In September 2024, I received an email from Qobuz stating that music for an album I had bought a digital copy of from them would no longer be available for download due to them no longer having the rights to do so. I wasn’t happy about this at the time, but it also got me thinking.
This blog post gives me the opportunity to think aloud about my rights as a consumer and the rights of artists, producers, and music labels themselves.
I also have to consider if my hybrid approach is the best way for me to consume music in future.
My current music consumption routine
At the moment, I have a hybrid music approach. I have a subscription with Tidal that allows me to discover new music and gives me access to a more extensive library than I could ever hope to build. But there will always be the risk that the music you like could be removed from their service.
I also have my own music collection, which consists of digital copies of CDs I own and some albums I legally downloaded from online music retailers such as Qobuz.
You can discover more about my current strategy and how my digital music fits in with music streaming posts.
How can I ensure I don’t lose access to the music I own?
The simplest solution is to buy a physical copy of the CD, which I will own and can either play via a CD player or rip so that I have a digital copy of the music to add to my digital copy. If I lose my digital copy for any reason, I can rip it from the physical CD I own.
There are a couple of things that put me off buying CDs.
Firstly, you need to have somewhere to keep them, and I have quite limited storage space at this moment in my life.
Secondly, it is possible to purchase music at higher bit and sample rates than 16-bit and 44Khz. This music will, therefore, contain more information to extract during playback, which can only help improve playback quality.
Backup my digital copies
The only way to ensure that I keep my media is to ensure I keep backups of all my digital media and documents.
Keeping backups is something everyone should do. However, many people, including myself, don’t take enough care to look after their own data.
I do have my digital media backed up on my external drive. Ideally, I would also store the data in the cloud. I haven’t done this as it would quickly fill up my Google Drive. This is something I might look to revisit in a future post. Please comment in the comment section if you want me to explore this further.
Conclusion
Now that I have calmed down, I can see that while it is annoying, it is no different from owning a CD. If the CD got damaged a few years after I bought it, I wouldn’t be able to replace it. Arguably, this move over music they no longer have the rights to distribute is the same.
I will continue to buy digital music and will look for ways to improve my backup practice, which I should be doing anyway.
I would love to know what your thoughts are on this.
Enjoying our content, why don’t you join our monthly Newsletter? We will update you on the latest content we have published and what currently intrigues us in the world of technology, computing and gaming.