You don’t own music anymore, you only have access to it

Times they are a’changin’, that’s for sure.  GQ just had a great article about The Cloud and what it’s going to do to the way you listen to your music. Think of the old days of buying LPs, cassette tapes, CDs and, yes, even the days of iTunes receipts. In the ‘old days’ you bought your music and stored it. The Cloud is going to change the way music is listened to – forever. That’s my belief anyway. Granted, there will be those who will never give up their vinyl copy of Thriller or their first CD (I won’t admit what mine was). The Cloud is a game-changer.

Take the options:

• Google Music Beta: Allows you to upload 20,000 songs for free and stream them on a web browser. However, it’s an invite-only service now and they could start to charge in the future. Here you have to upload your songs. Keep reading.
• Amazon’s Cloud Player: Just like Google Music Beta but it costs more money and it’s a bit uglier according to GQ. So they passed.
• Apple iCloud: Being a MacHead, this is one I am anxious to check out. Everyone is using iTunes these days. But they BUY their songs, download them and share them wirelessly through devices. But this service will be $25 per year and and will allow you to quite a collection on the iCloud. But keep reading.

What’s scary is the game-changer. Imagine instead of spending $1.29 on a song – you spend $5-$10 per month for a subscription service and have access to 15 MILLION songs!? What’s the point of owning songs anymore? You have millions of songs at your disposal for the price of 5 songs. It’s genius. But the only thing standing in the way is higher mobile speeds. But it’s all coming. And quickly.  Case in point: Spotify and Rdio.

• Spotify: This site has 15 million songs in their library. Is that a lot? Perhaps not, but it sounds like a lot. But they don’t have it all. Yet. No Beatles like iTunes. No random DJs you love. But imagine the ease of just pulling up a device and picking any song. Done. It’s coming. The only thing I can see sucking is the speeds of the internet. It’s been the downfall of the same technology that is blowing by at a ridiculous rate. When will be able to pull out our phones and have 100 MBPS? Someday. Someday soon.
• Rdio: I just learned about this. So I’ll have some more info soon.

Let me paraphrase Jon Wilde of GQ because it’s spot(ify) on:

You don’t own music anymore, you only have access it. We’ve amassed all these records, tapes, cds, mp3s, etc. We don’t need to buy any more! You live your life socially now anyway – Facebook, Twitter, online banking, you name it.

Streaming is the real deal. Get ready, party people.