Why I don’t use streaming music services

There, I said it, I don’t use any streaming music service. Unlike, it seems the majority of people, certainly from younger generations. But I thought it would be interesting to delve into the main reason why I’m errr… different!

I think I’ve mentioned this a few times in the past, for example on my podcast Chewing Gum For The Ears (which I bet you didn’t know about!), but it’s a necessary caveat to my music experiences. Roughly half the music I like listening to is custom or obscure in some way. Most is from the 1970s and is either too niche for the likes of Spotify or has been customised or remixed by me in some way.

To give an example, when I ask specifically for Hawkwind, with Lemmy on bass and lead vocals, playing ‘The Watcher’ live, I do actually want my personally remixed version of their 1999 Party Chicago gig from 1974, rather than about 10 other versions that Spotify or Amazon Music might select. Streaming services are fine for generic music and pop and so on, where people aren’t fussy. But when I want to hear Pink Floyd playing ‘Breathe’ live at Wembley Stadium in 1973 then that’s why I want to hear, not the 1000x more common version from Dark Side... And so on. 

Yes, I’m being fussy. But I’m allowed to be - it’s my music collection and my tastes and, well, my enjoyment.

Plus there’s a load of music that I’ve written and/or recorded and/or played on, personally, in various settings. Rock bands, solo live with guitar, church band, etc. All recorded for posterity and all of which I want to revisit and enjoy.

In other words, I have a very carefully curated and sorted music collection of high bitrate MP3s, all 220-350kbps stereo, beautifully organised into a 60GB folder structure. And that’s what I want to access on every device and system I own. Not some approximation, guessed at by Spotify or the like.

Which is a good enough reason in itself to have my local music rather than streamed remote music from a music company server. But there are other concerns too:

• Bandwidth. I realise that in 2024, most of us have decent 4G or better most places we go. But I still have moments, several times a week, out in the nearby countryside (e.g. taking the dog for a walk), when the bandwidth dries up and my podcast dries up and my email won’t load. So connectivity still isn’t a 100% given. Having my music 100% local to the device I’m on means that I’m totally independent of the mobile grid.
• Cost. OK, again not a huge concern in the grand scheme of things, but £10/month for (e.g. Spotify) access plus another (say) £10/month extra for the (say) 15GB of data needed, takes us to £20/month just for the convenience of not having to spend a few minutes loading music I already own onto a phone or tablet, seems crazy to me.

I do 'get' that for people who aren't fussy what they listen to, as long as it's something acceptable, and for those who want to always be exposed to new music that's similar to favourites from the past (and maybe this should be me?), then a streaming solution like Spotify offers access to this with zero hassles and at reasonable cost. But that's not me. And never will be. 

By the way, I do listen to new music - usually recommended by others - via the likes of YouTube. And then go off on rabbit hole journeys of discovery from that artist, buying their music digitally for my collection or buying (and then ripping) their CD and merch (e.g. the wonderful EBB in the last few years).

It might be a generational thing. Or linked to my rather niche musical interests (1970s space rock and electronica!) Your comments welcome, whichever side you come down on the streaming music debate!