What's the difference between streaming and downloading music?

Note: The following is an excerpt from my new book, The Love Your Music eBook -- guaranteed to contain “everything you ever wanted to know about digital music” or your money back.

You have probably streamed and downloaded many different music tracks, but have you ever thought about the difference between streaming and downloading? Your music experience can be enhanced by understanding that streaming and downloading each work best in different situations.

When streaming music, the music is transferred to your computer and played immediately, without being stored permanently. Streaming requires an internet connection. When downloading music, the music is transferred to your computer and stored in a file on the computer‘s hard drive. Your computer can play the music file immediately or at some point in the future. Once music is downloaded it doesn‘t require an internet connection to be played.

In between purely streaming music and totally downloading music there are several shades of gray.

There are three common types of streaming used by music websites and online music stores.

1. Broadcast streaming – a stream that you ―"tune into" like a traditional radio or TV station. Internet radio stations have broadcast streams. You hear exactly what they are streaming – nothing less, nothing more.
2. On-demand streaming – you choose the exact track you want to listen to. You can control its playback by pausing, rewinding, etc.
3. Influence the stream – in between broadcast streaming and on-demand streaming is a hybrid type of streaming where you have some control, but not complete control of the stream. For example, you might be able to choose an artist or genre to hear, but you can‘t pick specific tracks and you can‘t control their playback as finely as on-demand streaming.

There are two common types of downloads available from online music stores.

1. Download to own – tracks that you fully control. They never expire. You can burn them to CDs and play them on any device.
2. Rental tracks – tracks that you are just renting. They may expire, which means you can no longer play them. You can‘t burn them to CDs and they can only play on certain computers and portable media players.

These shades of gray can be laid out on a continuum from the music tracks over which you exercise the least control and are temporary to the music tracks that you totally control and are permanent: broadcast streaming, influence the stream, on-demand stream, rental download and download to own.

Each music website and online music store also has its own range of musical artists. This too can be thought of as a continuum. This continuum ranges from home recordings/garage bands to independent-label artists to major-label artists.

The following diagram lays out these two continuums on one diagram and places some music websites and online music stores in appropriate places. This chart isn‘t meant to be 100% accurate, but more to convey in general where these different sites fit.

Since Love Your Music is primarily about your music, we focus on the right side of this diagram: downloaded tracks.

Streaming and downloading are two different ways to acquire music. While streaming can be a great way to find new music, it‘s not music you control or integrate into your own music collection. It‘s only once you‘ve added it to your own collection that you can really get the best experience from your music. For more info on how to get the most from your music, check out The Love Your Music eBook.