Do you prefer to own media (music, movies, etc.) or stream it?

donteatsoap7

donteatsoap7

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I just wanted to know everyone's opinion when dealing with their media collections. Would you rather own it (either physical or digital) or stream it through a service such as Spotify or Pandora?

I want to build up my library and I'm looking at the pros and cons of both. I like owning it, but this gets expensive rather quickly. Then, there's the option of Spotify, for instance, where all of your music is on the cloud. The problem with that though, is the service could become discontinued at any point, making your media useless.

 
I prefer to own it. The only music I download is mixtapes and digital only stuff. Movies, I buy the blu rays. I then usually sell the uv codes. I don't really like streaming them. I like to have physical for my collection.

 
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kickrockz713 said:
I prefer to own it. The only music I download is mixtapes and digital only stuff. Movies, I buy the blu rays. I then usually sell the uv codes. I don't really like streaming them. I like to have physical for my collection.
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How about owning a digital collection? I don't really have the room for a physical one.

 
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I own a lot of music CDs. I've gotten rid of a lot, but I still probably have over 100. I converted a lot of it to digital and got rid of the discs. I have a 500GB hard drive right here that is 95% full of MP3 albums from anything you could want.

For newer stuff, I have Amazon Prime Music, which is ok to stream. Selection is pretty limited. Pandora for frree sometimes hits a bunch of rockin tunes. At work, I run a lot of Youtube stuff. Guess I could say digital is much more convenient.

I prefer to stream movies but, collect physical copies of TV shows I like. The stuff I own are cartoons, Futurama, Rocko, Ren and Stimpy. I bought most of them BEFORE I had cable internet.

As far as games I own 3 WiiU Digital games (2 came with it, and Metroid Trilogy for $10) I got a shit ton for 3DS (club Nintendo Downloads) and I think I have about 10 retail games on my PS3 (super cheap, sold the discs for them).

I guess I am saying that I own a lot more digital stuff than I would have 5 years ago. On a lot of stuff it really depends on price. If I can get the digital for a whole bunch cheaper, it's fine. If I find cool stuff on PSN for $3-$5 I'm in, and I'll just sell the disc. I don't plan on paying $60 for a digital new release. I'd rather just go to Gamestop for that.

 
CookieParty said:
I own a lot of music CDs. I've gotten rid of a lot, but I still probably have over 100. I converted a lot of it to digital and got rid of the discs. I have a 500GB hard drive right here that is 95% full of MP3 albums from anything you could want.

For newer stuff, I have Amazon Prime Music, which is ok to stream. Selection is pretty limited. Pandora for frree sometimes hits a bunch of rockin tunes. At work, I run a lot of Youtube stuff. Guess I could say digital is much more convenient.

I prefer to stream movies but, collect physical copies of TV shows I like. The stuff I own are cartoons, Futurama, Rocko, Ren and Stimpy. I bought most of them BEFORE I had cable internet.

As far as games I own 3 WiiU Digital games (2 came with it, and Metroid Trilogy for $10) I got a shit ton for 3DS (club Nintendo Downloads) and I think I have about 10 retail games on my PS3 (super cheap, sold the discs for them).

I guess I am saying that I own a lot more digital stuff than I would have 5 years ago. On a lot of stuff it really depends on price. If I can get the digital for a whole bunch cheaper, it's fine. If I find cool stuff on PSN for $3-$5 I'm in, and I'll just sell the disc. I don't plan on paying $60 for a digital new release. I'd rather just go to Gamestop for that.
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Hmm..very good point. I'm the same way. I buy all my PS4 games digitally so I could gameshare. Would you consider backing up your digital music collection to CD's or DVD's? Just in case...

 
donteatsoap7 said:
How about owning a digital collection? I don't really have the room for a physical one.
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Bingo. For me this is how i went from physical to digital / streaming rather quickly. I used to think collecting was awesome when i was back in high school and space wasn't much of an issue, but now that I'm about to graduate college and have plans of moving a few times in the next few years, moving and storing a single device instead of hundreds of game/DVD boxes is way more convenient.

For music, i like to go with a little bit of both. It's nice to have a digital collection to listen to what i want whenever i want without any interruptions, but sometimes it's nice to just listen to a genre on Pandora and discover some new stuff.

As far as video is concerned, I don't have cable, and I'm pretty much 100% streaming at this point. Netflix has a ton of great content, and a few websites give me my live sports fix. Haven't found any in HD which is a shame, but beats dropping $60 a month on cable any day. Another great source is XBMC with video add ons like 1channel and genesis. Crystal clear HD streams of pretty much any show or movie you can think of. If that's something you're interested in, you should check out the Gamestick which is $20 at GameStop if you can find one. Really a fantastic XBMC player on the cheap if you don't mind doing a little hacking. There's a thread in the mobile section dedicated to it with tons of great information. A desktop / laptop will obviously get the job done as well, but it's nice to have a device you can just plug into your HDMI port and forget about.

The only thing that sucks about being so reliant on streaming is that when the internet is out, so is your content. That's why it's nice to have some favorites saved on your hard drive for a rainy day.
 
