Hacker News Reader

Comment by Zenst | Hacker News Reader

YEs the whole media market appears to be transitioning from outright purchase towards a leasing model with the likes of Netflix and Spotify and others doing streaming of films and media.

This is not entirely unexpected given how cable operators operate TV packages, but it does open up for more competition and it is that competition that makes the private sector model work for the consumer.

This all said, I can often get a CD cheaper than the online equivalent, more so if a bit older and you shop about. Aspect of old stock taking up space does play more for the physical store offerings, unlike digital versions.

View on HN

I hope it never actually transitions. I'm one of those people who still buy CDs; I want to own what I buy, not have it leased to me for a limited time. I love music and having my own library is cheaper in the long term than paying some monthly amount. Imo that only makes sense for people who jump from artist to artist on a daily basis.

Same here. I want to be able to rip it to FLAC, archive the rips, convert it to Ogg Vorbis for my portable device and never have anyone take my music away from me because they revoked license keys, or the service died, or because I happen to be in Australia...

That does raise a whole very valid point.

The issue of portability globally with subscription streaming services. The World is getting smaller and more people travel further than before and with that.

Are streaming services all equal, do they lock you down to certain countries and with that do any offer true comparable global reach that a physical object affords you.

I see this as something that will become more of an issue as time goes on and also somewhat worrying. Bad enough planning a local SIM card for a phone as cheaper than roaming. Will streaming services start to add roaming charges too later on? I do wonder and suspect they may very well end up doing that.

>convert it to Ogg Vorbis for my portable device

You lost me here.

I used to buy CDs for that reason, but the convenience of digital downloads has made it pretty much irrelevant.

$10 on iTunes vs. $18 in a store? iTunes it is.

In many cases the iTunes package is better, it includes music videos, a full brochure, commentary from the artist. None of this comes with the basic CD package, you'd have to pay even more.

That I was unaware of about iTunes, certainly not the case upon Google Play store. As for others i'm not sure either if they add extra value to the products like that.

Though unless current release I often find the CD option cheaper and many do have extra's.

Though I have yet to take advantage of a old CD that has CD+G, not a standard that took off. But still do not get that on the digital version, which is more expensive, still :|. (Alphaville album)

Still the transition from records to CD was often tainted with the same aspects of lost album art and other choice aspects. Recall a Bowie album with a zip in the front, just do not get that on CD, and no way digitally. not that it is much use, just different.

I see CDs as a sort of offline backup of the FLAC that I will rip from it; also a collection item. Some music can only be bought as a digital download though, if it's on Bandcamp or other shop with no strings attached, that's great. Perhaps not necessarily iTunes.

Perhaps, but consider this.

Ripping CDs: Not fun.

USB backup drive: Too easy.

Yeah I really value having a library of music that I've collected and curated over time. Being able to listen to this music whether or not the streaming service continues their contract with the record label, or if it decides to block me for whatever reason, is very important to me.

Very few of my friends share this feeling, which makes me concerned for the future of ownable music. On the other hand, I'm enjoying the rise in popularity of vinyl. I've been buying albums and downloading the digital copies that they come with—best of both worlds.

Not only that, but the CDs are an automatic backup to the digital versions and they have a much higher bit rate. So I have the best possible sound on permanent media.

Often buying a physical CD on amazon (with included mp3) is significantly cheaper then buying just the mp3 album on amazon.

To me the shift away from purchasing music is because the constant availability of music. If I really want to hear that one old song, I can pull it up on youtube without having to build a library. My music tastes are easily satisfied with Creative Commons music or free streaming, even without subscribing. There is such a surplus of music available with how cheap it has gotten to produce. Music labels are in big trouble as they have to compete with hobbyists. They're being marginalized both in the production and distribution end.

But I don't see that same level of hobbyist quality TV. The business has changed a lot of TV, but only in distribution, not the production. Red vs Blue was a decade ago and little has built on that model since. Maybe Dr Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog could be considered a hobby project, but it was done by big name stars. The only real hobby video we have now is just game-streaming and sketch comedy skits.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com