3 ms·

We've all ready reached that for lots of other parts of the consumer spectrum. e.g. you used to own your music and movie collection but now you rent access to

We've all ready reached that for lots of other parts of the consumer spectrum. e.g. you used to own your music and movie collection but now you rent access to it via Spotify, Amazon Music, Netflix etc Even games: it used to be it was YOUR game but now you pay a subscription.

ausbah 4y ago
I think the value proposition with stuff like Spotify is different. a.) there are still services where you can own your copy of the music, there is still - at least some semblance of - consumer choice. b.) the amount and variety of music I listen to on Spotify and pay per month is WAY more than paying for individual songs (at least personally)
- prawn 4y ago
  And I think there's some value in not actually having the music in physical form, at least as we knew it. I have fond memories of the music I discovered and enjoyed on tape and CD (only owned 2-3 records), but I don't miss the CD towers and shelves of video tapes. Even if you cart around audio files on 5TB portable drives, or have a drive per key location (home, office, etc) there are advantages to streaming. One less drive I need to maintain. Losing everything when you unsubscribe is shitty though. I guess that's the choice made.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    >Losing everything when you unsubscribe is shitty though. I guess that's the choice made. Yes. There's nothing keeping anyone from buying the music they like even if it's just digital. Music is probably the thing that there's there's the greatest choice between renting and very reasonably buying. I have a big library which I got in order a couple years ago. But I made the decision that there was no need--at this point--to buy any gaps. I'd just stream and could always buy pretty much anything I wanted at some point if I wanted to. (My interests are mostly very mainstream.)
    - ben-schaaf 4y ago
      > There's nothing keeping anyone from buying the music they like even if it's just digital. Unfortunately this isn't true anymore. If you want to buy a song there's beatport and bandcamp but they're missing a ton of music, Amazon Music is only available in a few countries and Google Music doesn't exist anymore. That leaves just iTunes which is a terrible experience and only available on macOS and Windows.
      - ghaff 4y ago
        There are also CDs although that probably doesn't apply to niche artists.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
  This exactly. I am constantly exploring and consuming new music, many of which I wouldn't buy the CD of, but I will listen to for a while before moving onto something new. Nothing really beats being able to go through an artists entire discography over a few days. I've started buying the CD's of the stuff I really love again, but the price would be astronomical compared to my streaming service if I did that for everyone I listened to.
tayo42 4y ago
I think of Spotify as an evolution of radio. You can even just pay with your attention by listening to ads instead of money. You can still purchase all of that media if you want
jcpst 4y ago
What’s funny is how ethics around this get compartmentalized. I still refuse to use spotify because it’s only a viable model for the biggest artists (I buy digital albums mostly). But then I don’t seem to stop myself from using Netflix.

ausbah 4y ago

I think the value proposition with stuff like Spotify is different. a.) there are still services where you can own your copy of the music, there is still - at least some semblance of - consumer choice. b.) the amount and variety of music I listen to on Spotify and pay per month is WAY more than paying for individual songs (at least personally)

prawn 4y ago
And I think there's some value in not actually having the music in physical form, at least as we knew it. I have fond memories of the music I discovered and enjoyed on tape and CD (only owned 2-3 records), but I don't miss the CD towers and shelves of video tapes. Even if you cart around audio files on 5TB portable drives, or have a drive per key location (home, office, etc) there are advantages to streaming. One less drive I need to maintain. Losing everything when you unsubscribe is shitty though. I guess that's the choice made.
- ghaff 4y ago
  >Losing everything when you unsubscribe is shitty though. I guess that's the choice made. Yes. There's nothing keeping anyone from buying the music they like even if it's just digital. Music is probably the thing that there's there's the greatest choice between renting and very reasonably buying. I have a big library which I got in order a couple years ago. But I made the decision that there was no need--at this point--to buy any gaps. I'd just stream and could always buy pretty much anything I wanted at some point if I wanted to. (My interests are mostly very mainstream.)
  - ben-schaaf 4y ago
    > There's nothing keeping anyone from buying the music they like even if it's just digital. Unfortunately this isn't true anymore. If you want to buy a song there's beatport and bandcamp but they're missing a ton of music, Amazon Music is only available in a few countries and Google Music doesn't exist anymore. That leaves just iTunes which is a terrible experience and only available on macOS and Windows.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      There are also CDs although that probably doesn't apply to niche artists.
SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
This exactly. I am constantly exploring and consuming new music, many of which I wouldn't buy the CD of, but I will listen to for a while before moving onto something new. Nothing really beats being able to go through an artists entire discography over a few days. I've started buying the CD's of the stuff I really love again, but the price would be astronomical compared to my streaming service if I did that for everyone I listened to.

tayo42 4y ago

I think of Spotify as an evolution of radio. You can even just pay with your attention by listening to ads instead of money. You can still purchase all of that media if you want

jcpst 4y ago

What’s funny is how ethics around this get compartmentalized. I still refuse to use spotify because it’s only a viable model for the biggest artists (I buy digital albums mostly). But then I don’t seem to stop myself from using Netflix.