Does anyone still buy music?
I said the other day that I still buy music. That's mainly from Bandcamp, but I also buy ECM albums from prestomusic.com, a UK-based record shop that has gone very seriously online. They specialise in jazz and classical (whatever that is )
I buy music for a few reasons:
- I like owning music; collecting it.
- I go deeper with the music I've bought. I spend more time with it, understanding it and getting some deeper spiritual value from it (sorry!). Music from the streaming services seems to come and go like music in Asda
- I feel I'm supporting the artists I value (whose music I value?) by buying from them rather than giving them a pittance from Spotify and their ilk (this mainly applies to Bandcamp purchases, but sometimes I still buy directly from an artist who chooses to make their music available in that way)
- It sounds better! As Ben has noted, locally hosted files sound better than those streamed from the internet. Whether that's because of failings of the internet, or choices made by the streaming services, I don't know. The thing is, I've invested time, money and thought into building my main system to get good sound, so why feed it with substandard signals? I tend to listen to Spotify while I'm doing something else or I'm listening to my lower-fi equipment. The poorer sound quality doesn't matter then
Am I potty? Am I not keeping up with the 21st Century? Do I have a point?
And, notice, I'm not talking about collecting vinyl.
Comments
2 is an interesting observation Dave. Could be that I buy music that I'm more likely to get into...And/or I'm more like to become attached to music I own physically...?
There's so many people the say it's good and then there's loads that say it isn't.
I suppose it's good for finding new music and trying before you buy.
But how much is a decent streamer?
And what do you think is the best to stream from.
But I do like the idea of hearing more new music easily.
Tidal sounds best of those I've tried (I haven't tried Quboz), but I subscribe to Spotify because it's cheap, not because it sounds good.