Why you should buy physical copies of music?

Why you should buy physical copies of music?

The original – English – version of this piece could be found HERE once… (source: SessionsX). The version below was translated from English to Dutch, so bare with me…

Music downloading is without a doubt the most popular form of buying in today’s music branch. Millions of people use iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and other services to listen to their favorite artists and genres. Digital distribution is a relatively new phenomenon, though: for most of the music industry fans and listeners buy physical copies of music, from vinyl to 8-track to cassette tapes to CDs… Actually, physical purchase of music is still a normal option, and there are advantages to buying music in physical form that digital copies cannot offer. Take a look at the list for a few of those reasons…

PROPERTY RIGHTS

When you buy a CD, LP or cassette, you own a copy of the music, and as long as you don’t break or lose it, the copy will be yours forever. However, with digital music, most companies will not give you a right of ownership, only listening rights, which means that they can revoke these rights at any time. In addition, music stored in the “Cloud” or on a computer is only good as long as the technology exists, and any modification or deletion means that your music is gone forever.

SUPPORT OF YOUR FAVORITY BAND/ARTIST

By buying a physical copy of your favorite band/artist’s music, you are most likely ensuring that they actually get paid. With most streaming sites, bands get paid very little for each time you listen, and unless they are very popular, these sites can’t guarantee that they will earn a decent living. Sites like iTunes are better because you pay for each song, but because you can buy songs individually, albums are discarded as a whole. A physical copy, ensures that your band gets a good amount of profit for their work and they’ll produce even more of your favorite music.

SUPERIOR QUALITY

Most people would agree that physical copies of music actually have a superior quality compared to digital forms of the same songs. This is because music in digital form is compressed or merged, to make it smaller and thus easier to distribute. Music on CD, for example, is not, which makes it sound deeper and richer. Vinyl takes this quality to an entirely different level, and often even more in-depth sound than CD’s, referred to as ” authentic”.

IT IS FUN TO COLLECT

Everyone who is idolized by something gets pleasure from collecting, and music is no exception. Digital music is just a list on a screen, but a shelf (or several) full of records or CD’ s, shows visitors how much you love music. Besides, having a physical collection gives your guests insight into your musical preferences, and can result in pleasant conversations.

There are many other advantages to buying physical copies of music rather than digital; these are but a few. However, there will be no doubt that buying music in its physical form has advantages that digital cannot offer, and at the end of the day you will prefer a vinyl to an MP3 file or a CD to a song on Spotify.

CONCLUSION

First of all, let me state that I also listen to Spotify, purely for the convenience of being able to listen to “my own music” anywhere. I only have playlists of recordings that I also own in physical form.

Do I come across an band/artist that I don’t know and I don’t own a physical sound carrier… In that case I will listen to it and if I listen to the music more than once, I will buy the LP or CD.

There will always be a large group of people who will stick with the LP, CD or cassette, but the vast majority will opt for convenience and therefore listen to music in digital form.



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