> It is markedly more expensive than Spotify, though.
A big reason I switched away from Spotify to buying DRM free albums is actually because I realized it's significantly cheaper to do the latter. I plan on listening to music for the rest of my life. I'm in my mid 20s.
Let's say I live for another 60 years. At current Spotify prices, that is nearly $8000. Obviously the cost of premium won't be $11 for the next 60 years though, so that $8000 is an extremely optimistic minimum.
While the cost of albums generally increases with inflation also, the cost of albums I already purchased never increases. For the rest of my life, an album I purchased for $10 will always be an album I purchased for $10. Even if that seems absurdly cheap in the future due to inflation.
Once you build up an initial library, it's very easy to spend less per month buying albums vs Spotify Premium. Over the last year, I would estimate my monthly average spending on music is around $2-3.
And the fact is that you don't even need to listen to that many music. When I had Spotify, I only have an handful of playlists (managing albums sucked), that I listened to every day. Same with Apple Music, I only added the albums I already have in the library. I have like 500+ albums and when I want to add something, I spend time listening on Youtube (could go back to free spotify) if it's worth the effort to get them in my curated local library.
I have a very large library. My monthly spending (over the last two years) on Bandcamp is 20€, and I don't even spend that much there compared to others. I do spend a lot of time listening to music
Playing them can also be expensive. A record player diamond tip can usually last 1000 hours, and they cost about as much as you are willing to pay, from a few € to idiotic amounts.
Are you talking about vinyl records? I don't think this technology from the last century has any benefit to digital recordings and apart from nostalgia or doing an archival it has no reason to be used still.
A big reason I switched away from Spotify to buying DRM free albums is actually because I realized it's significantly cheaper to do the latter. I plan on listening to music for the rest of my life. I'm in my mid 20s.
Let's say I live for another 60 years. At current Spotify prices, that is nearly $8000. Obviously the cost of premium won't be $11 for the next 60 years though, so that $8000 is an extremely optimistic minimum.
While the cost of albums generally increases with inflation also, the cost of albums I already purchased never increases. For the rest of my life, an album I purchased for $10 will always be an album I purchased for $10. Even if that seems absurdly cheap in the future due to inflation.
Once you build up an initial library, it's very easy to spend less per month buying albums vs Spotify Premium. Over the last year, I would estimate my monthly average spending on music is around $2-3.