[Closed] Streaming music vs owning an album

Make a playlists called 'most frequently played'.

Sorted.

Stream first, if it's good then buy, ideally on vinyl via the lovely chaps at my local record shop.

Only the very biggest artists make any real money from streaming, happy to fund the smaller guys and keep them making music by buying a proper copy.

Most Vinyl comes with a download code now so I have MP'3s for when I'm out and about or at work.

I don't use any streaming services, but then again the music I listen has a slightly different culture to music that involves having a typical band format.

As such, i own a metric shiton of MP3's and vinyl. Which is a massive pain to catalogue and keep track of mentally - especially if there is a one-off release by "Unknown Artist" (happens more than you'd think).

But I much prefer ownership every time. My music collection is unique to me. There are tracks in my collection you simply can't find on the internet just due to the fact it was a 200 vinyl release and never got ripped & uploaded.

Plus I love record shops, both physical and digital.

I don't use any streaming services, but then again the music I listen has a slightly different culture to music that involves having a typical band format.

Go on...

[i]I think it gets lost in a huge online library as opposed to a piece of vinyl on my "most frequently played" pile[/i]

I get this, massively, and I don't stream anything! Mine gets lost on my NAS library....
Always on the search for new stuff, so I listen to something, get the downloads, then move on... continually. I always think I'm going to miss out on new releases, so many things don't get a second listen unless I make a point of it (like I am at this moment, funnily enough).
I do buy CD or vinyl of "special" things just so i have that reminder.
Wish I could slow down!

I don't get vinyl.

Or rather, I do, in that I get that they're nice, tangible objects (I loved Laserdisc for this), I get that there's an element of nostalgia, and I get that there's something nice about the whole ritual of putting on a record and listening to an album, turning it into an experience.

I understand all of that. But they need a massive expenditure in decent kit to get the best out of them, and they still sound like shit. You could recreate the audio quite simply by putting on a CD whilst rolling a bowling ball across a laminate floor and frying chips.

As for the OP,

One thing I've noticed is that buying an album makes you invested in it. In the past I've bought things I've not liked, and thought "well, I've just paid over a tenner for this," listened to it constantly for a few weeks and ended up really liking it. With streaming it becomes disposable, "meh, next."

I also don't remember the last time I actually listened to an album (probably last summer when I was running). I've got a Spotify playlist which is, broadly, ever album I've ever bought. I stick that on, hit "shuffle" and then just hit "skip" if I get a filler track or something I'm not in the mood for. It's like listening to the radio, it's turned a "pull" activity into a "push" one. I should probably do something about that.

I've gone full cycleon this and around again.

Started with vinyl when its all there was, moved to cassette when everyone did, then back to vinyl, them to CD, then to downloads, then to streaming, then back to vinyl now settled on CD again.

With CD's you get that I am listening to music feeling, you get something physical but with the faff of vinyl.

(edit..also back catalogue CD's are also a fiver, same thing on vinyl is £20+)

Go on...

Nothing special, just dance music, house/techno/disco/etc , but in dance music the primary way to consume tracks is via a DJ mix which last anywhere from 30 minutes to 9 hours. You can't find those on Spotify as far as I know.

You'd rarely listen to a single track start to finish. You go to Soundcloud, Mixcloud, blogs, Podcasts etc and sit into the mix.

Dance music is also very grass roots and homegrown. You got guys in bedrooms releasing tracks on a label run by two guys and a dog, who go to a local mastering engineer whos this 60 year old bloke in a semidetached house who has his own cutting lathe, and then they get 500 pressed up and get the center label hand stamped by a group of gypsy kids over at the skatepark... you know?

I don't use streaming services. Many musicians are very much against as the revenues are minimal. I still purchase music not oeast as I like to listen to it in places with no wifi / mobile reception.

I tried the streaming services but got stuck with indecision paralysis every time I wanted to listen to music. I mean, how do you choose from all the music ever*?

