Apple, Spotify offer more music, less dusting

We used to buy albums and songs when we wanted to listen to music.Now, subscription music streaming services are exploding.

They offeras much music as youwant for a monthly fee, with one major catch -- youdon't actually own anything.

Earlier this week, Appleannounced their foray into the music streaming business.

It's a major development for an industry that's growing exponentially. According to a Nielsen Entertainment poll of 3500 teens and adults,In Canada alone, there hasbeen a 94 per cent increase in music streaming volume in the last year.

Apple's new service, similar to competitors like Spotify and Google, allows usersto listen to as much music as theywant.

But you only have access to that music if you keep paying your monthly subscription fee.Stop paying and it all disappears.

In an NPR podcast,host Bob Boilenreminiscedabout his days of collecting physical copies of his favourite albums.

"I love that I have this closet full of 1000albums and walls full of CDs. That I can just pull something out and look at, and... is that justold fashioned?"

Eric Alper isdirector of media relations for eOne Music Canada. He said streaming is the new norm, but that it comes with a cost.

"Now your format, it's the cloud.It's not having that ownership so something definitely is lost," he said.

Alper added what is being lost are the memories that went along with picking up new music, taking it home, listening and then calling friends over so they could hear it too.

At 40, Alpersaidhe's part of a demographicthatremembers those days fondly.But he addedit's important to remember that streaming music is in line with movies and e-books thatareloaded temporarily or streamed on many sites.

Alpersaid hegets the appeal of streaming services, and uses them himself. And he expects they're here to stay.

"There's a whole new generation who havenever owned anything, they have no desire to own anything. They've never bought a VHS, they've never bought a DVD, they've never bought a CD," Alper explained.

Alper saidwhile the old formats of listening to music meant you owned the song or album, it was still a format presented to you by a company. And he addedstreaming services mean we have a different relationship with what we listen to, but it's nothing more than another format.

"At the end of the day, no matter what streaming service you're on, no matter if you still purchase vinyl, CDs, cassette tapes or eight-track tapes, it's never my job to dictate to the audience and to the fans how to consume music.I would just love for them to continue to consume music."