I’ll suggest subscription to be awkward 🙂
14.99 Apple Music family(up to 6 people), stream whatever you want or download to your device.
Simple.

I use payplay

One million streams won’t even earn an artist a living wage, but I guess you’re ok with that, right?

Why should 1 million streams give them a living wage?

the problem with any streaming service is that you need to be somewhere with wifi or a really good data signal with unlimited data limit to get any decent use out of it. Sometimes even with wifi the service can be patchy depending on their servers and your internet provider. You get none of that if you actually have an MP3.

Download the mp3s for offline use on the subs. A 32gb card holds a whack of music at 320kbps

I buy CD’s from amazon, you get the mp3 for free and it’s usually cheaper then buying mp3 on it’s own

That Quobuz is a bit pricey! £13.99 instead of £9.50 for an album. Is the quality crazy good or something?

….or £1.13 at Payplay!!! That is ridiculously cheap..

Bandcamp for me too

£4.99 for most albums on junodownload.

Artists would get nothing from a Ukrainian site like Payplay. You may as well find the album on an illegal free site and save yourself a quid or 2.

Get with the now, grandad.

stood in line waiting to pay for some electronic item and there on the counter was Pink’s latest album in vinyl??????

can’t wait for reel to reel tape recorders to come back – drag that out on a run

I found this too:

I buy CDs cos they’re (for some reason??) often cheaper than downloads

and this:

I buy CD’s from amazon, you get the mp3 for free and it’s usually cheaper then buying mp3 on it’s own

This also makes no sense 😕 but is my experience. The last 5-6 albums I’ve bought have been on CD and then ripped with iTunes which Google Playmusic automatically transfers onto my phone, where I actually listen to it. I’ve currently got 6 months free Apple Music with EE (data included) but don’t particularly like the interface and can’t be arsed setting up my playlists etc. again.

If I want to actually own the music I buy the cd and rip to my Nas for streaming around the house.

For everything else I use Amazon Prime music. Very liberating to be able to just give something a try without committing to buying it. As you can download for offline use seems a no brainer

If I find something I really like I buy the CD.

I would be reluctant to buy an MP3 file – personally don’t see the point when you can stream and download anything you want for the price of an album a month.

Bleep is great, nice website design as well.
Often when buying record you get an instant mp3 download
I like supporting bleep as they are the retail offshoot of Warp Records, so the money goes to more great records.
Juno is good, although website is quite clunky.

As an addendum 7digital also comes with a really effective music player, which is something else I’ve been looking for for a looooong time. Thanks for the suggestion CraigW! 🙂

Never found Google hard to download what you’ve purchased. How long since you last used it?

Tbh I’ve a foot in both camps. Apple Music family plan and still buy the tracks and occasionally albums I like.

Streaming services both Apples and Google’s before I switched allowed me to sample so much more music than I would have come across beforehand and some of that then got my money so I don’t really believe streaming an evil as such. Yes the artists may get less than with a physical purchase but then it’s better than nothing when the likes of piratebay etc were so everyday to many people and not just the tech geeks etc

Google Play is OK if you install the Music Manager software on your PC. That will let you download it all as MP3s.

It also let’s you upload your own music (up to 50000 tracks), so you can stream it on your phone for free.
The software is much less annoying and bloated than iTunes anyway.

stood in line waiting to pay for some electronic item and there on the counter was Pink’s latest album in vinyl??

Pink? She still making music??

so you can stream it on your phone for free.

Free? You sure there isn’t a monthly sub you have to pay forever involved there?

Yes, it is free. I have not paid any subscription for Google Play Music. You can upload your own music, then stream that. Plus stream any individual tracks/albums you have bought.

You do need to pay for a subscription if you want the unlimited music, ie to stream any other tracks.