The difference between Qoboz stream vs purchased songs

@carlsbad2 I don't have the space for CDs, so I am looking at downloads off of Qoboz. Just curious whether it would make sense to invest in a product that would make it so. Thanks for the response. 

The only advantage of buying an album via download from Qobuz versus streaming it is that you now own the album. This means you can still play it if you cancel your Qobuz subscription, or if Qobuz loses the contractual right to stream the album (this does happen periodically with some labels and artists.) And, with a downloaded copy, this also lets you burn it to CD for use in your car or take individual tracks off the album for use in a "mix tape." The latter item used to be more of a thing than it is these days, I think. 

Some people are more obsessive than others about owning copies of albums; that's something you need to figure out for yourself.

I'm confused too. Why consider "buying" music? With Quboz you can pull up any song- or thousands of songs- you ever think of instantly, add them to a playlist and or download them- all in super high fidelity- and for the same flat monthly fee. 

We all live on a fixed income it’s not like money is flying in through our windows all day

Let me approach this another way. The OP is wondering if there is any benefit to owning the digital files of the music which may play locally over that of the sonic quality that comes from streaming Qobuz.

@gkelly Yes, there is typically a difference in the sonic quality between high-resolution streaming and local file playback. Unfortunately, the streaming chain can be prone to a lot of noise -- through your router, ethernet cable and in the quality of the streaming architecture itself that may introduce jitter into the signal. So while you are playing a high-resolution file, it can be fatiguing and shrill. With local file playback, you typically bypass any network processing, and even a lower resolution file can sound better due to less digital errors and lower noise.

With all this in mind, there are steps one can take -- investing in a high quality streamer (the Innuos you mention is a good start), investing in an audiophile grade switch (or even just a decent Cisco one), using a quality audiophile ethernet cable for the last 1M, powering your router or switch with a quality linear power supply... the options are vast. That said, I’m now at a point where I can barely tell the difference between streaming and local file playback and believe at most times they are equal.

One other consideration -- if you want to play DSD, most streaming files are not in DSD or DSF format. Of course, there are ways to convert streaming files to DSD on the fly like using software like HQPlayer, but in my opinion native DSD/DSF files fed to a DSD DAC deliver the best sonic results above all.