À la carte tracks or subscriptions? What is your preference for downloading music?

Assuming you could get any resolution you wanted (we are audiophiles after all) from a music download site, would you prefer to purchase individual tracks

À la carte tracks or subscriptions? What is your preference for downloading music?
la carte tracks for me
31% (31 votes)
Subscriptions for me
3% (3 votes)
Mostly
9% (9 votes)
Mostly subscriptions
2% (2 votes)
Equal amounts of both
2% (2 votes)
I don't want no stinkin' downloads no matter how hi-rez!
53% (54 votes)
Total votes: 101

COMMENTS
Clay White's picture

Assumption being that I then own the music with reasonable freedom of personal use as well as high resolution.

DAB, Pacific Palisades, CA's picture

The only place to download music is into one's soul.

Keith Y's picture

NONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

F Cooper's picture

I would much prefer to pay for what I want than to pay a subscription and find that there are times when I might not want to buy anything on offer. Me is a canny Scot!

Paul I's picture

If it doesn't come on a disc with a case and liner notes, I'm not interested.

Mike Agee's picture

I'm sailing very happily along with CDs and vinyl and living in the sticks, I am still surpised to recognize an iPod and wonder why anyone would want to invest in disembodied and disjointed songs from a meddling and intangible source, songs that are one component failure away from being nothing. Yet, in an airport last week, I did have some envy for the miniature size compared to my Discman. Still, from afar, iPods and downloads still look more like just another consumer trip waiting to evaporate like files on a bum memory card, instead of honest heirs to a serious music collection representing years of effort.

Lost in the digital wilderness's picture

Which is cheaper? Which one has a better selection? Answers to these questions would determine it.

James's picture

Pepsi's annual spring iTunes promotion has been a lot of fun.

Jason M's picture

As a member of BMG for just over a year, I rarely find anything to purchase after an initial flurry of buying at a discount. But alas, it is free. I discover new music all the time, but end up going directly to the source for purchase. As it is unlikely that even the major labels will ever get together to offer digital versions of their complete catalogs in one place, I would mostly prefer to purchase a la carte.

Dogma Dave's picture

Part of the fun of this hobby (audiophilia) and playing music is the tangibility of holding a product in your hands that contains the music and integrating it into your system to produce music.

David L.  Wyatt jr.'s picture

Probably a la carte. My purchases tend to come in spurts, so a subscription might prove uneconomic

Randolph Schein's picture

I prefer to own artifacts, returnable if defective. I would never pay for a "download," whose quality cannot be measured or verified.

Colin Robertson's picture

I would love to be able to subscribe to a service at say $10 a month to fill my iPod up with music to preview, then purchase and download high-resolution songs and albums (to keep forever—subscription or not) when I find something I like, like the current iTunes model (well, like the current iTunes model, except for the high-rez part). Apple, give us both! I say choice! That said, I will never exclusivley use a subscription model. It would have to augment my current usage.

Gerald Clifton's picture

I think I once said, in a different context on this program, the last time I satisfactorily downloaded anything was when I shoveled bullshit from the back of a pickup onto my mom's flower bed. Now, that worked. Beautiful flowers arose from the morass. Music? Not a chance. Bullshit? I'm knee-deep without even booting up. There. I said it again. "I don't want no stinkin' downloads no matter how high-rez!" You said that, and I agree.

Paul J.  Stiles, Mtn.  View, CA's picture

It all depends upon how much money is wanted for a subscription vs how much money for one music download and how much I will actually download.

GREG D.'s picture

I AM A VINYL ENTHUSIAST WHO DOES NOT LIKE TO COMPROMISE!

Ned Wolfe's picture

I can't possibly imagine relying on any cable modem or DSL to supply me with music for my high-end stereo system. Reliability would have to be 100% and that doesn't exist now.

Anonymous's picture

Screw downloads! It's all I can manage to dash off this vote without getting confused.

Ross's picture

A la carte please ! If I buy it, I own it. I have no desire to "rent" my music library. What I really want is the ability to download content of *at least* Red Book CD quality for a price less than that of an actual CD purchased at a BM shop. Give me and other consumers that option and the record industry will watch their sales and profits skyrocket.

Joe Evans's picture

I don't download music now. I have no intention of doing so in the foreseable future. I buy CDs and LPs and have never wanted to have just one selection from a CD or LP. I will never pay just to listen to music. I will listen to FM before I pay. The various satellite services have no allure to me. They will never get any of my money.

Bob Barr's picture

A la carte for me, unless they are crippled by DRM or some other consumer rights-busting scheme. In that case, no stinkin' downloads at any rez!

A.  Clark's picture

I just do not care for the idea of downloading my music. Each to his own, but it just isn't for me.

Brankin's picture

I just won't. I'll live off my current collection and used shops.

Beto's picture

I tried eMusic.com back when they had their "all-you-can-download" monthly priced scheme. For me it was a match made in heaven—fast downloads, an impressive jazz catalog, and a price that was a steal. Unfortunately I cancelled their service when they changed their pricing policies. However I have been considering rejoining since they're still cheaper than Apple's music store. These days, I prefer to spend my hard earned cash on 180g LPs though.

Glenn Bennett's picture

Nothing will ever replace the fun of holding the LP jacket or CD case and insert in your hands! Going to Tower and shopping for new music is just too much fun.

suits_me's picture

I think the question of per track versus subscription misses the main issue, which is what rights I get for my money. Does the music linger in my possession only for so long as my payment continues flowing? Is there a way to get a track onto even one backup or re-purpose substrate, or not? These rights alternatives do not necessarily match up in a one to one correspondence with the subscription or per track model....Of course, we probably might as well just assume we will have no rights whatsoever, and answer the question as posed. My answer to the either or question is, "no."

KRoberts's picture

Although I own an iPod for music on the go, I'm not interested in downloading songs to my PC. I wasn't interested when they were free and I'm certainly not interested in having to pay for them. I'll stick to buying LP\CD\SA-CD\DVD-A thanks, though mostly from online retailers.

LJ Warhurst's picture

I don't want any downloads! todays electronics,(computers,receivers,dvd-cd players) just do not give me enough confidence in ther're reliability. I only INVEST in durable albums, & cd's.

ramon rios's picture

i usually listen to 30sec. bits of songs on amazon.com,local radio,bluebeat,and buy the CDs used as i think prices for new CDs are too high

Anonymous's picture

A la carte, bien s

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