Record sales plunge further...

I do Pandora... does that count. I like it...but I get to edit my playlists and create my stations

 

Yes, it counts. Point being that there are Big Stereo System Audiophiles and then there are Portable Speaker Audiophiles and we each have our own listening conventions and equipment that support our passion for top quality sound.

 

I still am too skeptical of streaming services to believe this. I just don't trust that streaming services will last in the long term. I think that the premise of unlimited music streaming it is still too good to be true. And, if streaming does go bust, or become too limited in terms of selection, then the placing of our trust into these services will retroactively be seen as a huge mistake, as we will have nothing to fall back on; well unless they own a copy of the music. Then you own it forever, and no streaming service nor any record company can do anything about it. Physical media and music ownership for that matter is not obsolete for this very reason, and what frustrates me the most about the streaming debate is that nobody seems to realize that. Streaming is inherently ephemeral. Physical artifacts, like vinyl LPs, CDs and cassette tapes will remain after the Death of Streaming happens. This is solely because streaming is reliant on a party (i.e. the streaming service) to provide a service in order to function. With a disc, no service needs to be provided in order to function.

 

No.

 

Who cares if they last? This is like radio. Do you not listen to a radio station because it might go bankrupt and off the air 10 years down the road?

It's not like if you subscribe to a streaming service they send someone out to your home, shred all of your CDs, crush your hard drives and throw your old iPods into a Vitamix blender. This is just another source to listen to music from. Do I want to play a specific master of Dusty In Memphis? Then I cue that up in MediaMonkey and stream it to my receiver. Or if I want the SACD master, I plop the disc into the old Blu-ray player and spin that. But if I want to listen to a random shuffle of female singers from the '60s, I ask Amazon or Spotify or Siri or whatever to spin a canned playlist (or one I curated myself) from a streaming service.

Different use cases, different solutions. Streaming offers a new solution and one that's frankly vastly superior to radio, while also providing radio and radio-like experiences if you want them. Indeed, since you can't control which masters they use or even which acts are fully available on these services, it's extremely radio-like in that regard. Where it's not like radio is in the degree to which it can be customized within those limitations. I can playback whole albums, if they've got them, or whole catalogs. I can shuffle genres for which there are no radio stations operating anywhere in the world. I can curate my own playlists, either ones loosely defined or carefully arranged and sequenced. Best of all, I can use the streaming services to fill in gaps in my own library, listening to songs I like but might not currently own (and may not have any intention to buy - indeed, some stuff on streaming services is actually difficult to come by on disc or via download).

 

As naysayers have been predicting (hoping), there almost certainly will be a point at which something gives and the streaming landscape is just smoking carnage. Maybe it will be the labels; maybe the ISPs; maybe the only survivors will be the companies running streaming as a loss-leader to get you to buy phones or data plans or AmazonFresh groceries. Certainly, the model will crater somewhat under the weight of the inevitable price increases and leveling-off uptake.

So why "No"? Why not try it now when it's really unlikely to get any cheaper or better? You're not even curious?

 

No one is saying that you won't be able to purchase or own music! For me streaming is a complementary service rather than a replacement.

There will always be a market for ownership be it 'special edition' or boxsets. Maybe in the not too distant future absolute worse case you'll be purchasing a digital file, but for the bigger artists there'll be value in some sort in manufacturing and offering a 'premium' product that people want to pay for and own.

 

Streaming is the new business model. Physical media is dead and digital downloads and building libraries are a thing of the past too. Most groups or artists are discovered through YouTube whose content is free and paid for by ad views and it's YouTube that's the friend/enemy of the labels.

And in the big picture the problem isn't the delivery medium; it's the fact that the quality of the music is awful, there just aren't enough talented artists producing enough quality content for anyone to care anymore. Save a small group of artists with passionate followings (ie Drake, Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift) people aren't fans of 'bands' or 'acts' anymore; they are fans of genres and moods and playlists. Discovery of new music comes from being incorporated in popular streamed playlists or streamed stations. Streaming is the industry's last hope of survival and it's here to stay. It's actually working.

 

Record Sales plunging further??? I've actually heard contrary to that!
These days it really boils down to QUALITY v QUANTITY.
I'm 63 yo and I prefer to own and listen to 1,000 quality lossless CD's or Vinyl Records rather than own and listen to 100,000 downloaded MP3's.
My friends brag to me that they have a Flash Drive with 5,000 Songs of the 70's and I say to them, "How many of those songs are actually songs you LIKE?"
Quality v Quantity >>> Rich, warm, room- filling bass and crisp detailed highs v headphone music!