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    music streaming

    just trying to get up to date and about to buy a new amp and speakers

    any adviuce on the best streaaming service for good quality dowloads at a reasonable price?.

    #2
    music streaming

    I've had a three month free trial with Google Music which is just coming to an end. I will probably subscribe.

    What started me with them was the ability to upload tens of thousands of my own tracks (7,500 and counting so far) for free and of late I've been enjoying going through albums I'd thought about buying for years and discovering there were only a handful that seemed really worth it.

    Trouble is, if each one is £7.50 and my monthly subscription would be £10, doesn't seem a lot of point buying as I don't tend to listen "off grid" much.

    What are others' feelings / experiences on different services or on the rent/buy conundum more generally? Call me old fashioned, but one concern I have with streaming is how do the artists get paid (apart from badly)?

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      #3
      music streaming

      I really liked rdio, but rdio went bust (my liking was more that they beat my works firewall than anything).

      If you want the highest quality then Tidal is probably worth it - they have caught up on the majority of contracts with spotify now.

      I haven't really worked out my feelings on the payment side. It is a completely different model that removes all the second hand market and home taping killing music. I feel if I can get to gigs of bands I like it probably does more for them than buying albums ever did.

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        #4
        music streaming

        On the point of paying for music, wherever possible I try to obtain it from a source as close to the band as possible, i.e. from their label's website or their own store.

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          #5
          music streaming

          My main problem with streaming is that I feel it generally devalues music and our (maybe just 'my') connection to it. If I buy an album (especially on a physical format), I will listen to it multiple times, giving every track a chance even if I don't like it that much the first few times, and pore over every detail of the music, lyrics, artwork. There are plenty of albums/tracks that reward repeated listens, and that I would probably have overlooked if I hadn't invested time and attention in them (which in turn I wouldn't have done if I hadn't paid money for them.)

          If I have all music available at my disposal (and this applies to illegal downloads too), I find that I will just flick between tracks and nothing sticks with me the same way. If a track doesn't click with me after a couple of listens I will probably never choose to listen to it again. And instead of consciously choosing to put on a particular album or song and actually listen to it, it encourages me to just have an endless stream of music playing in the background.

          Now I'm sure some people have more discipline, but I've found that for me, while it allows access to a lot more music, it massively reduces how much attention I actually pay to it or how much joy it gives me. I have mostly gone back to listening to records and CDs because it makes me appreciate the music that much more. [/dinosaur]

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            #6
            music streaming

            Good post. I basically feel the same.

            (or "This." if you prefer.)

            I use Google Music (yes, evil bastards) now to store my collection in the cloud, and purchase from the Google store (when it is not available direct from the artist - not always perfect on this point, alas).

            I'm not a big fan of just streaming music (like a radio station), and I'm especially not a big fan of paying for it (at is seems there is enough other ways to do that).

            But, like TV, I expect all will be subscription in not too many years.

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              #7
              music streaming

              I pay for a Spotify premium family account so P and I can listen on different devices to different stuff at the same time.
              I've basically gone from buying 5 - 10 cds a month to perhaps 1 a year. Although that started well before Spotify came along, I guess.

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                #8
                music streaming

                Spotify and Deezer are about a tenner per month.

                Tribal premium is 26 pm

                Does anyone know if the sound quality can justify the difference

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                  #9
                  music streaming

                  If you can hear the difference between lossless and 320kbps you're a better person than I.
                  So no, not really.

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                    #10
                    music streaming

                    Thanks for the tips

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                      #11
                      music streaming

                      I'm not of much help with choosing between services. I have a free Spotify account but since I'm not on Facebook, Spotify is constantly a pain in the ass and so I rarely use it. I tend to preview music that I read about or that I'm not interested in buying but want to hear from time to time via Bandcamp or Youtube. For example, I hear a Selena Gomez song I like, I'll listen via Youtube but no way I'm buying that. Whereas, I read about an underground rap CD or find out about an alt.country band then I'll buy the CD.

                      With that out of the way, I can add a bit more to the philosophical question. My big issue with streaming is that bands are losing royalties from sales in this new economy. Streaming is akin to radio play. Bands have historically earned publishing royalties radio play but that's chump change. Currently most streaming royalties are also chump change (e.g., 6.5 million streams of Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" via Pandora paid out a whopping $110USD in 2012--which I know is older data but that's a huge band so what is small band X from Sheffield earning from Pandora or Spotify? Pennies.) And bands have always earned those royalties + sales from records/CDs/tapes. I get that many people think the man (i.e., corporate record label) is seeing all of the money and it's true that most major label record deals are bad for most bands but band's can't see royalties if debts aren't repaid via music sales. Streaming fu**s with the ability for bands to break even. The analogy I use is that if you rent a house from someone and withhold rent because you want to stick it to the bank that owns the mortgage, you might be hurting the bank but you're mostly hurting the person who owns the house who is now going to get her/his house foreclosed. Of course, bands are stupid and sign these deals. Some bands are greedy but some bands understand that indie labels are also equally bent and indie labels can't get bands on the radio or on tours or hooked up with good video directors, etc.

