So I’ve been getting back into torrenting because I’m fed up with the inability to actually own the music I pay for. I used to torrent a lot back in the day, mostly music with a bit of anime and obscure/foreign movies and TV shows here and there, but that was a long time ago. I had been going back to the most famous of all coastal bodies of water where buccaneers reside, but I just tried too go there only to find it’s currently not working. I know from lurking here that 1337x and rargb are no longer safe and LT doesn’t have much to offer. All I want is music, but it seems most places are geared towards TV and movies. Where does an audiophile turn to in times like these?
Do people still pay for music? How and, more importantly, why?
I think people pay for streaming services, which is what I assumed was meant by the original post.
Yes, because it’s the most prevalent, and because while you can still buy vinyl (if the label even offers it and I’m not strapping a turntable to my back when I go out), other formats (namely CDs) are rarely offered, and I don’t know how iTunes works these days, but that is/was also subject to the whims of the platform, just like most any other digital library (ie; Steam, Playstation, XBox, etc.).
You know you can use Spotify for free right?
Ever heard of Spotify? Pandora? iHeartRadio? There are also tons of audiophiles that buy vinyl, CDs, etc. The streaming services are about “convenience”. But it’s not very convenient when those services don’t offer everything that should be available, the quality is shit, and they can pull things from being available at any time. The physical forms are about actually owning what you pay for as well as quality. Even the best rips aren’t 100%; there may be a missing track, cut too early, corruption of the file(s), etc.
So yeah, people still pay for music. It’s not porn.
Yes I have Spotify. I don’t pay for it though. I don’t see why I would.
Of course but that’s besides the point, because OP was talking about paying for music without actually owning it.