Young Listeners Opt For Streaming Over Owning 390
An anonymous reader writes "CNN reports that younger listeners are increasingly opting to stream music rather than own it. If their music is constantly available anywhere on any device, then 'what's the difference?,' ponders the article. The distinction between streaming music and owning music is starting to blur. From the article: 'But Van Buskirk also suggests another reason for streaming, not acquiring music. It's liberating. "There is a certain relief with not having to own music. It is a lot of work," he said. ... Porter says the way people own music is transforming. He believes the cloud model is where the state of music is heading, and for many people ownership is not essential. "I think ownership is access, you don't have to have music on your local hard drive to own it," he said.' Will the concept of ownership of music and software fade as cloud based services become the way people expect to access media and software?"
Young people don't drive. (Score:5, Interesting)
I can stream music on my phone, and I often listen in the car. I don't stream music while driving because it cuts out due to cell hopping and things. I'd have to get satellite radio for a better solution.
It's still much much easier to just use locally stored music - CDs or on my phone SD card or otherwise.
Re:Young people don't drive. (Score:5, Interesting)
Streaming is the new radio (Score:5, Interesting)
As long as I can remember, most people listened to music on the radio -- people who dominantly listened to purchased music have always been the exception.
Digital Collections (Score:5, Interesting)
I think a lot of people try to explain these things too rationally. I could be wrong, but in my mind it all comes down to the idea of "collecting".
See, when people used to collect records and VHS tapes and even DVDs, they didn't just want to listen to the music and watch the movies; they were amassing a collection. However you want to explain the psychology of it, it was pleasing to see your collection on a shelf. It was comforting to know that you were happy with your collection. You could say, "I have every Rolling Stones album ever," or whatever, and it was pleasing beyond the sum of the enjoyment you get from listening to each song individually. You even bought that one album you didn't like very much because otherwise, there was a hole in your collection. You'd think, "I have every Rolling Stones album... except that one. Well, I may as well get that one."
And that was part of where the music industry made its money. There were big hits that made a lot of money, but there were also a bunch of collectors amassing very expensive collections.
And then the whole thing went digital, and the idea of collecting has lost some of its luster. First of all, it's not something you can display on your shelf, so you don't get the satisfaction of having your collection also be a design choice in your house. At most, you might be satisfied when you go to sit through your computer, or as you scroll through your iPhone.
Secondly and perhaps just as importantly, the collection has lost its uniqueness. Sure, you may have every Rolling Stones album ever, but you can just copy it and give it to your friend, and now he has all of their albums too. So there's no status in it, and no accomplishment.
Aside from that, there's nothing personal in it. When you had physical copies, you might look at an old record and remember, "This is the first record I bought for myself when I was 16. I bought it with money from my first job. I listened to this exact physical record over and over until it started to wear out. Now there's a scratch in this one part of the song, and I know exactly when it is from memory, because I know this physical object so well." Now a song is some bits that get transferred from device to device, and are effectively identical to everyone else's collection of bits for that song.
So when you take away the aesthetic appeal of an actual collection, and you take away the uniqueness and the personal nature of it, there's nothing left but the listening. That's all people want: to listen to the music conveniently and cheaply.
Re:Young people don't drive. (Score:4, Interesting)
The apparently also don't travel in airliners, or to foreign countries where data access is expensive, or to remote locations without any data. If you spend your life in a big modern city, its easy to get the impression that the internet is always accessible.
If I could really be connected all the time, I wouldn't mind cloud-based / streaming services, but in reality I spend a significant fraction of my time in locations where I do not and can not (for any reasonable price) have internet access.
Services that let you download and then play while disconnected could work, but that starts to sound suspiciously like "ownership" to me.
I think there are 3 different issues here. One is whether you pay one-time for the content, or pay each time you use it. One is where the content is stored and whether it will be available when you are not connected. The third is whether you will always have access to the content or if it will be removed at some point.
For me, I don't care much about the payment model as long as the total cost works out to the same. I do want my content available when I am not connected, and I really don't want content to disappear.
Grandpa here. (Score:4, Interesting)
Over the long haul ownership is the only thing that guarantees you access to the music of your life.
Many of the things that I loved when I was a college student are out of print, or just flat out not available except as rare items.
Streaming? Not available.
People streaming now will eventually own the music that ties into their memories, or lose it.
Re:Young listeners? (Score:4, Interesting)
the music being produced today, just isn't worth keeping
I don't understand this. You have an incredibly narrow taste in music. Not that there's anything wrong with that. For me, there is TONS of music being produced today that is worth listening to. My problem is that there's too much out there and I'll never get around to even half of it. That is why I use a streaming service. I try to listen to at least 2 or 3 new albums a month. My horizon is always expanding in every genre. I gravitate towards Jazz and Classical, but there is tons of other stuff as well, from pop to blues to electronic, etc. I use Amazon.com to keep track of the top new releases in every genre each week. I pick a few that might seem interesting and see if they are on my streaming service. There is always something to keep me busy.
Lost mine and didn't go back to buying (Score:4, Interesting)
I lost my entire hard copy music collection in a house fire back in 2008. I took the insurance money for all the CDs and kept it. Fortunately, my computer hard drive survived the fire, so I still had the ripped MP3s, but in the four years since, I've only bought a handful of new albums/songs. Nonetheless, I actually listen to a much wider variety of music, and more often now too - all via streaming.
Pandora is easy, free, and available just about anywhere I go. I really can't rationalize paying for what I can get for free.
Necron69