Streaming and how much does one need to own

[Milestones]

I have been re-creating my music as far as having it on my computer--and a fair share of it was only on the computer.  I have not yet cracked 1,000 hours of music and feel like I am close to satisfaction (bearing in my mind that I will still collect, though at a pretty slow pace).  On my last computer I had about 3,000 hours of music, with just over 2,000 being jazz.

I don't stream much, principally using it to sample and to decide on new purchases.  But streaming has been a big thing for quite some time, and even some older and traditional folks (like many of here on the forum) are going this route more and more.

So...two questions:

1) How much music do you actually own?

2) How does steaming play into your musical enjoyment?

 

[Rabshakeh]

1 hour ago, Milestones said:

I have been re-creating my music as far as having it on my computer--and a fair share of it was only on the computer.  I have not yet cracked 1,000 hours of music and feel like I am close to satisfaction (bearing in my mind that I will still collect, though at a pretty slow pace).  On my last computer I had about 3,000 hours of music, with just over 2,000 being jazz.

I don't stream much, principally using it to sample and to decide on new purchases.  But streaming has been a big thing for quite some time, and even some older and traditional folks (like many of here on the forum) are going this route more and more.

So...two questions:

1) How much music do you actually own?

2) How does steaming play into your musical enjoyment?

 

I stream a lot. I tend to listen to around 10 albums a day.  I have sold all my CDs (wife's orders) but maintain a small record collection of 383 LPs. I also have thousands of MP3s to which I never listen.

With Streaming, I am a bit uncertain of the future. Spotify is not in great shape at the moment, I suspect that it may soon go the way of Netflix. YouTube meanwhile is cleansing the old accounts, so a lot of videos have gone. It's jazz algorithm has declined steeply in the last few months.

I'd probably hold only what I have.

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, Milestones said:

 

1) How much music do you actually own?

2) How does steaming play into your musical enjoyment?

 

1. A lot, from the past, but a lot less in the future 

2. A lot in the present and likely a lot more in the future. 

Pandora is like a radio station, Spotify is like a jukebox, and what I own is whatever I want to do with it. 

[Milestones]

In terms of streaming, I mostly go with YouTube Music.  In most cases (at least with jazz) it is just audio--no video, which is what I prefer.  The amount of jazz on this service is impressive.

 

 

[mjazzg]

1)  1500+ LPs (still adding, too regularly), similar number of CDs (not really adding to),500+ in my download Bandcamp collection

2) I stream maximum 2 albums a day, of about an average 8 played per day, either from Tidal or Bandcamp.

I use Tidal to sample but also have a saved collection of albums that don't merit purchasing in hard format. This isn't necessarily due to perceived quality but often a reflection of genre. Tidal Jazz selection doesn't often come up blank for titles I search. Tidal essential for out and about listening.

Edited August 11, 2023 by mjazzg

[HutchFan]

In a world of streaming, how much does one need to own?  Probably a lot less than in the past.

But I find that I still want to build a record collection.  I enjoy having the physical objects in my home -- whether they're CDs or LPs.  (I have a large collection of MP3s too, but somehow those music files don't count.  OTOH, I think having MP3s is better than being dependent on streaming services -- because I know the music will be there if I want it.)

I suppose I stream music about 10% of the time.  I typically use streaming to (a.) preview music that I'm considering buying, (b.) listen to music that's out-of-print and prohibitively expensive (or entirely unavailable), or (c.) dabble in entirely new stuff.

I use YouTube to stream.  We have a family subscription, so it's commercial free.  Of course, streaming audio quality is inferior to CDs and LPs, another down-side.  (I realize that some streaming services offer high bit-rate streaming.  I don't have any plans to go in that direction.)

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by HutchFan

[mjazzg]

Those need  and want words, give my partner much entertainment when it comes to my music purchasing statements 

Edited August 11, 2023 by mjazzg

[HutchFan]

4 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Those need  and want words, give my partner much entertainment when it comes to my music purchasing statements 

Such an important distinction!   

 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I am rapidly approaching a sell-off of my physical media as I am very close to retiring and don't want to keep tripping over piles of CDs & LPs the rest of my days. I don't stream much at home but I do XM radio every day going to & from work. I'll probably allow that to lapse when I do retire.

