Now that Apple has entered the on-demand subscription music streaming market, I see a lot more chatter on the pros and cons of subscription streaming. Keep in mind that music streaming has been around since Rhapsody launched their service back in 2001, so a lot of people are already aware, but there is still a huge untapped market out there that doesn’t know how to weigh the pros and cons. In this article, I will give you a few different use case scenarios and the arguments for and against on-demand subscription streaming.
I BUY ONE CD A MONTH AND I AM HAPPY
If you are content with paying for one new album a month, then I would just continue doing what you are doing. Paying $9.99 a month to rent that one album is not a smart move.
I BUY ONE CD A MONTH BECAUSE IT IS ALL I CAN BUDGET
Do you feel that you will listen to a lot of albums if you had access to millions of them? If so, you may be the type of person that would benefit from streaming. However, you would have to look at music as an experience rather than an investment. In other words, you will have a world of music at your fingertips while you are able to pay, but you will have nothing other than past experience when you quit. If you bought an album a month, you would have that one album to listen to forever. If you decide to just buy that one album a month, just make sure you choose wisely, my friend.
I BUY A LOT OF MUSIC EACH MONTH
If you buy a lot of music, I think streaming was custom made for you. For ~$9.99 a month, you can have access to 30 million or so songs and be able to listen to as many albums a month as you like. You will still have money left over to buy music if you feel there is value in that, or if an artist isn’t available for streaming, but you can also put that extra money away for a rainy day. Many audiophiles subscribe so they can audition full albums before buying them.
I HAVE A LARGE LIBRARY ALREADY
If you have every album you ever want to hear, stick with those. Subscription services are for people that want new-to-them music. However, most people with large libraries are music fanatics. A streaming service would put a much deeper catalog of music at your fingertips. Also, if you ever quit the service, you would've still have your large library to fall back on.
I HATE CURRENT MUSIC
There are a lot of people that do not like the rap, hip hop, club, dance stuff, etc. that is out there. However, I don’t know that they have been exposed to the numerous artists that don’t make it to pop radio or TMZ . For example, Jason Isbell, The Wild Feathers, Ryan Adams, Wilco, etc. aren't usually featured on Entertainment Tonight, but make great current music that may not be what you are exposed to in the current media environment.
The fact is that there is still a wealth of great new music no matter your which genres you like. However, even if you don’t want to hear new music, there is a wealth of older music available. For example, if you have a couple Rolling Stones albums, you may be delighted to have access to all (or nearly all) of their music. Even if you don’t like Rock, the situation applies to every genre. Yes, you will occasionally encounter an artist that isn’t available on the subscription service you use, but you can still always buy their albums if you really want to hear them.
The fact is that there is still a wealth of great new music no matter your which genres you like. However, even if you don’t want to hear new music, there is a wealth of older music available. For example, if you have a couple Rolling Stones albums, you may be delighted to have access to all (or nearly all) of their music. Even if you don’t like Rock, the situation applies to every genre. Yes, you will occasionally encounter an artist that isn’t available on the subscription service you use, but you can still always buy their albums if you really want to hear them.
I AM YOUNG AND WANT TO BUILD A LIBRARY
If you goal is to have a library rather than experience tons of music, then I don’t think subscription services are for you. However, you may want to try Spotify’s commercial supported, lower resolution, free tier to be sure that you don’t buy albums that have one good song and a bunch of filler.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
The other scenarios are more general. Do you want on-the-go convenience? Streaming services are easy because you could be at the beach and listen to a ton of Jimmy Buffett and then go to the mountains and spin John Denver's catalog. It is about having millions of songs at your fingertips at all times to fit any mood. NOTE: You need wifi access, cell data, or have already downloaded the music to listen to when you are offline.
MAIN DOWNSIDES
From what I understand, there are three main downsides.
The first is that there may be ~30 million songs available, but that doesn't mean they have everything. For example, The Beatles are not currently available via on-demand services. However, you could more easily fill in those blanks than the other 30,000,000 songs that the service has available that you don't.
