Ever since I got my Michael Jackson Thriller CD, I’ve been thinking, I have started to prefer physical releases more when it comes to films and music, because it’s nice to have something you own in your hands, lend to a neighbour, and rip to your devices.
With streaming, I’ve cut off some services as I got tieed with the price hikes and removals of specific titles, sure, your music might be lost if you lose your phone and you can just resign in with your account on say, Spotify.
But even those have issues where they can remove the track, with CDs and Blu Ray, it ain’t going away if you keep looking after it.
What are your thoughts on this? Are you big into streaming due to convenience, or do you go physical? Or maybe a bit of both?
Let me know in yer comments!
I’m an old fart, and the minute I can digitize something, I do it. I’ve had thousands of 45s, LPs, CDs, etc, over the years, but most have gone by the wayside.
I still buy physical media, often at gigs, or online, but once it’s ripped it collects dust, seldom to be handled again.
I buy FLAC files on Bandcamp. I have the highest quality at a cheap price, and it hopefully won’t rot if stored properly on my NAS.
I got caught up in the vinyl revival, so I enjoy collecting that media. But even then, I consider it more of a novelty.
Generally speaking though, I prefer locally stored digital media without DRM over physical media. It’s just more practical.
That being said, I’m glad that physical media exists and hope it continues to be made. Choice is good.
Its the best when you buy an LP and get a download code for the album as well.
I listen to LPs mostly when I want music to be the primary thing im doing. There is a whole ritual involved with putting a record on. Whereas, sometimes I just want to listen to something while I’m doing dishes or driving, and then playing an MP3 over a Bluetooth speaker from my phone is just infinitely more convenient.
As long as the record is in good condition, I find the sound comperable. I’ve played the same song on a high bitrate digital audio file and on vinyl and I found both equally pleasing to listen to.
I have a Fluance RT80 turntable, and am using the built in preamp. It’s connected to a home audio receiver (Sony STRDH590) with a 2.1 speaker setup (Polk Audio Monitor 60 Series II Floorstanding Speakers and a Polk Audio PSW10 10" Powered Subwoofer). A pretty midrange setup in others words. And I’m no audiophile, so weigh accordingly.
Edit: I realized you asked specifically about streaming. This link https://support.spotify.com/us/artists/article/audio-file-formats/ indicates that Spotify does up to OGG 320kbps/AC3 256kbps which is comparable to my personal audio library. So, statement holds.
I always rip my CDs and blurays so I can stream them from my server. It’s much more convenient and I don’t have to worry about the disks getting scratched. The disks are only used as a backup or if I want to re rip with a different video codec in the future.
I will not buy digital media if access can be taken away from me.
I own physical copies of whatever I can. And I have a Jellyfin server that hosts all my media. Owning it yourself rather than renting it from a corpo is the way to go.
