Imagine you pay 10 years for a streaming service, than the company goes belly up and your entire music library is gone.
Or some music you used to play before suddenly and silently is removed from the service, because of some disagreement. Years later you remember you used to listen to something, but it’s nowhere to be found.
How do you feel about that?
There are reasons why I physically own (be it a vinyl LP or high-rez files) my entire music collection and don’t stream. That being one. Another being paying for access to content 99% of which disinterests me for the 1% that does. I cut cable television years ago for that reason. Thankfully for me a non-problem through the choice I made to never chain myself to a streaming service for the music I truly love.
How do you access your local library remotely?
I’m a disc person, I don’t stream music.
We can assume anyone who uses a streaming service, then loses access to their music, is going to be unhappy.
Do you expect a different response?
Yeah I do. I had a talk with a colleague today, nobody seems to care. What do you do to avoid being possibly unhappy. We saw that artist can simply withdraw “their” stuff. Also we know because of political reasons services can become unavailable in certain geographic regions.
Do you simply say it’s the way it is? Do you understand what is happening? Can you see how can it be dangerous? Do you have privacy concerns?
Your colleague stared he would not care if he paid 10 years for a streaming service, then the company goes belly up, and his entire music library was gone?
And he similarly indicated he would not care if a favorite artist suddenly withdrew his material?
Not even mild disappointment?
This seems a bit odd.
Yeah. He was under the impression he can change services. But didn’t seem to understand the impact of loosing album/track/play lists and history. He said he doesn’t play to own his music, but to have the opportunity to play “anything”.
What do you think?
My first music subscription was in 2009 when MOG launched their service (MOG became Beats Music which became Apple Music).
I’ve been frustrated since the beginning in terms of artist compensation, search, recommendations, app design, exclusives and, most of all, album removal / licensing phenomena.
My frustration is subdued when I remind myself how the big platforms are simply utilizing subscribers as business tools. The goal is not to delight us.
I capture my TIDAL library twice a year to prepare for changes.
But when changes come there s nothing to be done.
I really enjoy song 2 of this album … suddenly not available on qobuz anymore … ( I have purchased it before … so Im lucky ) an I can not find this specific version anywhere.
So it makes it obvious to me that there is nothing permanent in the selection of music. I mostly listen and relisten the same stuff and I enjoy it. Go through stages. It is really important to be able to play things again. If I hear it once I think I own it, but this seems not to be the case.
I canceled all my regular streaming services and have part of my library on my phone through flacbox. Sadly can not take all 30K Tracks on my iPhone, but it works offline and gives me mental stability, that the stuff is locally in my possession.
Given his use of a streaming service only as a library it makes sense he would have little concern and would simply switch to a new service.
In his world losing one service is trivial.
I buy a ton of music on CD and Vinyl. I pretend the stuff on the streaming services is temporary, as it sometimes is. I will happily enjoy access to music I would not hear otherwise, as long is it is available. Streaming services are not my collection. They are a nice addition to my collection.
If you don’t want to stream, don’t. If you think your decision has any effect on anyone other than you, kewl.
If this is a concern, buy the music you like. This is better for the artists and you will always have what you enjoy.
I have tons of stuff locally :). Was just wondering if I’m the only one who is concerned with the ubiquity of streaming and how everyone moves to this series without second thought.
Given the long term reliability problems with streaming services with
the loss of entire music libraries that took years to build up with the $$$$
investment lost…
Consequently these will not have my business…I purchase my music
and definitely will not store them in the cloud…
Just my thinking .0001
Best wishes
I did a search on “Extra Latino” on Qobuz. Gee! Is it still a music site? I did not try any song there 
I’m with you on this, Al.
Yep, Al nailed it.
I have a similar attitude. I used to buy lots of CDs as well as HDTracks and HDTT. I digitized over 3K CDs and sold them. I keep them stored on 2 different RAIDs and on SSD drives in my ROON server. (I have about the same amount of vinyl albums). I now have access to so much more through Qobuz, music I would not have found all in hires that sounds great.
Music that is really important to me I purchase in hires or on vinyl. I also try to support several artists through band camp or directly.
I feel that ROON and Qobuz are very well worth the cost, (ultimately I think I spend less now per year than before streaming), Both are portable with their apps as long as you have internet access.
I guess I’m both as well. I stream a lot but I also can’t seem to stop buying used CDs, specifically classical box sets.
