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[Poll] Music: Rent or Buy? (2019)

As a basic approach - Rent or Buy your music?


  • Total voters
    67
  • Poll closed .

Whaleblue

Southbound
Yet another year on, and interesting to see if much has changed here.

From 2016:
http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=183896

From 2017:
http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/music-rent-or-buy-2017.196718/

From 2018:
https://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/poll-music-rent-or-buy-2018.210995/

As I said originally:

I've put this in Audio, as although it's about the music, it's about the mechanism of play.

The question I pose is a simple binary choice. I'm sure there are many shades of grey, so pick the one closest to what you feel represents your stance right now.
So, the choice remains simple. FWIW I now buy a very small handful of albums a year, those that I both wish to support with a relatively significant financial input and ensure I'll always have access to. I voted 'rent' as that's my primary mode of consumption.

Votes cannot be changed, and you can only see the poll state once you have voted. Your vote will be publicly visible. I know some folk wanted other choices to represent the grey areas between the two options, but I originally resisted that in 2016 to keep it simple - there are myriad in-between options if we went there. The consistency of choices across the years also keeps year-to-year comparisons meaningful.

So, where are we in 2019?
 
I didn’t buy a cd in 2018, I bought a few downloads that weren’t available to stream, otherwise I streamed or played rips. I also have running water and mains electricity.
 
If only you’d mentioned this in the 2016 thread!

Yes..I could have done but it was a new idea back then and worth asking. Four years on is it really necessary to keep running this thread? You now know the answer to your question don't you? Does it really need to be a "sticky?" .. If it were interesting enough it would keep itself in view surely?The System Pics 2016/7/8/9 is not a sticky and it keeps in view all year. I suppose my question is, 'what is the point of running this question year after year after year?'

( if Tony does make this a sticky yet again then I am quite happy for my posts on it to be deleted...I am only asking these questions here because, where else can they be asked? Also... shouldn't it be in the "Music" section and not "Audio"? ;) )
 
@Joe , the point of the threads is to track how the answer changes over time. If Tony isn’t interested in the thread he can unsticky the old one (that he left there through 2018) and let this one do what it does. It just seemed odd to have last year’s left up there.
 
@Joe , the point of the threads is to track how the answer changes over time. .

..... and not to labour the point but wouldn't it be better to start a thread in, say, early November asking people what they in fact chose to do most that year? Buy or Rent? rather than ask a speculative question about what they might do this year?

I think that. looking at the information you have gathered , the overwhelming number of Fishies still choose to buy physical product but there is a hint that that is starting to drift downwards and a few more are choosing the 'non-ownership' route to consuming their musical choices.( although you would need to correlate information from those who, having answered one way or another in past years have now changed ) It is to be entirely expected and comes as no surprise at all that a few more are choosing streaming...it's the way the world is going. It is a trend that will continue.I imagine that earbuds plugged into a smart phone is the dominant method of music listening. High end hifi is a niche product that appeals to a smaller and smaller groupset off people and it too will wither away just as have SLR cameras as technology overtook them. Pink Fish will hang on to physical product far longer than elsewhere simply because it is an Audio forum...we like our toys.
 
For what it’s worth I think it’s a valuable thread and works fine. For the first 2 years I was predominantly buy, now I’m predominantly rent.

As I posted elsewhere



Anyway, I love streaming, coupled with Roon, it has heralded the biggest change in my listening enjoyment and habits in years.

What I feel is that some posters see it very black or white, stream or own. The third path is radio. I’m just listening to Boogie Wonderland by Earth Wind and Fire. I have no desire to own this song on the Hits album it is from, but I’m listening to it on the Naim full monty as if I owned it. Just like years ago I enjoyed radio, enjoyed listening to and singing along to songs I had no desire to buy on a single or LP.

There is a DJ who lives close to us who I dealt with and we had many chats about music over the years. I used to lust after his huge collection and could only have dreamt about having accesss to such a library. I would have been in heaven had he let me listen for a day a month. Now I have full access to a much bigger collection in full CD or hi-res in practically every room in the house. I’m (relatively) well off but would still find it a strain to buy the full 70’s Stevie Wonder back catalogue in hi-res but I’ve just overdosed with it in December -for €20.

I still purchase (mainly box sets and compilations) but the ever increasing pile of unripped CDs tells its own story about my listening habits.

I have a supercharged radio station and a library ticket to the best music library on the planet, what’s not to like?

.sjb
 
@Sloop... none of what you posted ( in which I entirely concur ) goes to explain why you think "it's a valuable thread".
 
Well, I suspect that the reality is that the bulk of music 'consumers' have zero awareness of audio quality. And probably little interest in IPR, etc (1). And at first 'renting' seems cheaper and more convenient. But after many decades you may start to wonder if it would have been cheaper in the long run to buy *if* you view music as being more than transient pop crap that won't be worth listening to again later. We also need to check stats for misleading comparisons like comparing *world* streaming examples with *UK* CD sales, say. Or assuming that behaviour is the same in all countries and for all genres, etc.

I'm still buying CDs and getting lists of them to buy. But then most of what I buy is classical or jazz from past decades.

If I want to 'stream' I use the BBC iPlayer. :)

(1) That said, you'd think that 'da yoof' who find they have to rent rather than buy a home would be wary of thinking that 'rent everything' is the best plan for the long term, rather than done out of Hobson's choice.
 
@Joe, the point is moot as to whether the thread is labelled 2019, Take 4 or D - it’s yearly, carried out in January and simply named after the year in which it is posted.

It’s not about predicting anything, merely how folk would label themselves right now.
 
Well I may be shallow (almost certainly ) but I do find it interesting that with each year the ratio is staying pretty much as it was for 2016 . I would have thought that as Streaming services matured and increased there quality then more would be tempted to move that way . Yet each year the numbers that buy instead of rent seems to remain over 50% more than those that rent . I include myself in the buy camp as I buy CD's pretty much monthly and around 10/12 per month often more . I then rip them and technically then stream my music to the various players in my systems . Yet I still want to own the CD and have then both on show on shelves and in storage un boxes under the beds .
 
I’m in the buy camp. Streaming from the online service requires certainty of an internet connection. And I have absolutely no wish to stream into my car for my commute. In parts of north Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire where my route goes the mobile signal is not good enough to hold a phone conversation let alone stream data from the ‘net.
 
I guess the results have stayed mainly the same because it’s likely the same (mostly) people choosing options in the poll. I buy vinyl and CDs, and also buy downloads (as well as playing back ripped CDs from a server), and subscribe to Qobuz.
There might be more of a change over a much longer period, say ten to twenty years. I started ripping CDs and streaming to the stereo over ten years ago, and I’ve been using Qobuz for at least three years, so my choices won’t really have changed.

Mick
 
@Tony L could you unpin this - very few votes compared to last few years so far - I expect folk aren’t noticing it’s a new thread up here!
 


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