I was streaming Amazon on the back deck for a few years but then they moved most of their music to their paid service & managed to strip me of stuff I actually purchased from them that were supposed to be in my "library". I'm not willing to give them a penny after that.

[Milestones]

I really don't want to add much (if any) physical artifacts anymore.   I used to buy the occasional CD from Amazon or from Half Price Books.  At the latter, a few years back I found a jewel: Pete LaRoca's Basra.

Like many, I'm finding that there is enough (or perhaps too much) physical product.  That said, I still do appreciate these things.

 

 

 

[sidewinder]

31 minutes ago, bresna said:

I am rapidly approaching a sell-off of my physical media as I am very close to retiring and don't want to keep tripping over piles of CDs & LPs the rest of my days. 

I’ve retired and if anything I’ve been ramping up...🤔

[Stompin at the Savoy]

I stream with Spotify and Youtube, mainly to check out things I haven't heard and am considering purchasing.  I've bought a few mp3s but basically stopped after I realized you can get cd quality or higher from Qobuz, Presto, and other services as m4a, flac files etc.  I buy downloads mainly when I can't find something at what seems to me to be a reasonable price.  I have a ton of Mosaics and other box sets as well as another ton of individual cds.  I'm still buying them at a prodigious rate.  I rip them all to files as soon as I get them and photograph the booklets so truth is I don't need the hard copies and in the back of my mind is a plan to begin selling them all off to save on storage costs and simplify my life.  I'm old.  Haven't begun yet.  It's not easy to let go of things you have a sentimental attachment to...

Edited August 11, 2023 by Stompin at the Savoy

[felser]

I've never been interested in streaming, and it looks like that market is on the brink of economic calamity (streaming services' financial losses are staggering).  I use it to preview things I am interested in buying but not convinced on.   I own 5000+ keeper CD's (no heart to try to count them) in addition to what I have designated to my huge "sell" pile.  I lost interest in vinyl when CD's proved to be viable long-term, and have been seeking to clear out all remaining vinyl, with mixed results.  I sort of hate selling vinyl, because of the subjectivity of condition grading (have had two very unhappy experiences with that as a seller, though have had dozens of happy experiences), but do want to be free of the vinyl, which I will likely never play again  I'm surprised that my BN vinyl hasn't sold any better than it has, where other labels (Mainstream, Muse, etc.) have.   Retirement has given me some bandwidth to concentrate on selling, and my buying is decreasing, though still large by "normal" standards.

[mjazzg]

7 minutes ago, felser said:

I've never been interested in streaming, and it looks like that market is on the brink of economic calamity (streaming services' financial losses are staggering).  I use it to preview things I am interested in buying but not convinced on.   I own 5000+ keeper CD's (no heart to try to count them) in addition to what I have designated to my huge "sell" pile.  I lost interest in vinyl when CD's proved to be viable long-term, and have been seeking to clear out all remaining vinyl, with mixed results.  I sort of hate selling vinyl, because of the subjectivity of condition grading (have had two very unhappy experiences with that as a seller, though have had dozens of happy experiences), but do want to be free of the vinyl, which I will likely never play again  I'm surprised that my BN vinyl hasn't sold any better than it has, where other labels (Mainstream, Muse, etc.) have.   Retirement has given me some bandwidth to concentrate on selling, and my buying is decreasing, though still large by "normal" standards.

John, do you still have Lloyd McNeill's 'Asha' LP on a sale pile by any chance?

[rostasi]

On 8/11/2023 at 10:51 AM, Milestones said:

So...two questions:

1) How much music do you actually own?

2) How does steaming play into your musical enjoyment?

If by "own", you only mean physical product, then that would be in the tens of thousands, but ownership, to me, includes digital as well and so that would push that number into the hundreds of thousands. Just in iTunes alone, I'm listening to a library of nearly 200,000 hours from a quarter-century of curation.

Streaming is so elaborately done around here that it would be TMI for anyone's interest.

Spotify really is like a jukebox (as well as Bandcamp and many others ... hell, the Internet is a jukebox really).

Streaming, in general, is still growing at an alarming rate and so that can be expected to continue until they run out of monetization ideas which doesn't look like it'll be anytime soon.

Pretty glorious times, methinks.

