[The-One]

I have a music collection on my harddrive, because hey, i'm kind of old school, not that old, but old enough. i guess teenagers all listen out of their itunes library or something now. 
 
but what i've found is that increasingly when I want to properly listen to my music on my good audio gear, I just play the flac files. otherwise when I need background music when I'm working or sufing the web or whatever, I just stream music videos off youtube because i have a superfast broadband and play it through normal computer speakers. 
 
this is because on cheap gear, you cannot appreciate the difference between flac / mp3 and there's not much difference between mp3 and just streaming off youtube now.

 

[PurpleAngel]

You might consider proof reading your original post and see if you want restate your question? or questions?
Your kind of mixing statements with questions.
 
Quality 256K or 320K mp3 music files can sound (practically) just as good as FLAC audio files, at least to me.

 

[The-One]

youtube doesnt stream FLAC. i hear no difference between youtube and mp3. any point in keeping mp3s on my computer?
 
is probably most succinct way to put it.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  youtube doesnt stream FLAC. i hear no difference between youtube and mp3. any point in keeping mp3s on my computer?
 
is probably most succinct way to put it.

 

That's highly relative and depends on each person. If you're too cheap to pay for actual copies, then sure, it makes sense to download them; alternately, people buy $0.99 tracks on iTunes at, what, 256kbps when you can get the same albums in FLAC from other sites for $12 for the entire album, but that makes sense because it's all custom playlists nowadays (I still listen to albums from start to finish, and that's why I only own a few - if it's a one hit wonder album then forget it). 

 

In your case, then probably not. Of course, if your internet service experiences a problem, then you don't have any access to your music. You'll have to deal with annoying ads. If you use a smartphone or tablet, you can't browse while listening to YouTube.

 

[billybob_jcv]

I don't see that it matters one way or the other. Streaming from the internet vs streaming from your own mp3 collection - who really cares? It's all good...

 

[Dobrescu George]

  youtube doesnt stream FLAC. i hear no difference between youtube and mp3. any point in keeping mp3s on my computer?
 
is probably most succinct way to put it.

Well, if your internet connection fails, you will not have youtube.
 
Your mp3s can also exist on your phone, DAP.
 
Youtube has the soun degraded to some music, depending on what source the uploader used.
 
But if you do not care of any of the above, or listen to mainstream music, which is usually found at good SQ, you are fine.
 
Why not use an online streaming service that provided only music?