Streaming taking over the music industry

[PeterS]

I know there are many that love their physical media and don't stream but streaming really is taking over now. The days of digital download seem numbered and people just don't pirate any more.

 

Overall I'd say it's a good thing that the industry is finding a way of surviving, and even prospering, but it still feels like the artists aren't getting the income they deserve. Surely something has to change there or the industry really will strangle itself. It was really jarring to see that the Augustines gave up as they weren't making any money. When a fair sized band like them isn't making money what hope do most have?



https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/29/music-streaming-industry-saviour-labels-spotify-apple-music

[Glen]

I cant afford every release so Spotify is essential for me. We have the family version which is £15 per month and offers 5 separate accounts.

 

I still probably buy my top 5-10 on CD at the very least.

 

This year i bought -

 

Defiants

Vega

Tremonti

Dan reed

Nordic union

Wigelius

Seven

Treat

[martinsane]

I don't like it.

 

I recently bit the bullet and bought a Blu Ray player, I know unrelated to music but you'll get the point and when discussing the pros and cons at various stores and online review reading the bulk of the reviews were centered around the "smart app's" the players could access not how well they played the media or what varieties of media the players could play. Sad.

[Fat Freddy]

You can have my CDs when you pry them from my cold dead fingers.

 

MY COLD! DEAD! FINGERS! (shakes fist)

[Glen]

This is all well and good if you have storage. I have diddly squat storage. Got space for about 300 of my fav cds and thats about it. The rest are in boxes....may they RIP cos i wont be seeing them for at least 10 years and by then cds prob wont exist.

 

Theyll be streaming music straight into my brain most likely.

[martinsane]

This is all well and good if you have storage. I have diddly squat storage. Got space for about 300 of my fav cds and thats about it. The rest are in boxes....may they RIP cos i wont be seeing them for at least 10 years and by then cds prob wont exist.

 

Theyll be streaming music straight into my brain most likely.

I packed up all how many thousand of cd's I have 4 years ago and they have yet to be unearthed and as Glen mentioned who knows when they will see the light of day.

 

That said I will always insist on physical mediums for all my media as I will never accept spending real tangible $$$ for an intangible object.

[CureTheSane]

I don't like it.

 

I recently bit the bullet and bought a Blu Ray player, I know unrelated to music but you'll get the point and when discussing the pros and cons at various stores and online review reading the bulk of the reviews were centered around the "smart app's" the players could access not how well they played the media or what varieties of media the players could play. Sad.

 

haha.

I was the same, and still have my whole collection.

But it's so rare that I pull CD's to listen to these days I start to wonder if it's just worth ripping them all and selling off the "hard copies"

So much good music is hidden away from me because of convenience....

[Geoff]

Yeah, I've more or less given up on the hard copy CD. I still have thousands and I honestly have no idea what to do with them all... and I am basically completely an MP3 man now. But that's where my digital preference ends. I hate the idea of streaming and really hope it's something I never get into at all. Streaming would just not suit my listening habits one single bit.

[Dead Planet]

Well if cds disappear I will save a ton of money....

[Glen]

Yeah, I've more or less given up on the hard copy CD. I still have thousands and I honestly have no idea what to do with them all... and I am basically completely an MP3 man now. But that's where my digital preference ends. I hate the idea of streaming and really hope it's something I never get into at all. Streaming would just not suit my listening habits one single bit.

Why?

 

With Spotify you can download the album for offline listening.

 

Takes about 30 secs

 

Then you dont need wifi.

 

Also id say 95% of all releases in our genre are on there.

[Fat Freddy]

I never got into the music streaming habit. I have a Spotify account but I barely use it. I'm not as concerned with keeping my ear to the ground listening for the newest/coolest underground bands as I once was. I'd rather scrounge thru old CDs at a thrift shop or a yard sale, looking for treasures.

 

On the other hand, I have no problems with streaming movies. I used to buy a lot of DVDs but I never considered myself a "collector" of movies like I am with CDs... as I've gotten older I've come to realize that most films are a one-and-done viewing experience for me. I am not in the habit of watching the same things over and over again, so unless we're talking about an all-time lifelong favorite, buying movies (no matter how cheap) always kind of felt like a waste of $$ to me.

Since I signed up for Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime/Roku/etc., I can watch a different movie every night for the rest of my life without any repeats, and I don't have to worry about storage!

[CureTheSane]

The problem music has is that CD's can be downloaded pretty much at CD quality (320 mbps)

DVD's are well on the way, in fact they are probably also there. What is a full size DVD? 4gb?

Most you see around are 1.4gb these days, but the quality even then can be a bit hit and miss.

I have a massive movie collection which I use often.

[Glen]

Spotify sounds pretty good to me. When i stream to my Denon bluetooth speaker i cannot fault the sound really.

 

Bizarrely the Vega album sounds great on Spotify. Really bassy and rich sounding. Much better than my CD sounds????

[Nightrain]

nothing's wrong with streaming as well as downloading, i have myself an account of Spotify too, it's handy to quickly play some ballad playlist, jazz, classical, or some baby lullaby, but well CD won't be gone, in fact, it's gonna be like vinyl, at some point, it's gonna resurrect itself and be there as long as we exist.