I buy downloads now, from bandcamp or direct from artist where possible.

I feel like I'm pretty prehistoric in my music purchasing habits although its changing.

Got Spotify a few months back and despite being reluctant at first, I'm starting to listen and discover all sorts of stuff. If its something I really like I'll generally buy the album physically whether its from Amazon, HMV on my lunchtime, something from the local record shop if I'm passing or to be honest, eBay gets a good hiding these days, mostly from Music Magpie...

not oeast as I like to listen to it in places with no wifi / mobile reception.

Spotify Premium lets you create offline playlists; no reception required*.

(* - Phil Collins' follow-up album)

I tried Spotify, but cancelled. I was just using it to listen to stuff that I'd read reviews of. And the reviews hardly ever made sense to what I was listening to. (Not like in the old NME days! 😆 )
And what was I going to do if I liked something on Spotify? Buy it to add to my collection! 😕

And what was I going to do if I liked something on Spotify? Buy it to add to my collection!

Add it as an album and carry on listening to it perhaps!?

I've started buying vinyl again though as I wasn't giving albums a chance. You just flick through them on Spotify or just move on to the next thing.

[i]Add it as an album and carry on listening to it perhaps!?[/i]

Well, that's obviously why Spotify doesn't suit me. 😉

I only listen to music recorded on wax cylinder.

The advent of vinyl just ruined everything for me, and its been downhill ever since

I don't get vinyl.

Or rather, I do, in that I get that they're nice, tangible objects (I loved Laserdisc for this), I get that there's an element of nostalgia, and I get that there's something nice about the whole ritual of putting on a record and listening to an album, turning it into an experience.

I've just bought another record deck after 15 years. I would agree with all your points, but the best for me is the tangible link between something physical and my memories. I just can't see that ever happening with Spotify or upnp. Browsing in a record shop is much more fun than doing random searches. I'm pretty happy with the performance of the deck. It has to compete with a digital source which cost 10x more, yet still I choose to play records.

I use Spotify a lot, to keep an eye on new releases and follow links to similar artists from my favourite bands. Waiting for hi-if to come out now.I do think they're missing a journalist based front end, something like pitchfork would be great.

Tried spotify but didn't take to it

Spotify Premium lets you create offline playlists

sounds good but I can't predict what I'm going to want to listen to. If I always had a data connection/wifi it would have been ideal

Last vinyl record I bought had no pops or crackles on it at all. Neither did the old Primal Scream 12" I played after watching the making of Screamadelica on telly. Sounded very good. Almost as good as a 196Kps MP3 through my Bluetoof speaker 😀

I don't get vinyl.

For me the whole point of vinyl is to spend a night with your wife/partner/mate, a bottle or two of booze and/or other drug of choice, thumbing through the collection, sticking on random tracks that appeal/can be sung along to/danced to/remind you of some place/time/thing/boy girl, then discarding the record on the floor somewhere, to replace with the next one that takes somebody's fancy, repeating ad nauseam.

Until the next morning when you pick them up off the lounge floor to put them all back in their sleeves, bemoaning the new scratches. Excepting the one that ended up in the toaster. And the one that ended up in pieces on the back lawn after being used as a frisbee.

slightly tongue in cheek, but broadly true. For other listening, there's Spotify.

I find purchasing music quite difficult nowadays. I want to go to record shops and purchase a physical product like I always used to do, but the trouble is that product isn't always the best you can get - as you can often download higher resolution files. I wish shops sold usb drives with master files on, or even just a fancy booklet and poster with a download code.

As for vinyl, yes it costs a lot to get something sounding good but so does digital. And I think the distortions of vinyl can be more pleasing than the distortion/noise of digital. The size of record covers were always a great package and everyone loves browsing through them. Plus they are marketed as cool and that means a lot more than anything. But I find it mad that you can pay nearly 3 times for a vinyl record cut from a wav file than that actual master wav.

