Streaming VS Downloading: Is Music/Movie Download Better than Stream

1. Music Streams Are Up and Downloads Are Down - History and Data
Apple is always the weather vane of high tech, indicating a new life emergence and a superannuation obsolete. 14 years ago, iTunes' arrival weeds out traditional tape and CD from revolution. But nowadays, the burgeoning media streaming services like Pandora and Spotify seem to knock out the prevalent digital download such as iTunes. Statistics show music downloads (iTunes included) all over the world, covering USA, Europe and Japan, dropped by 2.1% while streaming soars by 51.3%, at the end of 2013. Accordingly, a terrible title "Demise of The Digital Download" revealed from Forbes.

Winner: Streaming

2. Streaming Versus Downloading: Which One Uses More Bandwidth
The bandwidth you consume is based on how much and how long it takes for data to get. Generally, it's 100% the same in the streaming vs downloading bandwidth comparison. But an advantage to downloading over streaming is you can watch the video multiple times without having to spend bandwidth each time. But streaming edges out downloading because you cannot watch the video until it finishes downloading. However, programs like MacX YouTube Downloader gives the feel of streaming as the built-in video player enables to watch online videos without waiting until the entire video is downloaded.

Winner: Downloading

3. Will Streaming Offer Better Quality Than Downloading?
While watching a movie or a video, quality is the prime concern in judging difference between streaming and downloading. That's way people asked: "Does picture quality differ between streaming and downloading?" If you download a HD 1080p video from YouTube or so and play it, the picture and sound quality is slightly inferior to the video while streaming as download is always said to be quality terminator. But if the internet is in a traffic jam, videos are watch in bits and pieces. So you'd better to download it for a smooth playback.

Winner: Streaming

4. Streaming VS Downloading: Space and Buffering
To download movies, videos or songs, you are advised to have a lot of free space on your device. Generally, it is especially large in HD movies. For instance, the hot Jurassic World is 6 GB in HD and 2.87 GB in SD. Generally, for a smooth viewing experience, video buffers or preloads a few seconds during streaming. Or else, you need a fast internet connection to keep up with the video streaming. While compared to streaming, downloading isn't a problem at all, which only needs internet access while you're downloading the video.

Winner: Draw

5. What Takes Up Less Data Usage, Streaming or Downloading?
It's often the questions: "Is the data used in downloading and streaming same?" In terms of streaming vs downloading data usage, it's nearly the same to download a video or watch it by streaming. If you watch a video 10 times of 100MB through streaming, 1GB data will be consumed. But the data usage will be count as 100MB when you download the video from YouTube. In the meantime, mind the data caps. It's impossible to finish streaming or downloading a movie (5.45 GB) in case you have a 2GB data cap. A better way is to stream or download video with Wi-Fi connected.

Winner: Draw

6. Streaming VS Downloading: Legality
Both streaming and downloading are involved in copyright law, making infringing copies of the work in question. Streaming vs downloading legal issue are still variable in many countries. On June 5, 2014, CJEU ruled that it's legal to stream illegal content online in Europe when the user isn't willfully making a copy of said content. But in Sweden, those operating internet site of criminal copyright infringement will be convicted, and so does it in USA, Franch, Japan, having strick laws on copyright protection. It is proven that illegal downloading could be punishable by up to 5 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

Winner: Draw