The end of physical media is neigh

Folks, there are a couple of elephants in this room

1. I don't know about you, but if I ever listen to 30-40% of all the audio media I have that's the end of it. Regular rotation, 10% or less. So, 60-70% is dead wood. But, I don't get rid of it because on a regular basis I rediscover a dusty corner of my music, like, Alice Cooper really was a misunderstood genius? In that event, having LPs or CDs around isolates one from the vagaries of streaming services. 

2. A conversation we should be having as a society is the nature of ownership in a changing world. For decades, it was blissfully simple: you purchased a LP or a CD, you owned it, you could play the music on it at will, sell it, give it, whatever. In reality, when we paid $14.95 for a CD that cost less than $1 to manufacture, the value was always in the music, not in the physical support. With streaming, we pay for music untethered from any physical support. That's fine, but we no longer have full control over the music we paid for. Conceivably, a copyright owner could win a lawsuit and have music you own ordered removed from your library by a court.

3. Torrent

Physical media:  It has been over three years since I moved away from physical media.  I have an extensive vinyl collection and a decent playback system, but only listen to vinyl on those rare occasions where an album is not offered on the streaming service I use.  I am contemplating selling my vinyl playback system.   I find my digital playback system equal to and often superior to vinyl playback SQ and much more convenient, not having  to remove from storage and clean the vinyl.  I also have not played silver/gold disks.  I burn disks not offered on streaming services to my server.  I do not have a working CD player.   
AI content:  This is a particular concern of mine.  My son is an actor who has had a number of recurring, small TV parts and cartoon voiceovers.  SAG has protected major actors to a degree but not smaller roles.  There is high probability the bit part roles will be deep fakes impacting the livelihood of actors that depend on these roles for income and a path forward to supporting or major roles.  The music industry is at greater risk.  Actors and musicians have human experience -  connections and interactions with other human beings and a soul.  Their experience and soul is the creativity and expression of emotion is the art of their vision they wish to present to us in the characters they portray or the interpretation of the music they conduct or play.  There is also spontaneity in a human performance.  I feel we will loose the emotion, soul, and spontaneity with deep fakes that use an algorithm to homogenizes input of all past performances.  I feel it is a sad future state of for the human expression of the art.  

With over ten million albums...it’s not a very restrictive list. Also, Qobuz has over half a million high resolution albums. It is very seldom that I find an album not available.

More importantly, when you have access to all that music your focus changes over time to listen to new music instead of the same old stuff. The re-listening to the same stuff had a lot to do with the required investment to have it in your library. Now the entire world of music is available to you. I don’t relisten to old stuff very often any more. The sound quality of my digital rig equaled my analog rig about four or five years ago. My listening habits started to change a little at first and after a couple years changed rapidly leaving old stuff to collect dust most of the time.

jsalerno277

it was blissfully simple: you purchased a LP or a CD, you owned it, you could play the music on it at will, sell it, give it, whatever. In reality, when we paid $14.95 for a CD that cost less than $1 to manufacture, the value was always in the music, not in the physical support.

It is still "blissfully simple." Nothing has changed.

With streaming, we pay for music untethered from any physical support. That's fine, but we no longer have full control over the music we paid for. Conceivably, a copyright owner could win a lawsuit and have music you own ordered removed from your library by a court.

A copyright owner can no more have a court order that you return "his" CDs or LPs than he can have the court order that you return audio files that you have purchased.

It is still "blissfully simple." Nothing has changed. Of course, if you never purchase files and only stream them, then you get what you pay for and can lose access at any time.

@cleeds “blissfully simple” was @devinplombier  post, not mine.  However, I agree with both of you in part.  The beauty is in the music, regardless of format.  Nothing has changed with regard to the legal right to play the music.  The business model changed. Now, the streaming services pay royalties to the owner of the copyright and you pay the services for the right to play the music at any time on their platform rather than the publisher/manufacturer of physical media paying the royalties and you buying the physical media.  There is no increased chance of the copyright owner preventing you to play the music, unless the service defaults on payment or the contract expires without agreement on a new contract.  What has changed is it is much more convenient to stream with equivalent, or in my case , improved SQ and an improved process for management of your music.