What is really the purpose of streaming??

My analogy is that of the difference between your own personal library of thousands of books, and access to a large university library with millions. Of course, you don't own those millions, but you have unlimited access.

Having the world of music at my fingertips is not something I need. I don't listen to most of what's available anyway. My tastes run radically different from what's offered by streaming services. To be honest, internet radio holds more interest to me than any streaming service and I only listen to it while at my computer, if then.

If I like something, I'll buy it. Sometime in the future, I may consider installing all my music on a server with a built in DAC and listen that way. But then, that's me. 😄

All the best,
Nonoise

Streaming is about having access to millions of albums in all genres that you can listen to for what at this time is pocket change. 

It makes you much more adventurous in your listening habits. No need to stick with the tried and true. You can find a lot of really good albums that you never would have heard if you had to buy them before listening to them. If you like an album so much that you don’t want to take a chance on ever being without it, you can buy the cd, vinyl or download.   You don’t end up with a pile of cds that you don’t want but can only sell for pocket change.

On radio you can hear one song from an album. With streaming you can listen to the whole album anytime you want. If there are tracks you don’t like, you can make a playlist of the ones you do like and save it. Then you can add tracks to that playlist from other albums that fit the feeling. You can save single tracks if you only like one track from an album and there are a lot of those.

Streaming offers many advantages for the music lover.

I understand what you all are saying about streaming having the access to millions of of songs and artists at your fingertips. Im kinda old school with my music. I mostly listen to and love classic rock. Some pop from the 60s  70s and 80s. To me the music of today and the artists suck. I compare it to the movies that come out today. To me they really suck. I am old school with movies too. You cant compare the music, the older movies with them today. Like the classic actors of yesterday to the classic artists from yesterday . If thats really all streaming is about then its really not for me. At first i thought steaming was a higher quality of music compared to cd playback. But its really more about convenience. If i like something i would rather just buy it on cd. And they are mine to keep.Not renting songs. That is just my opinion and what works for me. Now if the sound quality was second to none compared to cd playback that could be a different story.

I’m pretty sure there’s lots of classic rock on the streaming services that you haven’t heard, OP, and there’s a lot of music being made today that’s really good, that a classic rock lover would enjoy. Tidal let’s you stream free for 30 days sometimes longer. What have you got to lose? And if you already knew you didn’t want to try streaming, no matter what, why ask the question?