I second this statement:
“makes absolutely no sense at all”
I will continue to buy vinyl and Cds regardless of the shortcomings. Because streaming and compressed elevator music shit from the the internet is just that. My 8 track player from the 60’s provided better dynamics. Obviously, anyone over 50 would know that.
You can shoot me down in flames now. 
When they finally begin to stream Hi-resolition quality audio and charge a reasonable monthly fee, then local collections will dwindle rather quickly.
Similar to how we pay for cable, telephone etc.
They can also broadcast live concerts etc for an additional small fee.
Of course then they cannot stop people from recording them but nobody will if the service is complete and reasonably priced.
Sort of like your entire library in a cloud and you can access it from anywhere.
What the heck is taking them so long?
blueknight said: I will continue to buy vinyl and Cds regardless of the shortcomings.
I prefer DXD files ;)
Alekz said: I prefer DXD files
What if you could stream them from a 100 million album cloud library, make and save playlists and play them back anywhere that you are? Beach, car, jail?
As long as I do not have to pay for that…
Gordon said: Of course then they cannot stop people from recording them but nobody will if the service is complete and reasonably priced.
Perhaps, but consumers like to possess and control. Consumers will eventually give up discs, but getting them to forgo their own personal copies will be hard. Additionally, there is the practical issue that high speed Internet access is far from universally available.
The average consumer may turn to streaming when the playback is as easy, predictable and controllable as an iPod. If it is transparent where one cannot tell if the music is on the device or in the cloud, streaming may prevail.
"Reasonable price" is another issue entirely. Many currently all of their music for free by P2P, copies from friends, etc. It is hard to compete with free.
Alekz said: I prefer DXD files
The advantage to this is you will spend very little time shopping; the choices are incredibly limited.
Gordon said: Oh no, Not Again!
The proposal does indeed seem unlikely to succeed.
@elk
Lets look at it with a clean slate.
We have multiple offers from “music” suppliers.
1/ involves purchasing, storing and possession of yesterday’s technology, mediums and recording quality.
2/ provides access to almost every album/genre in the world and all we need is a streaming device
which can either be fixed or portable or both.
If you like a song and want to record the stream to put on a non internet device, then please go ahead.
I bet the stream subscribers will be very happy to pay $15.00/month for the service and endless supply of the latest music and technology available. A super Jriver version in the cloud where it can be endlessly tweaked with options and all in one place. The ultimate in PnP.
What the heck would we do with all our spare time?
It is the storage and front end player manufacturers that will then suffer.
Gordon said: If you like a song and want to record the stream to put on a non internet device, then please go ahead.
This would go a long way toward universal acceptance, especially if the recording can be done in other than real time.
Gordon said: I bet the stream subscribers will be very happy to pay $15.00/month for the service and endless supply of the latest music and technology available.
This would be a reasonable price point.
This would be difficult (impossible?) to meet however with unlimited playback (the licensing fees would be prohibitive I bet) and, even more of a problem, would be the licensing fees to allow people to record and store what they would like. The "ownership" desire of users is high and must be accompanied by a reasonable payment to the copyright holder.
What do current streaming services charge and what do this entitle the subscriber to do/listen to?
Elk said: What do current streaming services charge and what do this entitle the subscriber to do/listen to?
E.g. Spotify access is included in my Internet subscription (no additional costs). AFAIK the usual price for such services is around €10/month.
What does the service provide?
www.spotify.com
Spotify is a commercial music streaming service providing Digital Rights Management-protected[3] content from record labels including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group and Universal.[4][5] Launched in October 2008 by Swedish startup Spotify AB, the service had approximately 10 million users as of 15 September 2010,[6] about 2.5 million of whom were paying users.[7][8] Total users reached 20 million by December 2012, five million of whom pay a monthly subscription fee that varies based on locale.[9][10]
The system is currently available using Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, Telia Digital-tv, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, S60 (Symbian), webOS, Samsung Smart TV, Squeezebox, Boxee, Sonos, WD TV, Roku, MeeGo, and TiVo.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] As of July 2013 Spotify was not available in the Windows Store for Windows 8.
Music can be browsed by artist, album, record label, genre or playlist as well as by direct searches. On computers, a link allows the listener to purchase selected material via partner retailers.[18]
A six-month free trial period is activated upon account registration or first login with a Facebook account, allowing the user to listen to an unlimited amount of music supported by visual and radio-style advertising.[19] After the trial, Spotify has a listening limit of 10 hours per month, divided into 2.5 hour weekly portions (unused hours carry over).[20] The only countries exempt from this rule are the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, where ad-supported unlimited streaming continues on Spotify Free after 6 months.[21][22] An “Unlimited” subscription removes advertisements and time limits and a “Premium” subscription introduces extra features such as higher bitrate streaming, offline access to music and mobile app access.[23] Users can try Spotify Premium for 48 hours by logging into Spotify Mobile for the first time, or get a 30-day trial for their first month.[24] An active Facebook account is required to use Spotify if the user has signed up using Facebook, but as of 30 August 2012 the option to make a Spotify username was again offered.[25] Subscriptions are restricted to people with credit/debit cards or PayPal accounts registered in certain countries.[26][27]
Thanks, Gordon.
After asking the question, I realized it was not a quick, easy answer and I did a bit of reading. The ability to share playlists and load them into one’s Spotify client is neat.