The impact of music streaming services

[San Antone]

Well of course streaming is great if you want to randomise everything.

But if you're doing playlists, you're doing something that was already perfectly possible in iTunes or some other media player on your computer.

EDIT: As to the bit about being able to listen to virtually anything immediately... the fact is, though, you won't. You're paying for millions of tracks that you'll never actually hear, including millions that you'd hate if you did hear them.

While true, what I am paying is one-tenth of what I used to spend each year on a fraction of the music that I do listen to with streaming.  I have a huge iTunes library (over 175,000 tracks) but don't listen to it much anymore. Almost all of and much much more is available to stream, in a more convenient format.  I can link my phone, iPad, laptop and desktop and listen wherever I am, and control the volume, programming, etc. with my phone.

[Madiel]

While true, what I am paying is one-tenth of what I used to spend each year on a fraction of the music that I do listen to with streaming.  I have a huge iTunes library (over 175,000 tracks) but don't listen to it much anymore. Almost all of and much much more is available to stream, in a more convenient format.  I can link my phone, iPad, laptop and desktop and listen wherever I am, and control the volume, programming, etc. with my phone.

Yes, well, as I've already hinted at, if you were the common type of GMG person who seems to acquire more albums per year than I can conceive of actually listening to, never mind properly paying attention to and taking in the music as anything more than sonic wallpaper, the economics might be different.

EDIT: You made me look at my iTunes library. It's nowhere near being a complete representation of my music collection, especially not for the classical half, but it still only has about 7,000 tracks in it.

[staxomega]

Except for the CDs that are OOP or otherwise unavailable to stream I will eventually unload them, even if it is at a dump. (If one of you hoarders want to pay the shipping, they can all be yours.)   

If you're serious consider me more than happy to  Even my older one is a bit fascinated by vinyl so two potentially eager future generations as well. I even find ripping CDs oddly therapeutic so I don't mind taking on that task for you 

[staxomega]

https://www.mattmontag.com/music/universals-audible-watermark

But it's changing. Apparently many watermarks are now gone.

https://www.mattmontag.com/music/an-update-on-umg-watermarks

Good to know, I don't really hear it often on Spotify. I figured it was because the files are lossy that they didn't care to watermark them but what that blog post says makes sense.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

https://www.mattmontag.com/music/universals-audible-watermark

But it's changing. Apparently many watermarks are now gone.

https://www.mattmontag.com/music/an-update-on-umg-watermarks

Thank you for the links, but for some reason or other I couldn't play them.     I could click on the play button--actually go back and forth between the play and pause functions, but the little progression 'dot' underneath never moved.

PD

[steve ridgway]

Paying a subscription at a fraction of what I used to spend on buying CDs, is a huge net plus financially - and - I now view my shelves of CDs as a giant albatross - all that stuff.

I'd probably go for streaming if I was young and only just starting to listen to music. As it is I think my collection of around 1,000 CDs (100 classical) is probably enough and am now focussing on thoroughly enjoying it.

[San Antone]

I'd probably go for streaming if I was young and only just starting to listen to music. As it is I think my collection of around 1,000 CDs (100 classical) is probably enough and am now focussing on thoroughly enjoying it.

LOL.  I am not young, at 68, I've been avidly buying music (in various media)  for more than 50 years. 

100 classical CDs would in no way satisfy my curiosity to hear the music I am interested in.  But, we are all different.  For me, hearing new works or a variety of performances of works I like is more important, and streaming makes that process much more attainable than ever before.

[Marc]

I have a nice Denon set, which I bought in 1997/1998. The last 6 months, the CD player is giving me some problems, so I switched to my 'back up' player. It's a Philips CD player that once belonged to my younger brother. He bought it in 1986/1987. It's still working fine, but it has no remote control. Hence: playing CD's is good again for my physical condition.

On my travels (mostly to and fro work), I sometimes use a portable MiniDisc-player (yeah), but mostly a mp3-player. The latter has got lots of Bach and a few other baroque composers, and also some pop music: Beatles, Bowie, The Doors, Neil Young, Nick Drake and other ole man's stuff.

I have no smartphone, and I do not stream. Nevertheless I am happy. I did not stop buying new discs, but in the last 2 years I think I only bought about a dozen. Sometimes I borrow a few from the public library. But mostly I guess I'm mostly happy with what I already have. Maybe this will change again in the future, maybe I'm gonna stream one day. The future's wide open.

By the way:
Has the 21st century already started?
Apologies, I did not notice.

[Ratliff]

I have a nice Denon set, which I bought in 1997/1998. The last 6 months, the CD player is giving me some problems, so I switched to my 'back up' player. It's a Philips CD player that once belonged to my younger brother. He bought it in 1986/1987. It's still working fine, but it has no remote control. Hence: playing CD's is good again for my physical condition.

On my travels (mostly to and fro work), I sometimes use a portable MiniDisc-player (yeah), but mostly a mp3-player. The latter has got lots of Bach and a few other baroque composers, and also some pop music: Beatles, Bowie, The Doors, Neil Young, Nick Drake and other ole man's stuff.

I have no smartphone, and I do not stream. Nevertheless I am happy. I did not stop buying new discs, but in the last 2 years I think I only bought about a dozen. Sometimes I borrow a few from the public library. But mostly I guess I'm mostly happy with what I already have. Maybe this will change again in the future, maybe I'm gonna stream one day. The future's wide open.

By the way:
Has the 21st century already started?
Apologies, I did not notice.