                      All of that is to say that I think we're in a messed up state for musicians right now and too many people have a skewed logic about music that doesn't transfer to other areas. Nobody would say: I should be able to have designer furniture for free or I should be able to take artist x's painting home for free, yet music seems to be treated as a product that should be free. Given all of that, I agree with what others have said about trying to buy directly from a band. They see more money that way. But I also like to buy here and there from independent record stores to keep them going as well.

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                        #12
                        music streaming

                        hobbes wrote: If you can hear the difference between lossless and 320kbps you're a better person than I.
                        No but the dog can.

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                          #13
                          music streaming

                          Is it worth making the argument that if you start streaming an album today, and do so consistently for the next 20 or more years, you'll end up paying the same sort of revenue to a band that buying their CD would?

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                            #14
                            music streaming

                            have signed up to tidal - 3 month free trial then 20 pm.

                            just installed new streaming amp - naim unitiqute with a pair of kef speakers.

                            Sound is best I've had through any system I've ever owned.

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                              #15
                              music streaming

                              I think if you can go high end on everything, it's worth doing.

                              These days most of my listening is under the following conditions.

                              1) at work via headphones in snatches when I'm at my desk

                              2) at home from a laptop via a headphone out analogue cable connection to a base unit and thence a pair of (good) wireless digital headphones

                              3) in a car with a smallish engine on dual carriageways, sometimes using a Cowon mp3 player on max volume via its headphone out and the stereo's aux connection

                              I think tidal might be wasted on me.

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                                #16
                                music streaming

                                UB40 earworm: The Earth Dies Streaming

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                                  #17
                                  music streaming

                                  I'm rewarding myself for having got kids off my hands, moving out of London and finally after 10 years being able to move into a house of my own.

                                  TV banished to the study and I can relax on the sofa and listen to anything I like.

                                  Almost worth the wait. Feels fucking fantastic

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                                    #18
                                    music streaming

                                    And what are you listening to?

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                                      #19
                                      music streaming

                                      Land Waster wrote: Is it worth making the argument that if you start streaming an album today, and do so consistently for the next 20 or more years, you'll end up paying the same sort of revenue to a band that buying their CD would?
                                      Well, I guess that may or may not equal the sale of a CD but not if you are buying the CD directly from the band and the band also has to wait 20 years to get their 5.99-15.99 depending on the price of the CD. See my reference to Bon Jovi's Pandora payout for "Living on a Prayer" above.

                                      I don't know if Tidal is better than Spotify or Pandora and I don't know if Youtube is better.

                                      BTW, I have friend who runs his own advice-oriented website. He works directly with Google advertising and said he gets checks every month from them for ads on his site since he generates a decent amount of traffic. With this in mind, some bands might be smarter setting up their own streams and working with advertisers directly to make more money. I hadn't really thought about that until I started replying to this post. I'd be curious to see if the bands that are "swimming in a river of nickels," to quote a Ben Sisario line in the NYT a couple years back about Spotify, could start swimming in an ocean of dollars if they tried to generate their own income via ads handled by Google (or some other company).

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                                        #20
                                        music streaming

                                        Last night:

                                        Cannonball adderly -Mercy Mercy Mercy
                                        Lou Rawl - dead end street
                                        Randy Crawford - street life
                                        Stan Getz - Girl from Ipenema
                                        Rose Royce - Car Wash
                                        Incognito - still a friend of mine
                                        Nina Simone - Baltimore
                                        Astrid Gilberto - Girl from Ipenema
                                        British Sea Power - Sea of Brass
                                        The libertines - can't stand you now
                                        Jimmy Summerville - ain't necessarily so
                                        Rokia Traore - Tu Voles
                                        De la Soul - The Magic Number
                                        Bombino -Nomad (album)
                                        Paloma Faith - only love can hurt like this
                                        Henrick Gorecki - Symphony no 3
                                        Dave Brubeck - Take five

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                                          #21
                                          music streaming

                                          I'm loving the Paloma-Gorecki combo.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            music streaming

                                            It's a natural flow.

                                            All without leaving the sofa as I downed a bottle of Malbec.

                                            I sure know how to live.

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