[maus42]

I'm fine with buying a service for conveniently listening to music by a list of artists I like. If Spotify goes bust, it's not like that music disappears: it will be available on other services (and in theory as traditional records, too).

Only thing is that composing that playlist again would be a major hassle. I have a list of bands and artists, I guess I could spend a weekend going through discography lists by Wikipedia and other sources.

[robryan]

Yeah, it's is highly unlikely there will be no one that you can buy a similar service from in future, if Spotify goes away.

[shmerl]

Point is, you'll have to pay again. I prefer to pay once, and then have it in my collection.

[robryan]

Yeah fair enough, I think even if I didn't value their discovery the way I listen to music now it would cost too much to buy it all individually. I would probably just end up having to use youtube to sample things, the way I do with Spotify currently.

[shmerl]

Many albums on Bandcamp are available fully (or at least partially), so you can easily sample and discover them. If I like something, I buy it.

Some albums I bought recently:

* https://dbfiechter.bandcamp.com/album/scotland

* https://jonathangeer.bandcamp.com/album/owlboy-ost

* https://danielamosboots.bandcamp.com/album/neverhood-songs-d...

And you are right. Stuff often ends up on Youtube, which is great for discovery too. And again, if I like something, I'll gladly buy it (as long as it's accessible in DRM-free stores).

[yellow_postit]

If I have a digital collection I'll be paying storage costs on an ongoing basis for backups so it seems like a wash compared to Spotify and similar services.

[shmerl]

Storage is cheap today and it will only get cheaper.

[adventured]

Where can you pay a low one-time fee for such a vast amount of mainstream / popular music that you get to keep forever?

Nowhere.

[shmerl]

But what you pay for, you can't keep. So you are back to square one. And who said you are supposed to pay scraps for good music?

[toxican]

This is a non-issue to most people though. I don't care if I keep it. I'm renting it and that's fine for me because it's a lot cheaper to rent music than to buy it one album or song at a time. If Spotify kicks the bucket, oh well I'll switch to Google, Apple, Amazon, etc. Music.

[shmerl]

Why should I rent digital goods? It's quite nonsensical, because copying doesn't cost anything. I prefer to keep what I paid for.