't have to keep paying a monthly fee to rent access to it.
- paulbennett 11y ago
  About 30-50 I would guess. You can easily listen to more than that with a streaming service.
- mathgeek 11y ago
  This only works if the albums you enjoy are a static set. New releases and discovering existing but unknown albums means you are already paying a recurring cost if you buy all of your content. The main advantage of owning over renting is that you can keep your existing collection if you stop paying.
  - dublinben 11y ago
    >The main advantage of owning over renting is that you can keep your existing collection if you stop paying. Clearly. It's not your collection if you're only renting access to it. Do you think you discover 30 albums per year worth buying and adding to your collection? I listen to a lot of music, and I certainly don't.
    - gregmac 11y ago
      > Do you think you discover 30 albums per year worth buying and adding to your collection? I listen to a lot of music, and I certainly don't. How do you discover albums/songs? I simply don't have the time I used to to spend "discovering" music. I used spend a lot of time combing through DJ record pools (a habit I got from DJing many years ago when I subscribed to some) and using that to find stuff I'd like, in addition to terrestrial radio, going to clubs/bars, finding stuff on YouTube, and just randomly hearing music "in the wild". I've been doing streaming services for the past few years now (one at time, but I've done several). Most of the streaming services make it easy to customize playlists, or turn a playlist into a "radio" station that plays similar songs (but that's still customizable), and I've found this is an awesome way for me to discover music. I've found a ton of stuff that I otherwise wouldn't have known about (and I think I spend less time per new song/album/artist I find and like vs what I used to spend listening to record pools). I started using some of the free (versions of) services, then switched to paid to get unlimited skips and offline support for my phone. I also used to spend a lot of time copying music around and keeping it refreshed: SD card for my car, MP3s on my laptop/iPod to bring to work or travelling, and main collection on my server for the living room HTPC or my personal PC. All of that is obsolete, I just stream everything and with zero effort, have the same playlists everywhere. I use my phone + bluetooth in my car. I do have some stuff downloaded (and auto-refreshing) on my phone for travelling, but I stopped worrying about it because I'm generally way under my data cap while streaming (no doubt thanks to caching). For the past year and a half, I've been using Google Play Music. Killer feature there is I can 'upload' any song/album I already own and it's seamlessly integrated into the service -- which means I can listen on any device, and some songs even show up on other radio stations I've created. I'm not totally okay with not 'owning' the stuff, but I feel I am getting decent value for what I pay, and that includes my ability to just listen to music. If the service I use shuts down or changes significantly, I'll reconsider my relationship with the music industry at that point.
    - mathgeek 11y ago
      > Clearly. It's not your collection if you're only renting access to it. I never said it was. > Do you think you discover 30 albums per year worth buying and adding to your collection? I listen to a lot of music, and I certainly don't. I certainly don't spend that much on music. Most of what I listen to is simply through Amazon Prime, which I would pay for even without the music portion. Even if you prorate is based on the services I use, which is subjective as to specific costs per service, it's not much.

by ralphc 11y ago

dublinben 11y ago

Think of how many albums you could add to your permanent music collection for that $300 a year! Before you know it, you would own everything you want to listen to, and wouldn't have to keep paying a monthly fee to rent access to it.

paulbennett 11y ago
About 30-50 I would guess. You can easily listen to more than that with a streaming service.
mathgeek 11y ago
This only works if the albums you enjoy are a static set. New releases and discovering existing but unknown albums means you are already paying a recurring cost if you buy all of your content. The main advantage of owning over renting is that you can keep your existing collection if you stop paying.
- dublinben 11y ago
  >The main advantage of owning over renting is that you can keep your existing collection if you stop paying. Clearly. It's not your collection if you're only renting access to it. Do you think you discover 30 albums per year worth buying and adding to your collection? I listen to a lot of music, and I certainly don't.
  - gregmac 11y ago
    > Do you think you discover 30 albums per year worth buying and adding to your collection? I listen to a lot of music, and I certainly don't. How do you discover albums/songs? I simply don't have the time I used to to spend "discovering" music. I used spend a lot of time combing through DJ record pools (a habit I got from DJing many years ago when I subscribed to some) and using that to find stuff I'd like, in addition to terrestrial radio, going to clubs/bars, finding stuff on YouTube, and just randomly hearing music "in the wild". I've been doing streaming services for the past few years now (one at time, but I've done several). Most of the streaming services make it easy to customize playlists, or turn a playlist into a "radio" station that plays similar songs (but that's still customizable), and I've found this is an awesome way for me to discover music. I've found a ton of stuff that I otherwise wouldn't have known about (and I think I spend less time per new song/album/artist I find and like vs what I used to spend listening to record pools). I started using some of the free (versions of) services, then switched to paid to get unlimited skips and offline support for my phone. I also used to spend a lot of time copying music around and keeping it refreshed: SD card for my car, MP3s on my laptop/iPod to bring to work or travelling, and main collection on my server for the living room HTPC or my personal PC. All of that is obsolete, I just stream everything and with zero effort, have the same playlists everywhere. I use my phone + bluetooth in my car. I do have some stuff downloaded (and auto-refreshing) on my phone for travelling, but I stopped worrying about it because I'm generally way under my data cap while streaming (no doubt thanks to caching). For the past year and a half, I've been using Google Play Music. Killer feature there is I can 'upload' any song/album I already own and it's seamlessly integrated into the service -- which means I can listen on any device, and some songs even show up on other radio stations I've created. I'm not totally okay with not 'owning' the stuff, but I feel I am getting decent value for what I pay, and that includes my ability to just listen to music. If the service I use shuts down or changes significantly, I'll reconsider my relationship with the music industry at that point.
  - mathgeek 11y ago
    > Clearly. It's not your collection if you're only renting access to it. I never said it was. > Do you think you discover 30 albums per year worth buying and adding to your collection? I listen to a lot of music, and I certainly don't. I certainly don't spend that much on music. Most of what I listen to is simply through Amazon Prime, which I would pay for even without the music portion. Even if you prorate is based on the services I use, which is subjective as to specific costs per service, it's not much.