Why I Don't Pay For Individual Music Tacks
Inspired by an article by Paul Stamatiou found on digg, I decided to explain 7 reasons why I don't and won't pay for individual music tracks. Instead I subscribe to it.
Updated: Several people have pointed out that I am infact paying for the music. I originally titled the article "Why I Don't Pay For Music" in direct opposition to Paul's article. I've update the title to be more accurate.
The reasons
Subscription services work better, here's why:
- About $10 a month for most if not all the music you want
- I save thousands of dollars. I spend $120 a year for all my music. For ten years of music I will have paid $1200. Remember this is for every song since I started my service plus the 60 years of music history before then. I have access to thousands of songs. Being modest if I liked only 10,000 songs then I would have had to pay $10,000. Not counting all the new songs that came out over the 10 years. Of course I could burn/rip the tracks. Time is worth more money to me than anything. If I'm not working I'm losing money. Burn/rip takes time, therefor money.
- Multiple devices supported
- With iTunes the only portable device is the iPod. I don't own an iPod nor do I need one.
- Full track for no extra cost
- I can listen to the full track for sampling before having to buy it. With pay per track services you can only listen to 30 seconds before buying. How would I ever know if a song was worth $0.99 within 30 seconds? However, in 30 seconds I can tell that I don't want it.
- Discover new music
- I can set up a commercial free "radio station" to hear random music that I would have otherwise not heard. I'm unwilling to pay $0.99 for something I've never heard. Services like Yahoo Music allows me to rate artists, songs, and genres of things I like. Based on these ratings Yahoo Music suggests other songs I might like. I've heard hundreds of new songs that I never heard before that are now on my playlist.
- I don't own the song
- This is a good thing. For $0.99 you do not own the tracks you buy. If iTunes shut down your tracks would fail when the DRM expired. No matter how secure having that DRM file on your hard drive makes you feel, it can stop working at any time. I'm stuck in DRM hell, at least I know it and I don't try to pretend I'm not because I own the song. If the music fails I'm not out thousands (I listen to more than a thousand songs), I'm out $10 a month. Stop fooling yourself, you do not own your music.
- Service portability
- If the subscription service sucks or I can find a better one without losing anything. I can easily move and reacquire my playlists. I did this already. I switched from Napster to Yahoo Music Unlimited and am much happier.
- Never have to re-buy music
- When 8-tracks came out everyone ditched records and upgraded. When cassettes came out everyone ditched records and upgraded. When CDs came out everyone ditched cassettes and upgraded. When iTunes came out everyone ditched CDs and upgraded. How many times does the same song have to be bought? What will you do when a better format than iTunes comes out with better quality: re-buy? RIAA is counting on saps that buy the same stuff over and over again. Just like the movie industry.
Conclusion
To be fair, subscriptions have their downsides too. You are locked into a single player, just like iTunes. You have to deal with DRM, just like iTunes. If all the subscriptions shut down, you have no music; At least I'm not broke.
Until I can actually buy music and own it for life, plus upgrades when the new format arrives, I'll continue to use subscription services. You guys can continue to live in the delusion that by paying $0.99 and burn/ripping that you own the music.
Alternatives
There are other ways to hear commercial free music at a reasonable price. Of course there is Sirius and XM which both offer online streams. There are also online stations that offer great variety. Radio Paradise is one in particular that I listen to because they have a great selection. The DJ's create playlists far greater than I would ever spend time on. They don't just play the latest new song over and over again. And they are user supported which means they pay the piper so the are legit, but they aren't ruined by corporate propaganda to play what's hot.
Posted by mthorn on 7/25/2006