Hi,
actually do you still buy music on iTunes or you switched to Apple Music or another streaming service?
I see this post was 2017. It is now 2021. I purchase songs for several reasons:
1) I can play my I tunes library where ever I am even if not in cell or data service areas.
2) They download to i pods.
3) My i tunes library is comprised of songs from CDs I used to own, songs I bought from i tunes, songs I bought from amazon, or downloaded when I can not find them on apple or amazon.
4) In other words I have a 7,600 50 year old music library with playlist made over the last 20 years. I have alot of time in my lifetime library. I do not want to lose all those songs, playlists, ratings, and many streaming services do not have all the songs in my library.
5) Artists get paid the most when I buy their songs. And they aren't making anything touring on 2020-2021 with Covid.
6) The media (mp3s) are on my laptop and phone so I have the actual data. I hope I never lose it if for say a streaming service was not paid or had a glitch they could lose all my data. I have it backed up.
Now here is the scary part. Dec 2020 I took my phone to apple store to get a new battery (23 months old). The store erased my phone 100% during repairs. When we tried to back it up from the i cloud, i kept getting messages from certain songs saying this song is associated with a certain e-mail and I need the password for that song. Maybe I got some of these songs from download sites and I did not recognize the e-mail addresses. Luckily I was able to back up most data on my phone from the cloud, then bring my music back from my laptop. In other words apple is starting to say I cannot play songs I do not have current passwords for. Like I said before I am ok with paying for songs but many were not or are not available on apple. If I downloaded from a site somewhere I am even ok with paying for them if they are now available. But for apple to start locking me out from songs on my library is a bummer and steps into my privacy. If I ever get locked out and lose these songs I will be sick. I will also probably switch to an android phone and start buying music solo from Amazon or other sources. I could not even get a list of which songs they were, it just kept giving me the message need password for e-mail address "so and so' one song at a time.
So I have nothing against streaming, but for me I like having the actual song file in my possession. I realize streaming can also upload the file, but what happens if I do not pay or cancel the subscription in the future? My guess is I will lose those files? As you may have guessed I am older. I can tell you younger people when you get older many of the songs from early in your life are valuable treasures like photographs and videos you will want to keep.
Reed from San Diego
