All About Streaming Music Services

[Spotted Horses]

Spotify still reportedly pays between 0.3 and 0.5 cents per stream.

Think about how much you, the listener, pay per month. Then think about how much music you might listen to in that month. Sure, usage will vary, but I can't imagine a service like Spotify wants to be losing money on its heaviest users.

Yes, I read Apple Music pays $0.005 per track, and costs $15 per month. That means if you listen to 3,000 tracks they break even. If you assume 4 minutes per track, that is 12,000 hours, or about 7 hours per day.

I'm sure they're willing to loose money on their heaviest users if they make money on the average user. If they boost the price to make heavy users profitable they will presumably loose a large fraction of their light users. I'm sure their most valued users are those who barely use the service and can't be bothered to cancel.

I've also come across mention of a "mechanical royalty" of 1.75 cents per minute which applies when someone explicitly presses play on a track. I don't know what to make of that. The streaming services wouldn't be viable of that royalty got paid any substantial fraction of the time.

[DavidW]

Doing a quick check, it looks like it's anywhere from $4.99/month (premium - student) to $9.99 - for single person - premium.  No idea what the cost is with ads.  And more $ if a family account.  And that's in US dollars.  Haven't tried it myself.  Wonder how much money Spotify pulls in with the ads?

PD

I think the Spotify model is to split the entire revenue based on percentage of what is streamed the most over the entire community instead of you personally. So you can listen to all classical music, but Spotify will be giving most of your money to Joe Rogan anyway. 

[Spotted Horses]

I think the Spotify model is to split the entire revenue based on percentage of what is streamed the most over the entire community instead of you personally. So you can listen to all classical music, but Spotify will be giving most of your money to Joe Rogan anyway. 

Your fees go into a big pot of money, and royalties come out of the pot of money. When you stream classical you increase the percentage of classical streamed, and send more money to the classical artists. The effect is the same.

[Spotted Horses]

Ok, seems like I'm morphing into a streamer. I just listened to the Takacs quartet's Beethoven on Apple Music (lossless) even though I have the FLAC files on my hard disk (why bother to find the folder). I also listened to the 1951 Budapest Quartet recording on Apple Music, which I found revelatory. But I feel uncomfortable that I don't have the Budapest on physical media or a download that I have permanent access too. Those recordings might very well disappear from streaming services But the downloads are absurdly expensive (they charge $13 per disc, and they've divided the full set into 12 short discs corresponding, I think, to the original LPs). $156 for 1951 recordings! (There's also an out-of-print "United Archive" set floating around, possibly bootleg from LPs). I guess I will rely on streaming, but I don't like it for a set of recordings I find so significant.

[Madiel]

A quick perusal of eBay suggests CDs might be cheaper. 

This is one of the things about downloads. The price often never gets adjusted and there isn't a secondary market.

[Spotted Horses]

A quick perusal of eBay suggests CDs might be cheaper. 

Cheaper? Best offer I see is $350.

eBay listing

There is a 1959 Budapest set that is a lot quicker.

This is one of the things about downloads. The price often never gets adjusted and there isn't a secondary market.

And there can be a lot of variation depending on the vendor. Qobuz sells Naxos downloads for half the price of Prestoclassical.

[Madiel]

Admittedly many of the single CDs I can see, I can't immediately tell which Budapest Quartet recording they might be if they did multiple.

But also this. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/265557776541?epid=21050204802&hash=item3dd47a189d:g:hf4AAOSwmnpiEWDW&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8DH%2FupcDNzSDo4pEm7SYD0txEANLjls17d10bMRl48iPFTLUbDga75bJSSlPqcQhbYVp6FIXujspzjPEIrXQBSCGSZYkLVlpd4UiIAeot0coZxtTmxgN%2B3OpKIBYMf7p9mVOHgGNfmXqXLYv0g2bPbHRhPLiZS505%2FVGdQzSFo1bA1raNKCGhUkQCDbW%2B220p%2BHXm%2B7Hvfw1UlR47gvkWbvisWOEOA8R7%2FUXVsNZXFsWbKikZ7fN4kDSF4W%2Fxa8009emgN0Hq8orUXSzNSR3WgR5y5QI6kzkK8s5xwK76DlIkYkAuXFYpsxj8EYT1pAl1Q%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBM2NXSpJ1i

[Mapman]

Admittedly many of the single CDs I can see, I can't immediately tell which Budapest Quartet recording they might be if they did multiple.

