Apple music and buying CDs.

I’m on a 3 month trial and discovering some good stuff.

Then I’m buying the CDs. This is stupid but I can’t get past the idea of not “owning ” my music.

If you pay yearly it’s only £6.67 a month so I could look at it as a radio subscription.

Plus it’s a good way of rediscovering my vinyl collection now I don’t have a deck anymore.

Has anyone else been in my position and got over it?

Yep. I listened to everything digitally but still bought CDs as they invariably cost the same as the mp3 downloads. With Dab/Internet radio, Amazon Prime Music, etc I have given up on physical media now, just don’t need the clutter.  I’m not fussed by not owning it, would rather not have the clutter.

Yeah, but it was a couple of years ago when I was still paying per track. Buy a CD for £10 or whatever and enjoy maybe 3/4 tracks from it or buy them for 99p each or whatever and access them anywhere.

There have been very, very few Albums I’ve ever wanted to listen to in their entirety, in order. It’s not my thing.

I haven’t owned a physical media player for a couple of years now. Well apart from the Xbox, the kids have still got some DVDs, I let my CDs go years ago.

Whilst I have a lot of itunes music or well a fair bit.

I have and will always hold onto my CD collection, guessing 600 albums odd and 20GB of itunes iirc.

At a guesstimation, I think £8ks worth of music new that is, no stealth ad btw. Lol

Got access to Spotify, but still buy MP3s, CDs (mostly off eBay), vinyl, occassional cassette. Spotify used just when I want to check something I’ve read a review of. My collection plays me better mixes/radio than any radio station or playlist can.

My dad put me on his family subscription to Google Music which is ace for listening to stuff while I’m out and about. I still very much prefer to own and listen to physical copies of albums though. Mostly vinyl these days.

Moved from CD to streaming about 18 months ago. Tried Spotify but ended up with Tidal “lossless” 1047bps.

I use a NAIM streamer which comes with Spotify and Tidal built in.

The  quality of reproduction on the Tidal service is superb.  I have no CD’s and use Tidal streaming exclusively.  One of the things it’s good for is instant access to thousands of “albums” and separate tracks that I can play anytime I want.

For instance: today I’ve been looking for a good performance and recording of “Also Sprach Zarathustra”. I was able to compare about five different versions,  quickly hear which one I preferred and save it to my “favourites” list in my Tidal account. Imagine trying to do that by buying CD’s or even using the twenty seconds or so of examples afforded by online purchase sites.

It’s absolutely fantastic and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Happy days.

PS: of course, you’ll need special hifi cables made out of virgin’s hair suspended from unicorn horns…

Can’t be doing with streaming, I don’t have time these days to sit and listen to much music, I listen to 6Music in the car, and in any car I drive for work that’s got DAB, or sometimes play music from my phone when there’s a good enough USB connection to power the phone while I’m using it for satnav.

Oh, and I have 6Music on the radio at home, although my g/f does rather prefer Radio 2…

i still buy cd’s, and rip them into iTunes, and I will, more often than not play entire albums through, both from disc and from my Mac through my amp.

i do buy downloads from iTunes, but I like to have a physical object, and I like getting them signed by the artist when possible.

I don’t have time these days to sit and listen to much music,

I feel your pain.

I’ve listened to and discovered way more music since subscription. And made loads of space.

Apart from the fact it’s not ‘proper’ hifi – I’m completely sold.

I do not miss cds or LPs.

I haven’t bought a CD for months, and got rid of them a while ago now. I’ve been buying albums off iTunes for several years, but went over to an Apple Music subscription just before Christmas. I have found it absolutely liberating. I used to dither over getting whether or not to spend a tenner on an album, whether it’d be worth it, does it sound like I’ll enjoy enough of the songs etc. With a subscription none of those worries apply, so as a result I’ve listened to so many more different things. Not all of it awesome of course, but the chance of finding something amazing is that much higher.

When I moved to oz everyrhing went digital and I’ve not looked back i can get anything i need where ever I am. I’ve listened to heaps more artisits than i would have done buying cds

I prefer to buy physical media.

im on mobile ‘broadband’ and I’m capped at 30 Gb/month. Sometimes I run out… I’m only going to be worse streaming.

plus I like whole cds. Sometimes the tracks you liked least on first listen are the ones you end up liking the most. Or you’ll stumble across a track years later and not understand how you missed it the ‘first’ time around… 🤢

I haven’t bought a CD for years since spotify started.  Yes the quality is not the same but I will acceptt hat in exchange for being able to hunt out tunes without it costing and arm and a leg.

Primus rediscovered after a rummage through the loft..So many albums I didn’t want to buy on cd as I had the vinyl.

I’m coming to the end of a trial for apple music and have found it useful and am considering signing up, but I do the same-ish as the OP, I’ll find something I like, then acquire a copy of it and add to my physical iTunes library.

I do not have/use iCloud Music Library turned on as I have a large digital music collection which I like on my phone to play when I like, not just when I have signal or wifi!

Tried iCloud Music Library and was not happy with it.  It failed to match a lot of more obscure stuff/remixes and didn’t seem to deal with them as it should (upload and make them available to stream).  I gave it a month or so then switched it off and restored my music from a backup.  Sync the interesting/downloaded/mixes etc to my phone.

Had Apple Music streaming on a 6 month free trial (from EE) having previously used Spotify.  It *should* have been better – we’ve iPhones, Macs, iPads and Apple TVs and Airplay built into an AV Amp – but found it a poor relation to Spotify.  Took ages to return search results (and based on a quick “store” search just now still does) while spotify was instant.  Interface never felt intuitive (despite a decade of using iTunes).