Edited August 13, 2023 by rostasi

[Kevin Bresnahan]

1 hour ago, sidewinder said:

I’ve retired and if anything I’ve been ramping up...🤔

Over the years, I've created a huge digital library that I've managed to attach to my main listening system with a little Raspberry Pi minicomputer and an SSD hard drive. I find myself listening to this set up more than any physical media, so when I do retire, I'm going to start selling off my CDs (maybe some LPs too) and cut way back on my music purchases... well, I may still buy some downloads here & there.

There's another reason I'm moving away from hard copies to mp3 rips... my hearing has gotten worse & worse as the years have progressed, to the point where these mp3 rips sound mostly fine to me.

I still buy LPs because I'm having fun. The LP playback noise still sucks compared to a well-mastered CDs but fun is fun.

[Milestones]

200,000 hours...that just boggles my mind!

[Teasing the Korean]

What is this "streaming" thing of which you speak?

[Pim]

I have 876 cds. I stopped collecting them and only buy them when not available on vinyl like the new Tapscott recordings. A few years ago my preference changed to vinyl. 
 

I have 460 lps and still buy those. But I realize there’s a serious space limit and money limit to buying them so I tend to be a lot more critical in what I really want to own physical and what I could leave without. When I still bought cd I could easily buy 50 cds for 5 euros or less a piece on a record fair. Of those there were maybe 10 I listened to more than just one time. So I sold quite some cds and limited my wantlist. My current wantlist on Discogs contains something like 30 items. I also enjoy it now sometimes to save up some money and then spend a little more on a collectors item I’d really like to have like Mal Waldrons Spanish Bitch for example. Anyway @HutchFans remark on needing and wanting is very true of course. Music collecting remain a very addictive activity.

I use Spotify to select what I’d want to buy and what not. Part from that I don’t really feel for it. Pushing a button on my smartphone just doesn’t have to do a lot with that music listening experience I am looking for. I love it to put on a lp, read the liners and sit down in front of my speakers with a drink. I also dislike the fact that Spotify is the one who still really ‘owns’ the music which means I don’t control it: I don’t own it and they could easily remove music I want to keep forever. I used to have a VG collection of MP3s too (when it was the IPod decade) but never listen to them anymore

[clifford_thornton]

Oh god.

I have about 6,500 LPs and 3,000-3,500 CDs (I think), so let's say around 10,000 physical pieces of media. 

I have 255 GB of audio files -- various things I've downloaded, some of which I used to own physically and much I never did. 

As for streaming, I don't use Spotify and never have. I download things from Apple Music and Bandcamp; the former, mostly punk/indie/hxc I used to own and wanted to hear again... YouTube I used to use a fair amount at my old office, mostly for the purpose of checking things out I might want to get physically or digitally. Or if I felt like listening to something I own at home on CD/LP (for example, if I was in a Shepp mood while working on checking metadata).

 

[felser]

2 hours ago, mjazzg said:

John, do you still have Lloyd McNeill's 'Asha' LP on a sale pile by any chance?

Hi Mark, I don't, that went to another board member a few years ago. 

[mjazzg]

9 hours ago, felser said:

Hi Mark, I don't, that went to another board member a few years ago. 

Thanks John, I'm still very much enjoying the others of his I bought from you

10 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

What is this "streaming" thing of which you speak?

😂

[JSngry]

Stream, mnot the old but the new

 

[Peter Friedman]

I had a very large collection of LPs. I bought my first CD player in 1984 and from that point on began collecting CDs.

Over a number of years I began selling off most of my LP,s usually for high prices. At present my CD collection totals many many thousands. Initially I was skeptical of streaming and was concerned about audio quality. I eventually became aware that the audio quality of streaming greatly improved. 

Also I had reached the age when I needed to think of downsizing and figuring out how to dispose of my CD collection. So rather than acquire any more CD's, I began to get involved in Streaming. I signed on to Apple Music and have access to a huge inventory o jazz (and classical music which I also enjoy).

So now I stick completely with streaming though do play some of my CD's now and then.

[Rabshakeh]

I think that we are currently very well served for streaming, but I do worry about the future. At some point in the near future I suspect that the current situation where various services all compete with each other but offer essentially the same very wide range of music will fracture, with different services offering only a specific catalogue. That's already happened with film, where you would need to subscribe to seven or eight services to get a half decent range of old and new films.