But also this. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/265557776541?epid=21050204802&hash=item3dd47a189d:g:hf4AAOSwmnpiEWDW&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8DH%2FupcDNzSDo4pEm7SYD0txEANLjls17d10bMRl48iPFTLUbDga75bJSSlPqcQhbYVp6FIXujspzjPEIrXQBSCGSZYkLVlpd4UiIAeot0coZxtTmxgN%2B3OpKIBYMf7p9mVOHgGNfmXqXLYv0g2bPbHRhPLiZS505%2FVGdQzSFo1bA1raNKCGhUkQCDbW%2B220p%2BHXm%2B7Hvfw1UlR47gvkWbvisWOEOA8R7%2FUXVsNZXFsWbKikZ7fN4kDSF4W%2Fxa8009emgN0Hq8orUXSzNSR3WgR5y5QI6kzkK8s5xwK76DlIkYkAuXFYpsxj8EYT1pAl1Q%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBM2NXSpJ1i

That box is available in the US for $150, which is not cheap either. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=0889854970628&_sacat=0&_sop=15

[Spotted Horses]

That box is available in the US for $150, which is not cheap either. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=0889854970628&_sacat=0&_sop=15

For some reason that did not show up when I searched for keywords, only searching for the catalog number. At that price it is about the same as getting all of the flac downloads. Not viable for me because I already purchased the downloads covering the late quartets. Getting the remaining downloads is way cheaper.

[Harry]

The list of Hyperion disc available for streaming.

https://www.hyperion-streaming.co.uk/?dm_i=10ZR%2C8D3FP%2CBUN7YU%2CYGY05%2C1

[DavidW]

The list of Hyperion disc available for streaming.

https://www.hyperion-streaming.co.uk/?dm_i=10ZR%2C8D3FP%2CBUN7YU%2CYGY05%2C1

Having a link is better than needing to navigate through a streaming service to find the list, especially if just checking for updates.  Thanks!

[Papy Oli]

The first time I see an incomplete album on Idagio in nearly two years of using them. There's a second entry for this album... with the same one track.

I have flashbacks of that Qobuz syndrom 

[Pohjolas Daughter]

The first time I see an incomplete album on Idagio in nearly two years of using them. There's a second entry for this album... with the same one track.

I have flashbacks of that Qobuz syndrom 

Does Qobuz currently have that problem?  Anyone here know?

PD

[AnotherSpin]

The first time I see an incomplete album on Idagio in nearly two years of using them. There's a second entry for this album... with the same one track.

I have flashbacks of that Qobuz syndrom 

Idagio is very nice service, I used it for a while. Unfortunately, regular streamers don't see Idagio like they see Qobuz or Tidal, which makes Idagio somewhat useless. You can send a signal from Idagio in your smartphone to the streamer, but the sound quality is seriously compromised in this scenario.

[Harry]

Does Qobuz currently have that problem?  Anyone here know?

PD

Not anymore!

[AnotherSpin]

Does Qobuz currently have that problem?  Anyone here know?

PD

Qobuz sometimes shows albums where only one or more tracks are available for playback. As in the case with Yuja Wang's album below. However, this album will not be officially released before 1st of September.

[Brian]

Does Qobuz currently have that problem?  Anyone here know?

PD

I think Dutton is the only label I have seen where Qobuz only has some tracks from the albums.

[Papy Oli]

Not anymore!

I think Dutton is the only label I have seen where Qobuz only has some tracks from the albums.

That's an improvement at least.

All the Chandos records still in my playlists of old (label, with BIS, which were the main cause of my aggravation back then) seem fine now (unless the whole album has been moved to a new entry).

As you were then 

[Harry]

I think Dutton is the only label I have seen where Qobuz only has some tracks from the albums.

Not true Brian, at least not in Europe, there are many Dutton albums on Qobuz, complete and all, the only thing that is missing, are PDF files, Dutton doesn't see the necessity for that it seems.

[Harry]

Qobuz sometimes shows albums where only one or more tracks are available for playback. As in the case with Yuja Wang's album below. However, this album will not be officially released before 1st of September.

The reasons lies not with Qobuz, but with the record companies. DGG is one example of doing this. Many of the releases are in tracks not in complete albums, as if saying "if you like this one track and want more, buy the download or CD. "