I bought my first (vinyl) album at the age of 10. I soon switched to CD’s, buying about 600 albums over a period of 30 years. I could spend hours in a music store just browsing what they had in stock. As more and more music stores closed I had a short period of buying music through iTunes/Apple Music before switching to streaming on Apple Music.
A little more than 2 months ago I switched to Roon, and after a 1 month trial of Qobuz, I signed up for Qobuz Sublime. In the last 5 weeks, I’ve bought 16 hi-res albums from Qobuz. Roon and Qobuz have helped me rediscover an old passion.
So I was wonder how many of my fellow Roon users buy their music?
All the time. Is there another way?
Every now and then. Only when I really like something.
I used to but no longer do as I can stream everything.
Actually with Qobuz sublime a hi-res purchase is cheaper than the 44.1/16 version. But of course you do pay more for the subscription so it only makes sense if purchase “enough”.
I fully understand. Thanks for sharing you view by the way.
Af for the storage and bandwidth, I don’t find it that big a deal for a onetime download and storage on the NAS. But you are absolutely right when considering ARC. You can stream bandwidth optimized. I just wish there was a way to download a storage optimized version.
I have been buying for the last 55 years, almost entirely physical media. Your poll doesn’t differentiate between downloads or the physical, I have only a few downloads, most of mine is ripped , or vinyl. I did a trial of Qobuz a year or so ago but didn’t stick with it.
Sven I have a very similar journey to you only it is about 10 years longer.
I discovered Roon about 4 years ago and have purchased more and more music since then again (even having Tidal, Qobuz and YouTube subscriptions) .
Also Qobuz Sublime member for the discounts and a huge BandCamp fan as well.
Constantly buying new and old music. Added not far off 300 albums so far this year. Don’t always buy new as I am filling gaps in my collection that I never got round to getting at the time or wrote off due to it not bein cool when I was younger. As my tastes have changed for the better and I am more open to different styles I have been experimenting more. A lot have been replacements that were once on tape or vinyl, damaged cds that my daughter destroyed and lost one’s that now idea where they went. These mostly 2nd hand or new cds. Of course I buy lots of new music via Bandcamp, Qobuz or cd. I don’t hunt out hires just the music. Use Qobuz and Bandcamp for discovery of new music.
I bought music back in the days because I had to. Means I got lots of disgusting tracks I only listened to once. Life wasn’t fair.
Streaming is almost perfect for me. It’s up to the artists to cut contracts that don’t pay their rent. None of my business. Life isn’t fair. Still.
True. I considered to add options but decided against it as it would lead to many options. Vinyl, CD, SACD, lossy download, cd quality download, hi-res download…
Maybe a good opportunity for a future poll
I used to get ‘greatest hits’ albums, but now I resolved to buy full studio albums. Sometimes I like ‘B-sides’ better than number one hits. I guess it’s fair to say most pop albums are just collections of songs, but some are coherent works and are best experienced as complete albums. In some cases (e.g. Pink Floyd), there are no real track limits, so buying music by the track doesn’t make sense.
Thanks for sharing. Until I joined the Roon community I had never heard of BandCamp. I’ve seen it mentioned a few times. I’ll need to check it out sometime.
Probably 80% of the first 50 CD’s I bought were “various artists” compilations. Then to move on to “greatest hits”, and now finding myself purchasing full studio albums of artists I like.
I’m up for a few replacements as well. I’m discovering that some of my ripped cd’s have errors on them. This despite taking greater care of my cd’s. Always going from the cd case to the player, back to the case and the cd rack and never lending them to anyone.
These days, I rarely buy only if not available via Qobuz streaming while feeling the strong urge to listen to it.
Still keeping my CDs, almost all of them ripped to disk, but stopped „collecting“.
My tastes have continually evolved over the decades, many albums don‘t interest me anymore, some few I still cherish.
Also, my listening habit has changed due to streaming, because now, I can discover new to me artists and music easily from my home, plus Roon presents collaborations and such so conveniently.
If music is pulled from the streaming service, I might miss it for a while or buy if I feel the need to still listen to it, but it‘s not like someone ripped the pacemaker out of my chest.
Not a huge amount of pure mainstream music there, but lots of Indie, Metal and other genres there.
Enough that I can still buy around 60% of my music from there.
Hopefully you can find something that you enjoy there
I have Qobuz Sublime as well and it doesn’t take long to offset the Sublime subscription price when purchasing hi-res music. Hi-Res is almost half the price of the CD version.
Only my favourute albums. So I bought maybe 50 CDs so far (but I started doing it quite recently).
Reason - I prefer original albums I was listening to in 80-90s not remasters.
But I would never buy album only for one or two songs
And I want backup for my top albums. Now I can survive months without streaming. But I use Tidal very actively of course
Bought my first album, “Help” by the Beatles, in 1966. Completely streaming now with Qobuz.
I love the access, convenience, and sound quality. I listen to dozens of full albums each week, mostly jazz, singer/songwriter, and rock. I’d never be able to keep up with my appetite for listening, given today’s album prices, if I had to buy to hear. As such, I love the capability to stream, although I can’t say I like the economic situation it puts most artists in.
Agree. It took me a long time to jump on the streaming wagon. Already having a nice music collection, I somehow had the feeling that I was better of using the money to buy more music. Now with Qobuz Sublime I look at it differently. I I buy enough, I basically streaming for free. Or is this just what I tell my wife?
