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Young Listeners Opt For Streaming Over Owning
An anonymous reader writes "CNN reports that younger listeners are increasingly opting to stream music rather than own it. If their music is constantly available anywhere on any device, then 'what's the difference?,' ponders the article. The distinction between streaming music and owning music is starting to blur. From the article: 'But Van Buskirk also suggests another reason for streaming, not acquiring music. It's liberating. "There is a certain relief with not having to own music. It is a lot of work," he said. ... Porter says the way people own music is transforming. He believes the cloud model is where the state of music is heading, and for many people ownership is not essential. "I think ownership is access, you don't have to have music on your local hard drive to own it," he said.' Will the concept of ownership of music and software fade as cloud based services become the way people expect to access media and software?"
I wouldn't consider myself young anymore and I certainly prefer streaming over owning.
Foot placed squarely in mouth since 1983.
In *theory* these media are supposed to be copy protected so you can't transfer them from one format to another.
Neither iTunes Store nor Amazon MP3 uses digital restrictions management for "the stuff you own" anymore as long as it's music. iTunes Store still uses DRM for movies and video games, but the article isn't about those.