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MillerTime2523 said:
Bingo. For me this is how i went from physical to digital / streaming rather quickly. I used to think collecting was awesome when i was back in high school and space wasn't much of an issue, but now that I'm about to graduate college and have plans of moving a few times in the next few years, moving and storing a single device instead of hundreds of game/DVD boxes is way more convenient.

For music, i like to go with a little bit of both. It's nice to have a digital collection to listen to what i want whenever i want without any interruptions, but sometimes it's nice to just listen to a genre on Pandora and discover some new stuff.

As far as video is concerned, I don't have cable, and I'm pretty much 100% streaming at this point. Netflix has a ton of great content, and a few websites give me my live sports fix. Haven't found any in HD which is a shame, but beats dropping $60 a month on cable any day. Another great source is XBMC with video add ons like 1channel and genesis. Crystal clear HD streams of pretty much any show or movie you can think of. If that's something you're interested in, you should check out the Gamestick which is $20 at GameStop if you can find one. Really a fantastic XBMC player on the cheap if you don't mind doing a little hacking. There's a thread in the mobile section dedicated to it with tons of great information. A desktop / laptop will obviously get the job done as well, but it's nice to have a device you can just plug into your HDMI port and forget about.

The only thing that sucks about being so reliant on streaming is that when the internet is out, so is your content. That's why it's nice to have some favorites saved on your hard drive for a rainy day.
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This is the exact answer I was looking for. I've known about XBMC for quite some time and I love it :)

 
Music: Own. I used to collect CDs until it made more sense (financially and space-wise) to go digital. I now buy pretty much all of my music through Amazon.

Movies/TV: Stream. I never really collected DVD/Blu-rays so streaming is fine with me. I have cable so I don't watch a ton of stuff otherwise anyway.

Games: Obviously own. As far as digital or physical go, I generally go with whatever is cheaper.

 
When I was young you had to own. Now that I'm older and, as others have mentioned, space concerns have popped up, I'm much more likely to rent/borrow/stream than own physical media. I stream most music though I do have a ton of mp3s I rarely listen to them.

I borrow from the library, rent/stream from amazon or record from over the air digital broadcast. None of those are permanent options and I'm ok with that. I can get a hold of pretty much anything I want to watch anytime I want to.

Games I still buy physical copies of sometimes but I don't currently do a lot of gaming! (and in actuality it's currently mostly digital downloaded xbox stuff ;)  )

But me and my wife have seriously been tossing around the idea of starting a record collection... We are collectors at heart!

 
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I haven't bought any music for a long time. I use Spotify for listening to albums and also listen to an internet-only "radio" station.

 
You can do both. I have upload my 1000+ CD collection to the cloud (google music), and then never touch the physical stuff again.

When I do buy DVDs (rare. have FireTv and Netflix) I usually just enter the diigital code and leave the physical on the shelf.

 
Music: streaming, as it's less hassle.

Movies/TV: I'd rather buy DVDs/BRs, as streaming has issues like licensing.  Meaning if the license for some show or movie isn't renewed, it's gone until someone wants to pay whatever the owner is wanting.   Plus, don't have to worry about throttling or internet outages while watching something.

Games:  Physical copies, as it's usually cheaper than digital copies.  Plus much like movies/tv shows, games can pulled off of services without much notice.

 
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Music: Digitally own. Streaming is too slow and since I usually listen to music on the go, using my 3G consumes data if I stream. The big problem is that iTunes doesn't have much of the music I want to listen to so I'm forced to stream sometimes. There's no way I can own them physically. I don't even own physical movies. Games take up all my free space.

Movies: Stream, illegally. Don't have the time or HD space to download them and there's no way I'm paying to rent them. See above.

Games: Physically own. I don't buy digital unless the game I want is not available physically, like the Atelier Plus games for the Vita.

 
Music: Physically/digitally own.  I'll go for physical copies when it comes to an artist that I love/an album with a cover art I like.  If not, I'll just buy it off of Amazon/iTunes digitally.

Movies: Stream.  I'm not much of a movie person and rarely watch the same movie more than once (unless it's with friends/family), so I find it pointless to own it.  Netflix does the job, and I don't plan on changing this any time soon.

Games: Physically own (for console releases, but for PC I go digital because of how cheap Steam/Origin can be).  I'll go physical 99% of the time on consoles because it saves me installation time, and just in case the service for whatever console I'm on goes out and I want to play that game.  If the digital version of a game is much cheaper than a physical copy, then I'll probably go digital just to save the cash.  If it's not more than a $15 difference, then I'll just get the physical.

 
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Music: Stream - Primarily Spotify Premium but use free Pandora occasionally. I also tried out Google Play All Access, Beats Music and Rdio but settled back on Spotify.

Movies: Rent/Stream/Download. I don't feel the need to own physical copies. For movies I want to watch again and again I'll get a digital copy and put it on my Plex server. Occasionally use Family Video or Redbox to rent a physical disc.