I like streaming for discovering music and checking it out before hand, but I would rather 'own' the music. If the services stop for whatever reason you will be lost without music, which is not something I could deal with.

[i]But I find it mad that you can pay nearly 3 times for a vinyl record cut from a wav file than that actual master wav[/i]

3 times more? 3 times more for a circle of vinyl cut into a physical artifact, "Porky Prime Cut" hand etched into the run-out groove, slid into a paper sleeve, lyric sheet inserted, inside a 12" square of glossy cardboard with original artwork printed in beautiful full colour on both sides ... 3 times more than a computer file?? Sounds like a bloody bargain!

Nothing special, just dance music, house/techno/disco/etc , but in dance music the primary way to consume tracks is via a DJ mix which last anywhere from 30 minutes to 9 hours. You can't find those on Spotify as far as I know.

Fair enough.

You know with Deezer/Spotify etc you can upload your own mp3s. Best of both worlds....kind of.

sounds good but I can't predict what I'm going to want to listen to.

Just save it all offline then. Premium streaming services have not taken away the ability to have your entire music collection in your pocket. The capacity of your smartphone, on the other hand...

It's considerably less faff than recording your vinyl onto a C90 then trying to decide which cassettes to take on your travels, which was the height of mobile music when I was a kid.

I listen to a mixture of formats. Spotify, CD and vinyl.
Spotify for convenience and exploring new stuff.
Vinyl - I've got my old collection back on the go and tend to buy LPs to fill in gaps from the past that at the time I never bought (mainly due to lack of funds as a kid) Listening to vinyl has also been great at getting back into listening to whole albums properly.
CD's for the bulk of what I want. It's a great time to buy CD's - they're almost giving them away compared to past prices.

..., inside a 12" square of glossy cardboard with original artwork printed in beautiful full colour on both sides ... 3 times more than a computer file?? Sounds like a bloody bargain!

My point:- 3 times more for a product which is going through a process which will mean it will always sound inferior. In other words, you don't care that you're messing up the master, you want something physical, like a sculpture or a picture or a vase, which you consider a work of art because you can see and touch it.

So the market should come up with a product which gives this to people, and which gives the music lovers what they want.

[i]it will always sound inferior[/i] + [i]and which gives the music lovers what they want.[/i]

It's not the "music lovers" you're thinking of, it's the hi-fi obsessives who call themelves audiophiles. They are looking for something different to 'music lovers'.

sounds good but I can't predict what I'm going to want to listen to. If I always had a data connection/wifi it would have been ideal

I'm clearly missing something here, how does your way get around this? Do you carry a couple of hundred CDs with you everywhere?

Locally stored music is locally stored music, whether it's original source was Spotify or an mp3. If you had sufficient storage space, you could create an offline playlist of "my entire music collection" if you wanted.

It's not the "music lovers" you're thinking of, it's the hi-fi obsessives who call themelves audiophiles. They are looking for something different to 'music lovers'.

Yes, an air of smug superiority.

I've access to Spotify, CDs and occasionally vinyl. I'm not bothered in the slightest what the format is TBH for me it makes no impact at all on the point of the exersize (listening to music)

For me the whole point of vinyl is to spend a night with your wife/partner/mate, a bottle or two of booze and/or other drug of choice, thumbing through the collection, sticking on random tracks that appeal/can be sung along to/danced to/remind you of some place/time/thing/boy girl, then discarding the record on the floor somewhere, to replace with the next one that takes somebody's fancy, repeating ad nauseam.

Similar but...Chromecast in the TV and everyone taking turns to pick the next you-tube video to stream from their phone

I'm all about the streaming.

Being the wrong side of 30 I rarely find new music these days, but it does happen.

Most often it's a case of listening to the radio and hearing something for the first time in years and remembering how much I loved it, it goes onto my playlist - it's pretty short. 46 Tracks at the moment, it’s never more than 100. In few weeks / months / maybe a year I'll be completely bored of it again. Once I notice I always skip that track, it's gone - back into the wilderness, it might come back in a few years, it may never come back.

