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[NumberThree]

What is the alternative?

Stop selling it but let people who've already bought it download it? That's what every single digital game distribution platform does.

Plenty of games have been removed from Steam etc. but people can still download them years later.

 

[beato_angelico]

Living in NYC lessens the blow somewhat. But yes, a lot of albums are lost to obscurity forever. I don't know how most of the non-NYC jazz world gets their fix.

to take a guess, through not really legal ways...

 

[Polioliolio]

Can't believe people use itunes.
You want to be tied to a service?

Bandcamp, Amazon

 

[Rootbeer]

embrace services like spotify. You can fight against the tide and build a collection you "own" but it's going to take a lot more work and money. I'd rather just pay the monthly fee, get access to everything from any device anywhere I happen to be. The convenience wins.

 

[Skinpop]

mp3s and flacs. i don't need all the music in the world. I add maybe 3-4 albums per year to my library.

embrace services like spotify. You can fight against the tide and build a collection you "own" but it's going to take a lot more work and money. I'd rather just pay the monthly fee, get access to everything from any device anywhere I happen to be. The convenience wins.

I was an early adopter and used spotify for a few years. Premium is a waste of money for me and I don't like to depend on a service for these things.

 

[RoadHazard]

embrace services like spotify. You can fight against the tide and build a collection you "own" but it's going to take a lot more work and money. I'd rather just pay the monthly fee, get access to everything from any device anywhere I happen to be. The convenience wins.

My Google Music library is just as convenient to access. The only slight inconvenience is ripping and uploading the music, but that's once for each new CD I buy.

For bands I really love it would actually feel wrong not to buy their albums, and instead just rent their music from Spotify or something. When a band like Dream Theater releases something new I need to buy the physical album, take it home, and listen to it. It's an event, almost a ritual. But that's me. (Actually, not just me. Many fans of metal and related music seem to be like this. Those kinds of bands do tend to have more loyal fans than most more popular stuff.)

 

[the_batman]

just keep buying CDs and rip them to your PC.

 

[Timedog]

Buy CDs. Rip CDs.

 

[NumberThree]

embrace services like spotify. You can fight against the tide and build a collection you "own" but it's going to take a lot more work and money. I'd rather just pay the monthly fee, get access to everything from any device anywhere I happen to be. The convenience wins.

Not being able to listen to music I want to because it's not available on Spotify is infinitely more inconvenient than building my own collection.

I use a mix of both myself, but subscription only just isn't ever going to work for me.

 

[bman94]

embrace services like spotify. You can fight against the tide and build a collection you "own" but it's going to take a lot more work and money. I'd rather just pay the monthly fee, get access to everything from any device anywhere I happen to be. The convenience wins.

Convenience doesn't win when you don't have a reliable connection. It's more convenient to own the music.

 

[Apt101]

Amazon for me. I can download the music and store it however I like, and keep it forever.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

If you want to support the artists then don't forget to go to their concerts.

 

[FiggyCal]

Convenience doesn't win when you don't have a reliable connection. It's more convenient to own the music.

You can download the music and play it offline with Spotify and Apple Music.

 

[Beer Monkey]

You can download the music and play it offline with Spotify and Apple Music.

And also on Google Play Music!

GPM is so awesome. I've uploaded 12,000 songs into it. Took a week but they are all in there, and not re-encoded either (MP3 up to 320kbps are simply stored, not converted).

 

[DKHustlin]

can you rate songs i spotify?

 

[Kareha]

CD's are still the best option as it means you can rip to lossless and then transcode to your hearts content.

 

[Iorv3th]

I use Amazon a lot. They have a good selection and good pricing with a lot of deals and discounts. They used to send out more credit.

You can also buy a physical cd and get the digital copy free as well.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Buy the CD, rip however you want, and throw them in a closet.

 

[Ilive1up]

google play all day. can store up to like 50k songs offline. it beats Spotify IMO.

 

[SprachBrooks]

I've realised that the only possible way of doing this is to sign up to a streaming music service (Apple Music). Sadly, what sucks is that I can't use that music on iMovie for example – I have to buy the songs, but it's all about the license I'm paying for so I understand.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

When you upload something to Google Play Music, they actually detect if they already have the song and then if they do they let you play their copy which is high quality. That means if you upload a shitty 128 kbps mp3 file you can actually end up with a 320 kpbs file instead.

 

[Beer Monkey]

When you upload something to Google Play Music, they actually detect if they already have the song and then if they do they let you play their copy which is high quality. That means if you upload a shitty 128 kbps mp3 file you can actually end up with a 320 kpbs file instead.

This is true. However, I think it does some kind of fingerprint matching on mastering. Waveform analysis? I don't know. When I upload a different mastering (older CD than the current official release, recording from vinyl) it keeps my original.

I use Amazon a lot. They have a good selection and good pricing with a lot of deals and discounts. They used to send out more credit.

You can also buy a physical cd and get the digital copy free as well.

You can also buy it digitally from Amazon and upload it to Google Play since there is no DRM. Great for Prince, Taylor Swift, other artists not on Google Play (typically the same artists that aren't on Spotify).

 

[daemonic]

If you want direct downloads go with 7Digital: https://us.7digital.com/

They have a pretty extensive library for such an unknown music provider. The main draw for me is that a lot of albums support FLAC (both 16-bit and 24-bit). It's awesome.