I am like you. The way I listen to music is not the conventional way in which someone has a playlist and goes with it for a while, then add new music, etc… I am autistic too, and my music routine generally implies having a song or two on repeat for the day because they are a form of stimming for me. So I don’t use streaming services if not for trying new music before seeing if I want that song.
My rule is that if I find a song I can be comfortable with to listen to it for a while hour on repeat and I still like it, I’ll buy it. If that happens, that song is probably going to be my next stimming song for days or even weeks, meaning I’ll listen to it hundreds or thousands of times. If that’s the case, I’ll buy it.
On some rare instances, I find an artist that I really like because they have more than one song that helps me and then I’ll buy their album just to show support to what they are doing.
I also can’t go to shows because they are a nightmare to my brain and its lack of sensory overload control.
I genuinely think that you should listen it as many times until you can hum or mentally sing along with it… if this makes any sense. Like if you are able to associate the song’s title a melody then it’s “worth it”. For me(I’m not even kidding), this is probably after playing it 4-5 times on repeat.
I know i've got a few songs that I've got over 10 listens to, and I think a good goal for each track might be 1 play per pence that I spent on it, so a £0.99 song would be 99 plays.
I usually do some goofy math like cost / uses. The first time I used a $300 washing machine I considered that a $300+ load of laundry, next time we’re down to $150, and so on.
For a song I’d probably at least want a few dozen plays out of it for $1, although nowadays everyone just subscribes and streams.
I personally avoid streaming services as I know some months I rather just listen to podcasts or just not listen to music at all. This is why I'm starting a digital library of songs that I purchase. But yeah I guess getting a song to less than 0.01 per play would be a good goal to see the value in the purchase.
I could be super wrong, but I don’t think people who purchase music think about the value of those songs in that way anymore. Some people buy songs for the physical display of the package, the potentially higher quality playback, to avoid music from disappearing due to copyright or label issues, to support an artist since streaming is like fractions of a penny, for offline listening which isn’t tied to a subscription feature, just for collections sake, for more emotional reasons - physically connecting with a song/album, to justify their recent impulse record player purchase, etc. Sometimes people just want to spend money (retail therapy), so they’ll buy an album (digital or physical), never open it, and just keep streaming.
That is fair enough, I purchase Digitally as it's cheaper (as not really interested in a full album) and the higher quality of music does help a bit as it means I can hear it on better quality kit and it still sounds amazing. Streaming isn't really a thing I enjoy as some months I may not want a new song or even want to listen to music, So i'm triyng to work out what amount of plays makes sense that you've 'got worth' out of it. I know it's a little subjective but I wonder how much 99p is worth
I always hate these questions (is X worth it?) because you’re asking the Internet to give you an answer to a subjective question. If you want to sort out the answer for yourself it comes down to how much money you can afford to spend on entertainment and whether you think £1 of that amount for a song is worth it.
If you’re rich and £1 doesn’t matter in slightest and you like the song then it’s “worth it.” If you’re poor and you have £20/wk to spend entertaining yourself then maybe not. Anyway who knows, if you think the song is worth the price then go for it.
Also, just to throw this out there, there are an awful lot of ways to listen to music on the Internet that won’t cost you anything. You could always use one of those then later go back and buy music that’s particularly meaningful to you. Remember that streaming music pays the actual artists almost nothing, go buy physical media (or better yet go to one of their shows and buy merch) if you want your favorite artists to actually see any money.
These are all really good reasons to purchase digital media, but the comment above still has a great point that this is super subjective and we can’t answer for you. In the end, I echo their sentiment that “if you think the song is worth the price then go for it”.
Related, with so many free ways to listen to music, by the time I’m spending money on music I’ve already decided it’s worth it. Maybe I’ve listened to it a ton. Maybe the lyrics speak to me. Maybe it’s just a particularly well composed piece of music. Either way, I’ve made the valuation of it being worth it before I spend the money.