The good times are ending. Our Amazon Music trial is over next Thursday. The kids have listened to myriad show tunes and I’ve played Tomorrow The Green Grass on an endless loop while feeding the calves. 
After this we’re facing a dilemma of renew or not. Definitely, as another song the kids play often, a First World Problem.
I have enjoyed being able to play anything as much as the kids, however, I’m still trying to wrap my brain around this new paradigm: paying to rent music.We’ve used Netflix for years and I take no issue with streaming movies and TV shows because you rarely watch them more than once. I am, on the other hand, possessive of music.
Through my college years I easily bought multiple used CD’s a month and joined BMG several times. I own this music, but when you quit paying for the streaming the music is gone.
There’s definitely something to be said about paying for an experience versus a thing. We get to try music we might never buy, and I don’t have to purchase albums by the fleeting bands my kids like today.
I think we’ll let it die for now, and explore this conundrum again at Christmas. How about you? Do you pay to stream? Why or why not?
Farmer Bright 
Since I am already Amazon Prime I get a scaled down version of the streaming for free. I still have a ton of CDs…at my parent’s house. I could have brought them when I moved out, but I didn’t want to hassle with packing them and then finding a place to store them. The only time I really listen to CDs is when traveling on the road between Arizona and California where I am in for the most part a dead area for radio coverage. At home I listen to music via my computer and most of that is through YouTube. A good thing about the Streaming though is you avoid buying those CDs where there is only a couple of good songs. You also get an opportunity to discover new music that you may not have even known about or as you mentioned try out something. Also with streaming you can take it wherever you go without having to lug a binder of CDs around or be dependent on finding a CD player. $10 a month is not bad deal, considering that is likely less than what you would pay for a single new CD. Even at my local used music store that is two may be three CDs a month. The only downside I see of not having a CD is finding those ‘hidden gems’ of one or two songs that never make it to the radio, but are really good.
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Maybe what I struggle with more is the devaluing of my current collection. For $10 a month you can have it, and everything else. As someone who began their music colletion by taping songs off the radio, I am jealous of the low bar needed to hear what you want; from the semi-free Prime, to YouTube, to full fledged monthly services. Maybe I’m exhibiting the early warning signs of curmudgeonly! Thanks for commenting on your experience. The future probably is streaming, and just a matter of time for some of us to accept it.
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As a confirmed Luddite, I still enjoy my CD’s on my pickup’s disc player. Not sure what I’ll do when this truck goes to its next owner; I doubt a new truck will even have a player.
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I wouldn’t be surprised. I can still remember when we got a car with a cassette player. I thought we were really something!
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