@nostupidquestions When purchasing Music (£0.99 each) how many plays would you say made the purchase ‘worth it’?

  • ASDraptor@lemmy.autism.place
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    26 days ago

    I am like you. The way I listen to music is not the conventional way in which someone has a playlist and goes with it for a while, then add new music, etc… I am autistic too, and my music routine generally implies having a song or two on repeat for the day because they are a form of stimming for me. So I don’t use streaming services if not for trying new music before seeing if I want that song.

    My rule is that if I find a song I can be comfortable with to listen to it for a while hour on repeat and I still like it, I’ll buy it. If that happens, that song is probably going to be my next stimming song for days or even weeks, meaning I’ll listen to it hundreds or thousands of times. If that’s the case, I’ll buy it.

    On some rare instances, I find an artist that I really like because they have more than one song that helps me and then I’ll buy their album just to show support to what they are doing.

    I also can’t go to shows because they are a nightmare to my brain and its lack of sensory overload control.

    • netvor@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      my music routine generally implies having a song or two on repeat for the day because they are a form of stimming for me

      I’m not on spectrum on anything (anything diagnosed, anyway) but your comment inspired me to try and have a favorite tune on repeat for several hours, just to see what effect it would have on my ability to focus & anxiety, both of which are things I tend to struggle (although in my case it’s more related to insomnia).

      Interesting experience, nicer than I would expect. Normally my music routine is to try and keep things diverse, but I do tend to get distracted by the need to choose what’s next (and radios can have own problems, alghough soma.fm is awesome.) This sort of removed the issue.

      I do wonder how I will feel like when I turn it off, then in dreams, and then tomorrow. 😁

      (It’s ‘87’ by Janus Rasmussen, by the way, and even after hours I’m still loving it!).

  • Acidbath@lemmy.world
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    26 days ago

    I genuinely think that you should listen it as many times until you can hum or mentally sing along with it… if this makes any sense. Like if you are able to associate the song’s title a melody then it’s “worth it”. For me(I’m not even kidding), this is probably after playing it 4-5 times on repeat.

    • SamXavia@southampton.socialOP
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      26 days ago

      I know i’ve got a few songs that I’ve got over 10 listens to, and I think a good goal for each track might be 1 play per pence that I spent on it, so a £0.99 song would be 99 plays.

  • Vibi@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    26 days ago

    I could be super wrong, but I don’t think people who purchase music think about the value of those songs in that way anymore. Some people buy songs for the physical display of the package, the potentially higher quality playback, to avoid music from disappearing due to copyright or label issues, to support an artist since streaming is like fractions of a penny, for offline listening which isn’t tied to a subscription feature, just for collections sake, for more emotional reasons - physically connecting with a song/album, to justify their recent impulse record player purchase, etc. Sometimes people just want to spend money (retail therapy), so they’ll buy an album (digital or physical), never open it, and just keep streaming.

    • SamXavia@southampton.socialOP
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      26 days ago

      That is fair enough, I purchase Digitally as it’s cheaper (as not really interested in a full album) and the higher quality of music does help a bit as it means I can hear it on better quality kit and it still sounds amazing. Streaming isn’t really a thing I enjoy as some months I may not want a new song or even want to listen to music, So i’m triyng to work out what amount of plays makes sense that you’ve ‘got worth’ out of it. I know it’s a little subjective but I wonder how much 99p is worth

  • Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works
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    26 days ago

    The question isn’t how many play, but how many song does your plbylist have.

    If you pay Spotify/deezer 9.99 a month this is phe price of 10 song a month. After 5 years it’s a 600 songs play list.

    If your plbylist aren’t that big, it’s a loss, if your playlists are bigger, it’s a win

    • SamXavia@southampton.socialOP
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      26 days ago

      Some months I listen to no music at all, as other months it’s not normally more than a few songs I listen to on repeat, obviously my playlists grow but not at 10 songs a month all year around. Also music streaming services are more closer to 14.99 in my country than 9.99

  • Synapse@lemmy.world
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    26 days ago

    Why not listen first and then decide if it’s worth buying? Go listen to the songs for free on YouTube or other means. Then if you like it, buy it for any price you feel is fair. I do most of my music shopping on Bandcamp, you can listen to the songs there before buying. For older albums it isn’t uncommon the artists let you name your own price.

    • SamXavia@southampton.socialOP
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      26 days ago

      I purchase music to get the highest quality possible, pay towards the artists I enjoy listening to & so I don’t pay for streaming services such as Spotify as they are bad models especially when I don’t want to listen to music one month.

  • Deestan@lemmy.world
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    26 days ago

    I grew up in casette and CD era, so I use that for comparison. It’s a bit of a stretch, but it works for me:

    An album or cassette had roughly 10-20 songs and cost (in today’s inflation) roughly £5. Not all songs were bangers so I round it all to £0.5 per song.

    How many listens to be “worth it” I think is how much listen I would get out of it before I would happily buy a new one if it wore out or broke. So at least 50.

    At price of £0.99, I think a song is worth it at 100 listens.