I used to buy tracks, I've converted the hundreds of CDs I owned into MP3s, my iTunes account holds god knows how many, but I prefer this new streaming format, being tight I used to buy the tracks and never delete them, even though I knew I wouldn't have to pay for them again if I wanted them again because it seemed wasteful.

I've zero interest in vinyl, at worst it seems pretentious to me, at best I was very glad to be free of physical media so I could choose to play this track or that, in that order - not listen to the two singles amongst 15 deep cuts of someone’s album. I know that's not very 'real music fan' but perhaps I'm not, I just want to listen to something whilst I cook or cock about in the gym, not listen to someone heart felt plans for a loved one.

jambalaya - Member
I still purchase music not oeast as I like to listen to it in places with no wifi / mobile reception.

download for offline use.

Cougar - Moderator
You could recreate the audio quite simply by putting on a CD whilst rolling a bowling ball across a laminate floor and frying chips.

😆

Personally I love streaming services. I was always a destroyer of CDs(aye those indestructible items! 😆 ).

I binned all my CD's around not long after the turn of the millenium.

Could never be arsed with the flaff of taking CD's in and out of cases and whatnot. So they invariable end up a riot.

I used to illegally download before the invention of steaming services mind.

But streaming services are great, no fuss, can get most things I want and all my music is just there in my pocket whenever I need it(and organised, organsing mp3s was a pain too). Doesn't really get any better!

Many musicians are very much against as the revenues are minimal.

I was thinking about this the other day. Does anyone know what the revenues are like, compared to a physical album purchase?

You might only get a fraction of the CD revenue for someone streaming one track, but the track might be played 100 times. Do they get the payment 100 times? Or do they get 5p for the first play, 1p for the next 5 plays by that user, then 0.1p for any more after that?

Much less than that.

Other factors also come into play, like the country in which a song was streamed and the currency value in that country. Still, Spotify admits the average "per stream" payout to rights holders lands somewhere between $0.006 and $0.0084. Here's what that means for me.

An album I really liked was played (on vinyl) at a house party I was at on Saturday night. Streaming services meant that I was able to listen to it at home on Sunday.

And I'm listening to it now at work.

Does anyone know what the revenues are like, compared to a physical album purchase?

Even before streaming services, musicians' contracts were generally pretty crap so they didn't make that much off the sale of a physical album either.

inside a 12" square of glossy cardboard with original artwork printed in beautiful full colour on both sides

This is the only attraction to vinyl these days. I have some albums I won't part with just because of the sleeve. I don't listen to 'em though, I put the CD on.

Have had Spotify for a while - was using it to listen mostly to stuff i already have in other formats.

Having recently bought a car that has capacity for just 1 CD, I hooked up my phone via Bluetooth/FM to play music I'd downloaded to the phone. Spotify has let me build huge mix tapes of stuff I've liked over the years, download those to my phone and play them at my convenience.

Setting up a family account, with 3 growing kids should save us both some cash and some storage issues longer term...

Definitely a recent convert

Never used a streaming service and never will do. I do not want to be tied to paying a subscription

I will always buy my music on some form of hard copy and if I choose to, then rip to mp3 for the phone

i remember looking forward to get a cd, which at the time was silly money and thumbing through the booklet and looking at the cover and print on the cd itself. then after a few months it would start to skip or you would go to play it and your brother/sister/mate had stole the disc out of the sleeve.

Used Spotify briefly years ago.

Not a fan of streaming. No real reason, just because...

Do maintain a Google Music account for easy access to my purchased and uploaded stuff, but don't stream any 'external' content through it.

Love to buy a physical thing, whether vinyl or CD. Use the download codes to grab portable versions, but nearly always use the physical thing if listening at home (grew up in the original death throes of vinyl and still like the ritual associated with listening to it).

