Streaming vs Owning Music

Streaming is incredibly convenient. For $10-15 a month, you get instant access to millions of songs. But there's still a case for buying music in 2025.

The Problem with Streaming

Music disappears. Licensing agreements expire. Artists remove their catalogs. Labels pull songs. That playlist you've spent years curating can lose tracks at any time.

Artists barely get paid. Spotify pays roughly $0.003-0.005 per stream. An artist needs about 1,000 streams to earn what a single album purchase provides them. For smaller artists, streaming royalties are often negligible.

You're renting, not owning. Stop paying the subscription and your "collection" vanishes instantly. After five years of a $10/month subscription, you've spent $600 and own nothing.

Quality is compromised. Even "lossless" streaming is compressed compared to purchasing high-quality downloads or physical media.

The Case for Buying

When you purchase music:

• Artists earn 10-20x more per sale than streaming an album
• You own it permanently regardless of licensing changes or platform shutdowns
• Better audio quality is available (hi-res downloads, vinyl, CD)
• No internet required - it's yours locally
• You're building something - a curated collection, not an algorithmic feed

A Practical Approach

You don't have to choose one or the other. Here's what makes sense:

Use streaming for discovery. It's perfect for exploring new artists and genres, trying before you buy, or listening to background music.

Buy what matters. When an album really connects with you, purchase it. Focus on artists you love or want to support. Even buying just a few albums per year makes a meaningful difference to those musicians.

Think of streaming as the radio and purchasing as your actual music collection. Both have their place.

Supporting Artists

Independent and smaller artists especially benefit from purchases. They often see a much larger percentage of sale revenue compared to major label artists, and they don't have the streaming numbers to generate significant income from platforms like Spotify.

If you discover an artist on streaming and love their work, the best way to support them is to buy their music directly - ideally from their website or Bandcamp if they're there.

The Numbers

Over 5 years:

• Streaming: $600+ spent, nothing owned
• Buying: $600 = 40-60 albums permanently owned

Every album you buy instead of stream is money that goes further for the artist and builds a collection that's actually yours.

Final Thoughts

Streaming isn't going away, and it has legitimate uses. But music you truly care about deserves to be owned. The cost is similar long-term, the quality is better, and the artists you love benefit more from your support.

Consider which albums from the past year you've returned to repeatedly. Those are the ones worth buying.