Windows Media Player from Best Music Player For Windows

Ha, I did say mostly applicable. The argument for owning, generally, is that, at some point, you could have very well bought what you're continuing to pay to rent (in the case of music, pay a subscription fee for). I am a dedicated music listener. Over my lifetime, it is very likely to be true that I would end up paying more to subscribe to either of these services over the long-term rather than pay up front to own. The free plans from Pandora and Spotify are really not worth much to me. If I wanted to use those services, I'd have to get a paid plan. And I would have to pay more for a data plan because of the streaming I would need to do while driving or in places where I do not have WiFi access. Nor are either of these services of much use when you're trying to discover new obscure artists or have those artists already in mind. Then there is the question of how long these services are going to survive in their present states, if at all. Subscription fee hikes and the complete disappearance of these services are all possibilities, especially if they don't figure out how to really make money.

Takes all kinds. There's Zero cell service, of any kind, for 15 miles in any direction of where I'm spending Jan and Feb this year. While I can stream in the house thanks to a fiber connection, that's it. There's no radio either (well, maybe AM since I haven't tried it), so if we want some tunes on the way to the ski hill or most of the way towards the natural hot springs for a soak, it's a dedicated MP3 player loaded up with files. Or, if I ever buy a new car that has USB media then that. Then you get to toss in the Other major hiccup, there's a large number of people who aren't interested in buying/owning an expensive phone or the more expensive plan. I have better things to do with $1500/year than pay for a data plan/subsidized phone. My parents don't have a call phone at all, but dozens of USB sticks loaded up with music for their Subaru. And then it's a simple use thing. I know my wife always grumbles about connecting her phone to the car for streaming (it's an '01 VW Jetta, no bluetooth), but it's a non-issue to flip the on button to the Sansa Clip that lives in the ashtray. Heck, we leave that running when doing stop and go errands. No annoying talk radio, commercials, or having to listen to the same music every day. Even Pandora starts to repeat after a couple hours (we turned that off and went back to MP3's on our 27 hours of driving from GA to MT a few weeks ago).

Actually read through the comments and didn't see anyone mentioning this... I download music still for a few reasons. 1. Like Netflix, any of these companies like rdio, spotify, decide when I get my music and what it is to some extent. If they stop carrying a group, or never carry them in the first place then I wouldn't get to hear them. Even with mainstream groups there are various recordings you never get to hear unless you search them out in some format or secret store. 2. Im not always connected. Sometimes I go camping. Sometimes I go driving where 3g isnt. Sometimes I don't want to have to bother paying Comcast, At&t, etc, their blood money. (I almost always do). 3.I own my music. No I don't mean if mister lawyer walks in he would give me deed to all things music. I mean if I want to delete them I can. If I want to copy my harddrive and give it to my friend, I do. If I want to put them in storage and listen to them in 5 years, I can. No matter what happens in the corporate world of music. Those are some of the reasons. There are more.

I'm kind of surprised that no one seems to be saying that they "pirate" for the sake of pirating. I use Spotify occasionally when it meets all my immediate needs, so I do enjoy aspects of these services. I'm glad they exist when I want to take advantage of what they have to offer. But in this day and age, if you create a recording of your music, that recording belongs to no one if it doesn't belong to everyone. That is a rule of nature; our laws just need to catch up. I'll pay for something if doing so comes with added value, but it's not the actual music I'm paying for; I already own the music by virtue of its existence. But that's the ideological reason. So how about a practical reason. I keep local music for the same reason I would choose to own property in a world where all rent is free: I can do whatever I want with my property.