What's good and bad about music services

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Music streaming services have burst into our lives. Spotify, Deezer, Google Music, Beats Music, Yandex. Music and others have replaced our music collections on computers and social networks. Are these services so good and what are their disadvantages? Let's try to figure it out.

Our parents kept their music on records and reels. We are in the era of audio cassettes and CDs. But the digital age and the skyrocketing prices for hard drives and solid-state drives have pushed us towards storing music on computers.

Tens of thousands of tracks by various artists began to take up space only on a computer, and separate shelves and even cabinets with cassettes or discs are no longer needed. But everything comes to an end, and perhaps music streaming services are the beginning of the end for local music libraries. However, everything has both pros and cons.

Advantages

1. Impossible to lose

When dropped, records can deteriorate without even breaking. The tape of audio cassettes was chewed and torn, and it had to be glued with varnish or PVA. CDs get scratched and give reading errors. But the music that is stored somewhere on the Internet will have nothing. It is impossible to lose or spoil it, you will not hear wheezing or creaking. This is probably the biggest plus of music streaming services.

Fun fact: In 2015 alone, digital music sales caught up with physical music sales.

2. Huge music library

Almost all music services boast a library of over 20 million tracks. This is a really huge figure. Assuming that on average one track is 3.5 minutes long, it will take you 135 years to listen to all of this music. Of course, you don't like all the music in the world, but even if you give preference to only one percent of the performers, then more than 200 thousand tracks will be available to you.

3. Low price

To be more precise, a relatively low price. Our author Sasha Murakhovsky does not get tired of repeating about this advantage of Spotify, Google Music and others. One Rihanna's music album in iTunes costs 149 rubles. You will have access to 14 tracks for 149 rubles. 10 rubles per track is not that expensive. But a subscription to the cheapest music service "Yandex. Music" (or Google Music) will cost you the same 149 rubles, only it will open access to more than 17 million tracks.

disadvantages

1. You have to pay

If you want to listen to music, you have to pay. Remember how "music drugs" were surfing the internet? So, Spotify and Deezer are real music drag dealers. By paying from 150 to 500 rubles, you get access to a huge music library. But only for 30 days. As soon as you stop paying, access to music will be closed. You have to pay again, and so on for the rest of your life.

2. Own music player

Once you start using streaming services, you have to forget about your music player. Yes, we understand that you liked its appearance, you tweaked it for a long time and persistently and it works the way you like it. But you'll enjoy what the developers of Spotify, Deezer, Beats Music and so on have done for you. And I can assure you that their players do not always reach even the average level.

3. What if the service dies?

Okay, let's say you regularly continue to pay your hard-earned money for the music service, but where are the guarantees that it will not close in a couple of months? For example, Google likes to shut down its services even if they are still popular. If the service closes, your access to the multimillion-dollar music database will also be lost. Your entire music library will disappear, and you have to start over, but with a different music service. And get used to the new music player.

4. Lack of certain tracks

Despite the millions of tracks that are available to you for only a couple of hundred rubles, you may not find your favorite artist. For example, most of Taylor Swift's tracks are not available on Spotify. Relatively recently, Yandex. Music had a much poorer base. If a certain track is not in iTunes, you can simply choose another online store. But with streaming services, this will not work.

5. Difficulties with the use

In addition to the problems with getting used to the player from the developers of the music service, you may have to suffer with registration. The best, in my opinion, music service - Spotify - is not available in Russia. Of course, there are many workarounds, but you still can't just take it and use it.

What do you dislike about music streaming services? Why did you start using them and which one did you choose?