Digital Renting? Or Ownership?

[conan50]

Being something of a Rational Minimalist, and having a Millennial daughter, over the past few years my thinking about ownership and hoarding books, music, and dvds has changed. I can see the move toward subscriptions for ebooks, music, and videos, that we consume. I have gone from record collections, cassette collections, CD collections, video tape collections, dvd collections, and a huge print book collection, paring down and giving away big chunks of stuff that have cluttered up my life.
My daughter introduced me to Netflix years ago and because she never has had cable television since leaving home, I have moved in that direction also. She subscribes to Rhapsody for her music, and if I did not already have a huge collection of music, would also subscribe to a streaming music service. Lastly, I could see myself depending upon Amazon Prime for my ebooks if they had a larger selection, and with Overdrive, that would meet my book needs for the most part. My point is that I believe music, movie, and soon ebook ownership may be going the way of the buggy whip. And I'm not sure that is a bad thing. It creates a more 'green' society, and helps reduce the consumer mindset that has created some problems for society.
What do you think about this subject? Are you moving toward a future of renting content? Are your kids moving in that direction?
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/str...onsumers-34335

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by conan50

Are you moving toward a future of renting content?

Nope I much prefer to own my books and music, be it in physical or digital format, and I'd absolutely hate to have to rent content.

[conan50]

Originally Posted by Yolina

Nope I much prefer to own my books and music, be it in physical or digital format, and I'd absolutely hate to have to rent content.

Up until a few years ago that was my thought, it was practically in my dna. But after a serious health threat, and starting to think about where all my junk would end up, and if it was all even necessary, my thinking started changing.
If I were starting fresh now, I would do the following:
Buy no print books, and only buy ebooks I could not get with a subscription service or through library loan. Buy no music, subscribe to Spotify or some other music streaming service. Buy no videos, only rent what I want to watch and stream: Netflix, Hulu+, and Amazon Prime. Local news with an over the air antenna, no cable, only Internet service.
Less cost, less hassle, and less clutter :-)

[Yolina]

My clutter is well trained and contained. All that streaming music and films is all well and good until the day there's a problem with your internet connection... Though as I don't watch films, I would't have to worry about that bit

I've pretty much stopped buying paper books but there's still a whole bunch of stuff I want to read that isn't available in e-format, so my p-books collection is still growing, albeit slowly - and it's been culled too, I only have about 600 or 700 now which is stuff I really want to keep. I still buy the odd vinyl too (always hated cds for some reason but quite happy to buy mp3).

About thinking where "junk" ends up, a close friend of over 20 years died a few months ago. He had quite a lot of books and a ginormous music collection. His sister and mum were kind enough to let his friends each take a few books/cds/vinyls, and it's really nice to have those few things.

[peachiekene]

All that streaming music and films is all well and good until the day there's a problem with your internet connection

Not to mention running into the issue of one of them not having what you want when you want it.

That said, I'm actually trying to find a happy medium between the two right now.

[GeoffR]

The main reason I prefer to buy rather than rent is that many ebooks (most, if reading backlist) contain many (many, many) errors. I can fix errors in books I buy the first time I read them, and thereafter I have an error-free book to re-read as many times as I like. Doesn't work so well if I rent.

[arjaybe]

What happens if you "rent" a book for, say, $5/month, but something comes up and you can't finish it in a month?

[conan50]

Originally Posted by Yolina

My clutter is well trained and contained. All that streaming music and films is all well and good until the day there's a problem with your internet connection... Though as I don't watch films, I would't have to worry about that bit

I've pretty much stopped buying paper books but there's still a whole bunch of stuff I want to read that isn't available in e-format, so my p-books collection is still growing, albeit slowly - and it's been culled too, I only have about 600 or 700 now which is stuff I really want to keep. I still buy the odd vinyl too (always hated cds for some reason but quite happy to buy mp3).

About thinking where "junk" ends up, a close friend of over 20 years died a few months ago. He had quite a lot of books and a ginormous music collection. His sister and mum were kind enough to let his friends each take a few books/cds/vinyls, and it's really nice to have those few things.

Good for you getting your collection tamed :-)
Vinyl has a wonderful rich sound, but I don't miss all the scratches and popping and record skipping :-)
Some reference and other books are hard to find and manage as ebooks, but I have seriously culled my print book collection, it was easier to do than I thought it would be.
With an e-ink device I have plenty to read until the power comes back on, and most music streaming and some video streaming services allow you to download content for offline use.
As for leaving stuff for kids, friends, and family, most of my friends and family have lots of their own stuff they don't even use, and kids my daughter's age would have little to no use for it, and probably would not have room to store it. I'm guessing most people would be just as happy if you left them cash :-)
I give much more thought nowadays to what I purchase. Too many trips to Goodwill dropping off stuff has helped to cure me of storing away stuff. It has been an adjustment though.

[conan50]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

The main reason I prefer to buy rather than rent is that many ebooks (most, if reading backlist) contain many (many, many) errors. I can fix errors in books I buy the first time I read them, and thereafter I have an error-free book to re-read as many times as I like. Doesn't work so well if I rent.

I admire you having that kind of fortitude. It is an abysmal shame that so many ebooks get so little copy editing, so little proofreading, there are too many errors.

[susan_cassidy]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

What happens if you "rent" a book for, say, $5/month, but something comes up and you can't finish it in a month?

The Amazon Kindle Unlimited program has no limit on the time you can keep a book. The only limit is that you can only borrow 10 books at a time, although I don't see why anyone would need to borrow more than one at a time, unless they were going to be away from wi-fi for a while.

[conan50]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

What happens if you "rent" a book for, say, $5/month, but something comes up and you can't finish it in a month?

I think renting ebooks is the weakest link regarding digital content right now, and Independently published ebooks are so inexpensive that it might not even make sense to rent, but on the other hand I think Amazon Prime allows you access for long periods to individual ebooks, and Overdrive brings both ebooks and audiobooks to devices for free with a library card. Plus the public domain free ebooks are legion. A case could be made for not even needing to rent, much less buy, ebooks.

[conan50]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

The Amazon Kindle Unlimited program has no limit on the time you can keep a book. The only limit is that you can only borrow 10 books at a time, although I don't see why anyone would need to borrow more than one at a time, unless they were going to be away from wi-fi for a while.

Thanks for your reply, you beat me by about two minutes :-)

[Apache]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

The main reason I prefer to buy rather than rent is that many ebooks (most, if reading backlist) contain many (many, many) errors. I can fix errors in books I buy the first time I read them, and thereafter I have an error-free book to re-read as many times as I like. Doesn't work so well if I rent.

This. And since I reread books I like I prefer to own.
Apache

[peachiekene]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

The Amazon Kindle Unlimited program has no limit on the time you can keep a book. The only limit is that you can only borrow 10 books at a time, although I don't see why anyone would need to borrow more than one at a time, unless they were going to be away from wi-fi for a while.

I think the point was more that if you didn't finish the book within a month's time - that you may have just paid for the book with your subscription.
ie: If you are a member of Kindle Unlimited ($10) and borrow a $5 book, but don't finish it within a month, you have basically paid for the book twice.
I ran into a similar issue when I was a member of GameFly (Video Game Rental) that eventually caused me to cancel my subscription.

Obviously, this isn't going to apply to everyone. If you fly through books regularly and start reading them immediately, spending the money to "rent" makes a lot more sense. If you like the book well enough, you can always buy it knowing that you want to own it.

But for some of us... not a very good option.

[taustin]

I have no objections to renting books, movies, or whatever. What I do object to is paying the (more or less) same price as buying it outright in a different format. Which is the case with ebooks.