    Though songs bought to support indie artists are worth it immediately. :)

  • cRazi_man@lemm.ee
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    26 days ago

    By the time I actually buy a song, I’ve been listening to it repeatedly at least 10 to 20 times. At that point I’m buying it to put in my offline library and the cost is worth it immediately. The £1 per song price hasn’t changed in a very long time and my music taste is very narrow, so I rarely find songs I like anyway. My entire music library amassed over my lifetime is 780 tracks currently (after removing some I lost interest in previously). So I definitely get my money’s with out of my music.

  • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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    26 days ago

    Depends on what you’re buying IMO. If you’re “buying” it in the sense of buying license to listen to it like with DRM like iTunes, nothing could make that worth it IMO. But if I’m buying physical media of the music itself (eg. Vinyl) then I’m usually willing to pay whatever the market price is for that album.

    • SamXavia@southampton.socialOP
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      26 days ago

      iTunes is DRM free, you can easily move the MP3 files to any device (even ones that have never had iCloud access).

      I don’t buy physical as I would wear it out playing the only track I would want to listen to on the album (as often it’s only 1-2 songs I am actually interested in.

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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        26 days ago

        So why not just pirate it? When you buy digital music, only a miniscule fraction actually goes to the artist.

        • SamXavia@southampton.socialOP
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          26 days ago

          Often Pirating can come with not only risk but also can be not the best quality out there, the easiest pirating method I know of getting music is finding the song on YouTube and that is defo not studio quality.

          I know not much will go to the artist but this is the best I can do without the money or ability to go to there shows and not enjoying Streaming Services.

          • randombullet@programming.dev
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            25 days ago

            So pirate FLAC? There are so many FLAC files out there.

            YouTube is typically 128kbps AAC.

            If you want to bitch about quality, learn what actual quality is.

            At any rate, most downloaded Apple files are 256kbps AAC

          • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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            26 days ago

            the easiest pirating method I know of getting music is finding the song on YouTube and that is defo not studio quality.

            That’s the worst possible way to do it. You might as well try to hook up a tape recorder to the radio like my dad did.

            There is literally no risk if you know what you’re doing, and you can get identical quality to what they sell. Go check out !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

            • Owl@mander.xyz
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              25 days ago

              There is literally no risk if you know what you’re doing

              if you know what you’re doing

              Which he says he doesn’t

  • CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net
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    24 days ago

    I have a $10/hour entertainment budget. If a movie ticket is $15 and I get 1.5 hours of entertainment then it was a good purchase. if I pick up a game for $60 then I expect to get at least 6 hours of fun from it.

    Using this measure I’ve decided books provide some of the highest value entertainment and fancy restaurants some of the lowest value entertainment.

    But that’s just me.

    • weststadtgesicht@discuss.tchncs.de
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      24 days ago

      That means the answer to the question would be 2? After two plays you have about 6 minutes of entertainment which are worth $1.

      Btw I do the same entertainment budget calculations (as well as “what is my free time worth”)

  • LordGimp@lemm.ee
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    25 days ago

    You don’t “buy” music. You buy a license to listen to that music for as long as the license issuer still owns that particular song.

    So never. Pirating music is the only path to ownership.

    • Kelly@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      You don’t “buy” music. You buy a license to listen to that music for as long as the license issuer still owns that particular song.

      Unless dealing with the artist or studio directly the license issuer also won’t “own” the song but rather have a license to sell and distribute the title.

  • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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    26 days ago

    I always hate these questions (is X worth it?) because you’re asking the Internet to give you an answer to a subjective question. If you want to sort out the answer for yourself it comes down to how much money you can afford to spend on entertainment and whether you think £1 of that amount for a song is worth it.

    If you’re rich and £1 doesn’t matter in slightest and you like the song then it’s “worth it.” If you’re poor and you have £20/wk to spend entertaining yourself then maybe not. Anyway who knows, if you think the song is worth the price then go for it.

    Also, just to throw this out there, there are an awful lot of ways to listen to music on the Internet that won’t cost you anything. You could always use one of those then later go back and buy music that’s particularly meaningful to you. Remember that streaming music pays the actual artists almost nothing, go buy physical media (or better yet go to one of their shows and buy merch) if you want your favorite artists to actually see any money.

    • Bangs42@lemmy.world
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      26 days ago

      Related, with so many free ways to listen to music, by the time I’m spending money on music I’ve already decided it’s worth it. Maybe I’ve listened to it a ton. Maybe the lyrics speak to me. Maybe it’s just a particularly well composed piece of music. Either way, I’ve made the valuation of it being worth it before I spend the money.

    • SamXavia@southampton.socialOP
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      26 days ago

      So the reason I purchase songs digitally is a few reasons;

      1. Purchasing an album is really expensive
      2. Purchasing the album is stupid for me as I normally only like 1-2 songs on it.
      3. I’m really autistic and can’t deal with going to an artists shows
      4. I don’t like how Streaming services work taking money no matter how much I listen to the music
      5. Digital Media can be copied and saved
      6. I know I could just download the MP3 from YouTube but I like to pay something towards the work
      • Zonetrooper@lemmy.world
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        26 days ago

        These are all really good reasons to purchase digital media, but the comment above still has a great point that this is super subjective and we can’t answer for you. In the end, I echo their sentiment that “if you think the song is worth the price then go for it”.