Interesting that the 1987 hardware still works. They built things to last, in those days.

That 1987 player probably has lovely analog circuitry, but the DAC must be pretty primitive, raw 44.1 kHz conversion with analog filtering. Machines of that era could sound lovely, in my experience, but there was some rolloff of high frequency because of the limitation of analog filtering. Probably wouldn't be a problem for my heavily used ears.

[amw]

I cancelled my Qobuz subscription a while back after they removed my subscription tier and bumped me up to a more expensive one. I still occasionally stream from the Deezer free tier but streaming is not the way I prefer to hear music; I want files that I'm guaranteed to have access to regardless of any future decisions by record labels or whether streaming services go out of business (none of them are making a profit, as far as I know) or any arbitrary restrictions record companies might inflict (eg only allowing you to listen to mp3s on streaming sites, or tracks shorter than 10 minutes). So everything that I want, even if I do stream it first to check for quality, ends up in an itunes library where I can just shuffle random groupings of whatever as needed. Currently that's about 143,000 tracks. I anticipate once I have everything I want it'll be closer to 150,000-175,000 but there's obviously no way to predict how my musical tastes will change in the future; if I develop an interest in genres other than classical this could obviously expand indefinitely.

The benefit of streaming is that there's a lot of stuff that is worth listening to maybe once at best, & streaming makes it possible to do so without buying anything.

[Iota]

I stopped really being interested in the physical aspect of recordings when cd's started. Many LP's, classical and rock, were hypnotically lovely to me as I grew up, but that's gone now, and with a very few exceptions I'd be happy to have everything as download/streamed, and release my collection back into the wilderness from whence it came, but that day is probably far off.

[Madiel]

I feel like we should be asking everyone whether they own their own home or just rent. 

[Daverz]

I've mentioned Qobuz quite a bit in the "What are you listening to" thread.  I have the "Studio" plan: hi-rez streaming, but I don't get the discounts on hi-res downloads.  If you like to own the hi-res files, the "Sublime" level is probably very much worth it, because the discounts are pretty deep.

[Mandryka]

The benefit of streaming is that there's a lot of stuff that is worth listening to maybe once at best, & streaming makes it possible to do so without buying anything.

Before streaming, exploring music at home meant building a library of treasured canonical performances which contained experiences so valuable that they repayed repeated listening. People would buy a CD and play it over and over again.  You see it here, with all that talk of "top shelf", "go-to", "top tier" "reference", the way people look for recommendations. This created a fundamental difference between home listening and concert listening. Streaming  replaced that with the concept of home music exploration as a sequence of  ephemeral experience.

[Madiel]

Before streaming, exploring music at home meant building a library of treasured canonical performances which contained experiences so valuable that they repayed repeated listening. People would buy a CD and play it over and over again.  You see it here, with all that talk of "top shelf", "go-to", "top tier" "reference", the way people look for recommendations. This created a fundamental difference between home listening and concert listening. Streaming  replaced that with the concept of home music exploration as a sequence of  ephemeral experience.

Which raises the question of how those performances became 'canonical'.

I do think I relied on reviews a hell of a lot more when I couldn't listen to things myself before purchase. I went through a number of versions of the Penguin Guide for example.

[amw]

I used the library a lot.

[Marc]

Interesting that the 1987 hardware still works. They built things to last, in those days.

That 1987 player probably has lovely analog circuitry, but the DAC must be pretty primitive, raw 44.1 kHz conversion with analog filtering. Machines of that era could sound lovely, in my experience, but there was some rolloff of high frequency because of the limitation of analog filtering. Probably wouldn't be a problem for my heavily used ears.

Interesting.
Indeed, when I listen to this oldie with my headphones plugged in directly, the sound can be discribed as 'warm'. Which isn't all that bad, to be honest. It even 'helps' a bit with f.i. older recordings of Harnoncourt's Concentus Musicus Wien.

[Harry]

Interesting.
Indeed, when I listen to this oldie with my headphones plugged in directly, the sound can be discribed as 'warm'. Which isn't all that bad, to be honest. It even 'helps' a bit with f.i. older recordings of Harnoncourt's Concentus Musicus Wien.

Hi Marc,
Would that be the Philips CD 100 you are currently using, a top loader. I still have that machine, albeit modified with a better DAC. Not using it anymore, but keeping it in my collection of museum pieces. I currently making a display unit in which all the antiquated stereo machinery is stored. I already have quite a few items.

[Marc]

Hi Marc,
Would that be the Philips CD 100 you are currently using, a top loader. I still have that machine, albeit modified with a better DAC. Not using it anymore, but keeping it in my collection of museum pieces. I currently making a display unit in which all the antiquated stereo machinery is stored. I already have quite a few items.

Aha, the "Harry" museum!
Follow the sign:



I do remember the CD 100, iirc it's from the early 1980s.
The one I have is the hugely modern front loader Philips CD 471:

[Daverz]

Before streaming, exploring music at home meant building a library of treasured canonical performances which contained experiences so valuable that they repayed repeated listening. People would buy a CD and play it over and over again.  You see it here, with all that talk of "top shelf", "go-to", "top tier" "reference", the way people look for recommendations. This created a fundamental difference between home listening and concert listening. Streaming  replaced that with the concept of home music exploration as a sequence of  ephemeral experience.

Nonsense.  One can replay to the same recordings from a streaming service again and again just like replaying a CD.  The musical experience is the same.