Even like the dirty sound of vinyl played on bog standard kit (totally different IMO to the harsh, 'clean' dirtiness of lower bitrate .mp3).

[i] after a few months it would start to skip [/i]

Got 100s of CDs, can't remember any skipping. Must have had a dodgy player.

usic and Spotify have been my 21st Century record shop. On balance I've wasted a lot less money on crap.

I very rarely spend money on crap these days, but I still regularly spend a fair bit on music, in a physical format, I really can't be doing with streaming. Yes, I can download stuff, but so what, I can just add more music from my ever expanding iTunes library to my phone, which already has as much music on it than I could listen to in a week, and when I upgrade to a new phone later this year, which will have 256Gb of storage, I will be able to carry my entire library, should I wish to - I won't, because some music just doesn't work well when being carried around, like entire symphonies, for example.
And streaming hasn't the quality of CD's ripped at 320Kb, although I know you can get lossless files, they take up much more space and don't sound any better, a fact that's been shown quite a few times, I've proved it to myself, I honestly cannot hear any difference between a 329 AAC file and an Apple Lossless or a FLAC file, through a pair of £350 UE triple driver monitors.
Also, it's just not possible to go up to one of your favourite artists and shove a memory stick with some Spotify playlists on and ask them to sign it, they're much more receptive to a small pile of their back catalogue on CD or even vinyl. Murray and Natalia of The Dears were chuffed to bits that I took along all their back catalogue a couple of weeks ago, it was the first time I'd met them in the twenty-odd years they'd been recording, that's were the connection comes that isn't there with just streaming stuff.
Another singer/songwriter I know was talking about getting a million streams of a track from her new EP, she earned less than £20, AFAIK.
That is just immoral.
With streaming, it's just another disposable commodity, there's no personal investment involved, nothing meaningful, it's all just wallpaper with no emotion.

with streaming, it's just another disposable commodity there's no personal investment involved, nothing meaningful, it's all just wallpaper with no emotion.

This is misty eyed bollards to be fair, music's emotional content has **** all to do with what format it's presented on

Getting stuff signed by the artist is not something I understand. I've had plenty of chats with bands at gigs and remember them nicely enough without having to come across as a little fanboy autograph hunter (bit like getting a selfie with them, I reckon.)

If it weren't for Spotify I wouldn't have discovered the awesome that is Synthwave.

It analysed what I listened to and put together a mix for me, I ticked the tracks I liked, and it then found more stuff etc etc. I've now got an awesome collection of artists I'd previously never heard of (and probably never would have!). I've been fortunate enough to see some of these artists live in the past 6 months.

I'm basically stating this for the people on here who don't use streaming services. They are so convenient too, especially when you want to listen to music at work without the required thought process of choosing what specifically to listen to.

When I go to gigs I refuse to even look at the band, attention seeking bastards that they are. Sometimes I just put my hoody up and face the bar all night.

Never used a streaming service and never will do. I do not want to be tied to paying a subscription

A basic Spotify sub is free, so long as you don't mind the occasional advert.

And streaming hasn't the quality of CD's ripped at 320Kb

Spotify "high quality" is 320Kbps, IIRC (Ogg Vorbis I think).

Problem I found with Spotify is for albums there can be rights issues where certain tracks have different rights and are missing in your country. It's not so bad for the majority of typical users who just listen to random tracks, not albums, and mostly new music. More annoying for my kind of use. Always full albums and mostly old music.

That said I do stream. From my NAS and/or from Onedrive where I can dump my music on my 1TB storage and it becomes available in stuff like the Groove app. Doesn't matter about rights, it's just available and I can make it offline if I want. I don't do app streaming much though. I mainly stream FLAC files from my NAS to one or more devices around the house. All ripped from CDs, which I then own forever and cannot have them disappear due to rights issues, expiry of service or lost internet connection.