Games: Both. Last-gen it was always physical copies for full retail releases and digital for "arcade" style games. With the Xbox One it depends on the game. For games that I know I'll keep and/or want the convenience of having it on the console without needing a disc I'll go digital (racing games, Peggle 2, GTAV, etc.). For games I know I'll play through and then sell, physical copies obviously. Also if the price is cheap enough either format is fine.

 
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On a side note I sent all my physical CDs to murfie.com to be sold in their marketplace. 

 
I prefer to own physical copies of my games as well as some of my movies. But I found buying digital films a lot easier and often times much cheaper. Plus I'm one who doesn't really care for the extras that a lot of movies have. 

As for music, I buy digital these days as I like to have the music right away. 

 
Music: all digital mp3s mainly rips from my old cd collection which got stolen in college or from the Napster/Kazaa days (before Kazaa was just malware). Nowadays it's from Amazon. I will buy cds from them if it includes the mp3s on their service and is just as cheap which sometimes it is or even cheaper. This also allows streaming. I also occasionally buy cheap cds from Goodwill to listen to in my car.

Movies: Stream unless it's something I know I will watch again and again or want to be able to show others. I have gotten rid of so many movies and TV shows in the past year that I bought cheap years and years ago but never got around to watching so I mostly use Netflix these days.

Games: Mostly digital. I mainly play on PC so Steam it is and the sales make it worth it. I do buy some physical games that have a tendency to hold their value or at least close to it. Mainly first party Nintendo stuff like Zelda, Fire Emblem, and some Mario. I own every American released Fire Emblem complete except Sacred Stones which I wish I could find a reasonably priced box for. Got the cart and manual. (Let me know if you have one).

Books: Digital. I read a lot. I must have hundreds of books in the basement accumulated over the years. It's sooo much easier and convinient to have them on my phone and tablet. Physical takes up too much damn space and is incredibly heavy when it's time to move. With digital I always have some books to read.

I know some people prefer to get physical media so they can trade it in or sell it later but I have found that by the time I am ready to do that I get so little compared to the savings of digital in most cases, it is simply not worth the shelf space, original cost, or hassle of finding someone or somewhere to sell it to in most cases. So it has to be something that I am convinced that I want for the long haul.
 
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Music: Digital, mainly because most of the songs I listen to are Japanese and Japanese CDs are expensive.

Games: Prefer physical, but will get digital if it's cheap enough.

Movies: Physical all day every day. The only digital copies I own are as a byproduct of doing something else, mostly through Disney Movie Rewards or Walmart's Savings Catcher. I only stream if it's on YouTube or it's a show not available physically yet.

 
With 3 kids, its easier to go digital. We watch movies on either Netflix, vudu, or prime. Digital movie codes usually go for $3-6 depending on title. Same price as a rental.
 
Both...however I prefer to have a hard copy of the music cd...getting annoyed that some soundtracks that I look forward to buying ending up being digital only....even though I tend to rip the cd and put them on my phone's memory card. 

 
Music: If I like a majority of the songs I will usually get the vinyl if they have it. I collect them now as CDs just aren't that collectible to me. If I only like a few of the songs then I will just buy the select ones I want digitally.

Movies: Physical copy. The ONLY way I'd ever even consider going digital is if they ever came out with a streaming system that allowed us to incorporate our entire physical collection already owned (I got rid of the rest of my DVDs a few years ago and have most of them rebought on BR, no way I'm triple dipping) and if they had the extras viewable as well. Probably won't happen since there are probably lots of legalities and technical shit since there are so many different studios and whatnot though.

Games: With this new generation upon us now I have decided I will buy digital if it's something I know I'll never get rid of and/or will always want to go back and replay from time to time. If it's not any of those I will just get the physical copy and resell it later or whatever.

 
Music - I used to collect, but then iTunes came along and I spent hours and hours loading up my collection.  Totally digital now.

Movies - I'll take a digital copy if it comes with it, but I still perfer to have my hard copies.  I've been looking at Vudu's D2D, but trying to figure out how not to pay real money to get my DVDs and Blu-Rays on there.  If I can find a legal way to put my collection on a hard drive or in a cloud then I will switch to digital.

 
I prefer to buy physical copies of movies/music/games when possible, then convert to digital as I see necessary (to my home server).

 
Well I'm kinda a weird combo.

For music, ownership all the way without question; however, if given the option to rebuy all my collection at studio Lossless level I would sell all my CD's and convert it to digital, moving it to an SSD and backing it up on dual layer Blu-rays.  The catch is I'd be most likely to do this if I got a discount in the conversion.  Shit if they had a trade-in program that would be brilliant.

I guess I should add that the Lossless should NOT be tampered with to increase Loudness.

Movies/TV?  Combo.  If it's a movie I would have to like it or it would be extremely cheap and quality on Blu-ray(case in point:  Well Go sale on Fry's).  Still I have been planning to take all the movies I own and jukebox it.  UV is nice but doesn't include Lossless audio or video on par with the Blu-ray.

For TV, the same pretty much goes but sadly there are a lot of Korean Drama's I would like on Blu-ray that I don't have the option for a Blu.

 
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