Switched back to Spotify and haven’t looked back. Quick and easy to use, useful suggested playlists, easy sharing with friends, ‘favourite tracks’ export from BBC Playlister.

 which I like on my phone to play when I like, not just when I have signal or wifi!)

Now i’ve got enough data not to worry much, including in Europe, this is rarely an issue but Spotify lets you download to the phone for offline use and my ‘2018’ playlist with all the music i’ve added this year automatically syncs.

I do not have/use iCloud Music Library turned on as I have a large digital music collection which I like on my phone to play when I like, not just when I have signal or wifi!

I download the songs onto my Samsung phone to listen off line. At least I hope I have.

Just put phone on flight mode and the music is there.

However I can’t put the music on my iPod classic. It goes on my iPhone 4S that I also use as an iPod.

The iPhone 4 we have is too old to run Apple Music. I’m assuming that Apple will turn off Apple Music on the 4S eventually meaning I can’t just plonk something on our docks.

Is there any way I can put music on my iPod classic , legit or not? I’m just replacing music I’ve already purchased so don’t feel I’m mugging the artist.

Is there any way I can put music on my iPod classic

From Apple Music? You’d either have to be able to download the track and use a drag/drop iPod manager (eg. TransCopy) or be able to add it to your iTunes library. (I don’t have Apple Music so don’t know if you can do either.)

Apple Music is good. On a 6 month free trial, after previously paying for Tidal. Really liked the playlists on Tidal, miss the selections they put together, but the apple ones aren’t too bad. Suppose Spotify is good in this way too if you like trying new (or old) stuff you would have thought of otherwise.

Tidal sounds great which I enjoyed a lot on decent headphones

Each has its quirks I reckon regarding searching for stuff. And sound quality may factor into your choice

CDs – depends if that is what you’re into using. I don’t have a CD  player to hand now. Streaming is convenient for me, since cd shops are few and far between now and have poor selections of what I would browse. Smart phone makes listening on the go easy, can download in advance

I’ll buy second hand CDs only now, if it’s something not available any other way.

All depends what methods you’re into using tho. “Ownership” of the product is changing.

Artist earnings from streaming plays is an issue though, and I don’t like that “problem”, but the industry is just having to change to deal with the convenience and cheapness of streaming. I don’t have an answer to that problem….

Never considered Apple Music etc etc until I got the free EE trial.

Wouldnt go back now.

However Im not convinced by the App on Iphone, and I don’t like the fact that the download quality is not great because you can hear the difference between CD and Apple Music.

Still £15 per month for a family isn’t too bad I guess, and I have found lots of new music I would have previously never found.

I hear folk saying the effect of streaming or whatever affects the quality, but my ears aren’t good enough to be bothered, Spotify on my phone played through Sonos speakers is good enough for this cat.

I have no idea why anyone would buy CD’s now, or Vinyl, but each to their own.

But do you actually own the track when you purchase a track on iTunes? I thought you only purchase a license to listen to the music. You can’t transfer it to anyone. For example, if you die, then you can’t leave your iTunes purchases to your family/friends/cat.

May have changed because I saw someone had filed a lawsuit about it. Not sure what the outcome was.

But do you actually own the track when you purchase a track on iTunes?

Certainly I haven’t found anyway of feting the music off my phone on to a memory stick etc

I don’t feel the need to own it, as long as I can listen to it.

I have recently moved my decent HiFi kit downstairs from the loft, where it was languishing connected to my Technics 1200’s and effectively not being used.

Initially, I connected to my lap top, then plugged my phone in (iTunes / Apple music / MP3’s etc). I was a little disappointed remembering that this kit all sounded better, maybe it was just my rose tinted glasses remembering.

However, I connected my CD player up and dug out some old favourites. I hadn’t bought a CD for years.

What a difference! The sound quality is 100% better from the CD’s than from an MP3, or any other format I have digitally. I have albums in both CDS and from iTunes so have compared back to back.

I am now buying CD’s again. Not so I can own the music, but so I can hear the music.

This digital age of high speed downloads appears to be at the cost of actual sound quality.

You can’t transfer it to anyone. For example, if you die, then you can’t leave your iTunes purchases to your family/friends/cat.

Try playing the CD is 50 years time

The first generation of CDs is already rotting and dying

So we fall at the first hurdle.

Downloaded lots of nice songs to listen to in my shop. Add them to my “Shop Friendly “playlist and lo and behold I can’t add the playlist to the cloud as some of the songs on it aren’t “eligible “. Then I check the songs in the playlist in my library and some of the songs “aren’t available in my territory”.

Now I’ve turned off iCloud the music is back in the library. However ‘Shop Friendly ” has now disappeared from my Google Play playlists.

I’m going back to CDs.

You can’t transfer it to anyone. For example, if you die, then you can’t leave your iTunes purchases to your family/friends/cat.

Try playing the CD is 50 years time

“The first generation of CDs is already rotting and dying“

All these are such non-issues…

None of my oldest cds are showing any signs of “rotting”. Who cares about 50 years time?

And whose family would want some old music collection anyway?

Not something i care about but apparently some do

You can’t transfer it to anyone. For example, if you die, then you can’t leave your iTunes purchases to your family/friends/cat.

My grandfather died recently and dealing with his gigantic cd collection was a royal pain.

And whose family would want some old music collection anyway?

I very much enjoy listening to my parents’ Stones, Beatles, Led Zep and Floyd LPs. Some of them are about 50 years old, and they sound excellent

I like to own the physical copy. I have quite a large CD collection and a lot of stuff on cassette tape that is not available on CD. It’s all in my living room as I like the browsing aspect of a physical display. I also have a Spotify sub. I find the Daily Mix function useful. Essentially, for me, a mix of formats (except vinyl – those days are long gone) does the trick…