 

The reason for that is because there are certain communities that treat CD as a collectible item, not only for listening purpose. It's like stamp, where theoretically they're all should be vanished as soon as e-mail was introduced back in 1994, but some collectors are still hunting them with millions

 

And also, maybe for artist, streaming isn't really gonna make them lots of bucks, i still think crowdfunding is one of the best way to thrive in this condition so maybe in the future, many artists will pull back from Spotify or other streaming media and start thinking of crowdfunding, creating limited edition CD/vinyl/poster/etc for fans that are willing to pay.

[Glen]

True but crowdfunding only gets it recorded then its put up for download streaming or whatever.

 

At least with streaming it reduces illegal downloading.

[Geoff]

 

Yeah, I've more or less given up on the hard copy CD. I still have thousands and I honestly have no idea what to do with them all... and I am basically completely an MP3 man now. But that's where my digital preference ends. I hate the idea of streaming and really hope it's something I never get into at all. Streaming would just not suit my listening habits one single bit.

Why?

 

With Spotify you can download the album for offline listening.

 

Takes about 30 secs

 

Then you dont need wifi.

 

Also id say 95% of all releases in our genre are on there.

 

 

Not sure how to answer the question. So with Spotify you can download the album? Well that's fine with me. Like I say, downloaded MP3's is 100% where I'm at these days. No issues with that. The thing I hate and have no use for, is the idea of just streaming something that you don't actually own and it's gone once the listen is over.

 

I like a collection I can continually reference and utilize. As Keef says with his movies, streaming is probably a good "one and done" kind of tool, but it's shit for music, imo, as you need a library you can constantly and effortlessly return to.

[PeterS]

But you just add the album to your library.

I use Google. I was able to upload my entire mp3 library of rare stuff and listen to it side by side with their library.

What does get unwieldy is their user interface. It really doesn't handle 1000s of albums well.

I can even download the albums I uploaded to my phone and listen offline.

[CureTheSane]

My fucking kids have been streaming online gaming, Netflix and Kpop.

6 kids all streaming Modern Family etc every week adds up.

500gb is just getting us through the month.

So I pretty much banned it all.

[PeterS]

How much do you use now you're left with only your porn?

[CureTheSane]

Back down to only 450gb used every month...

[DaHun72]

Back down to only 450gb used every month...

Lol, HD porn will do that. What happened to those 5 VHS tapes that just got passed around?

[CureTheSane]

HD?

4K all the way baby!.....

You really see ALL the fine details...

[Geoff]

Streaming may suck for music (I am still unsure about this library thing) but it's definitely great for porn.

[Glen]

Streaming may suck for music (I am still unsure about this library thing) but it's definitely great for porn.

 

Basically when you log on to Spotify you have 5 tabs -

 

Home

Browse

Search

Radio

Library

 

Library is split as follows -

 

Your daily mix (Spotify's recommended playlist based on your listening habits)

Playlists (created by you)

Stations (you can create your own 'radio' station based on a particular artist style)

Songs

Albums

Artists

 

the songs / albums / artists tabs are what you have downloaded for offline listening (so for example if you have a 64gb phone you can download as much as you damned like and carry it anywhere).

 

Downloading an album takes about 10 secs.

 

The only possible problem is if Spotify ever ceased to exist - but that it highly unlikely to happen in the next 5 years or so - and if it did you just subscribe to a different streaming service.

 

I know folk on here will slag me off for this, but this is pretty much my staple listening source now - I reckon this year I might buy about 5 cds tops - our family costs is £15/month which gives me, Karen and Lily our own separate accounts - so £5 each per month for unlimited access to every release in existence (well 95% anyway)..........

 

With this available to us I cannot justify anything else.

[Geoff]

 

Streaming may suck for music (I am still unsure about this library thing) but it's definitely great for porn.

 

Basically when you log on to Spotify you have 5 tabs -

 

Home

Browse

Search

Radio

Library

 

Library is split as follows -

 

Your daily mix (Spotify's recommended playlist based on your listening habits)

Playlists (created by you)

Stations (you can create your own 'radio' station based on a particular artist style)

Songs

Albums

Artists

 

the songs / albums / artists tabs are what you have downloaded for offline listening (so for example if you have a 64gb phone you can download as much as you damned like and carry it anywhere).

 

Downloading an album takes about 10 secs.

 

The only possible problem is if Spotify ever ceased to exist - but that it highly unlikely to happen in the next 5 years or so - and if it did you just subscribe to a different streaming service.

 

I know folk on here will slag me off for this, but this is pretty much my staple listening source now - I reckon this year I might buy about 5 cds tops - our family costs is £15/month which gives me, Karen and Lily our own separate accounts - so £5 each per month for unlimited access to every release in existence (well 95% anyway)..........

 

With this available to us I cannot justify anything else.

 

 

Sounds decent, except, like you say, if Spotify ceases to exist. You simply say that you just start over again elsewhere... but in reality that would be a gigantic pain in the ass.

 

Anyway, I agree with your listening habits. Collecting CDs is all good and fun... when you're obligation and child free. I'd be curious to know how many of the CD collectors out there are doing it with a family, or if most CD collectors are kid free. Because I was certainly to the balls a CD collector and 100% convinced I always would be. But enter kids into the picture and it's not just strictly a finance thing... it's just an everything thing.

 

It just doesn't make any sense any more to be buying all these silly CDs, lol. I still love the music every single bit as much as I did and always will... I just don't love or want CDs anymore. I never thought it'd happen... but it did.