The second is the lack of ownership. If you paid for the service for 10 years at an average of $100 a year, you could have bought a thousand dollars worth of music you would own forever. With streaming, if you stopped paying, you would no longer have access to the music. That brings up the point of whether you listen to music for the experience or treat it as a long term investment? Personally, I own about 1500 albums. At an average cost of around $10 an album, I am in for $15,000. If I had put $120 a year toward streaming instead, I would have had access to millions of albums for 125 years. Since, I probably won't live for another 125 years, I could take that extra money and put it toward artists like The Beatles or put into a savings account for that matter. As I mentioned before, if you don't buy a lot of music, you really don't need streaming unless you simply want it for convenience.
Third is that most streaming services use audio compression. Spotify uses 320k Ogg Vorbis files and Apple uses 256k AAC. On some songs, on some systems, you might be able to tell a difference between the two if they are played back to back, over and over.
However, many ABX tests have been done on the Hydrogen Audio forums and they believe transparency for MP3s occurs at ~192k and even lower bit rates for Ogg and AAC. In my humble opinion, once you get to ~256k, the main issue with sound quality is related to the mastering.
As a side note, many CDs were mixed with the "loudness wars" in mind. As a result, they have compressed dynamic range, and in some cases, flattened wave peaks. While Apple uses 256k AAC, they are unique because they could have the benefit of artists that have supplied "Mastered for iTunes" versions of their albums. If they use these versions, and currently there is actually nothing on Apple Music indicating when they are "MFiT", the theoretical sound quality loss from audio compression could be equalized or bettered by the decrease in dynamic range compression.
All that being said, even for audiophiles there is Tidal and other services that stream in lossless formats if they don't mind paying twice as much for the service and living with less features than the competitors. They are even working toward Hi Rez streaming that might even make Neil Young's golden ears happy.
The first is that there may be ~30 million songs available, but that doesn't mean they have everything. For example, The Beatles are not currently available via on-demand services. However, you could more easily fill in those blanks than the other 30,000,000 songs that the service has available that you don't.
The second is the lack of ownership. If you paid for the service for 10 years at an average of $100 a year, you could have bought a thousand dollars worth of music you would own forever. With streaming, if you stopped paying, you would no longer have access to the music. That brings up the point of whether you listen to music for the experience or treat it as a long term investment? Personally, I own about 1500 albums. At an average cost of around $10 an album, I am in for $15,000. If I had put $120 a year toward streaming instead, I would have had access to millions of albums for 125 years. Since, I probably won't live for another 125 years, I could take that extra money and put it toward artists like The Beatles or put into a savings account for that matter. As I mentioned before, if you don't buy a lot of music, you really don't need streaming unless you simply want it for convenience.
Third is that most streaming services use audio compression. Spotify uses 320k Ogg Vorbis files and Apple uses 256k AAC. On some songs, on some systems, you might be able to tell a difference between the two if they are played back to back, over and over.
However, many ABX tests have been done on the Hydrogen Audio forums and they believe transparency for MP3s occurs at ~192k and even lower bit rates for Ogg and AAC. In my humble opinion, once you get to ~256k, the main issue with sound quality is related to the mastering.
As a side note, many CDs were mixed with the "loudness wars" in mind. As a result, they have compressed dynamic range, and in some cases, flattened wave peaks. While Apple uses 256k AAC, they are unique because they could have the benefit of artists that have supplied "Mastered for iTunes" versions of their albums. If they use these versions, and currently there is actually nothing on Apple Music indicating when they are "MFiT", the theoretical sound quality loss from audio compression could be equalized or bettered by the decrease in dynamic range compression.
All that being said, even for audiophiles there is Tidal and other services that stream in lossless formats if they don't mind paying twice as much for the service and living with less features than the competitors. They are even working toward Hi Rez streaming that might even make Neil Young's golden ears happy.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Finally, subscription based on-demand streaming is not for everyone. My parents, for example, don't listen to enough music to make it worthwhile. However, for music fanatics, I think it is the best way to discover and listen to album.
RSS Feed