The Death Of Music Sales

I agree. I think a lot of the magic of current music is lost the way it seems to be piecemealed together during recording and how the final product is mastered. All of it effects the final product and often saps the life right out of it.

That being said, Jason Isbell's Southeastern from 2013 is one of my all-time favorite records with a healthy DR.. So no, I haven't given up or stopped caring, as some would suggest.

 

My friend and I buy new music of the small bands we want to support (and need it), the bigger acts we dont bother with generally. Theyll survive without me or in other words, simply dont care enough about those.

I download, stream, buy second hand vinyl and cds and also buy the occasional new music on either lp or cd. But i really really have to love it to spend that much on one cd. The average price over here for new stuff is 25 euros for new vinyl and thats just a regular record. Around 18 to 20 euros for a new cd. Dont think so.

 

The reason to keep going with physical media? This was posted by a friend of mine today, a perfect example of why I don't go into the Ipod/ Iphone/Cyber/Streaming hoo-ha.


"I thought I'd posted this, but maybe I only talked about it when people send me IMs on here... Last October, I was "lucky" enough to lose most of my massive (digital) music collection due to an operating system upgrade and a data backup failure. I have been rebuilding my 30,000+ track collection since then. I've been re-ripping CDs during all of my free time and am about to go cross-eyed. I'm at the end of the R's (just about to start ripping my David Ruffin solo CDs) and needed to take a break today. I feel as though I'm getting closer to being done, but I have a lot of compilation, "Various Artists" CDs that will take quite a while to get through. Last fall, I bought external backup hard drives and subscribed to an online backup service, so this shouldn't ever be an issue for me again, but it's been a real bitch getting things back to normal. Here's hoping I'll be done by summer!"

 

And notice that in order for it to not happen again, he has to PAY something every month for the rest of his life. NO THANK YOU, SIR!

 

This makes no sense.

Ipod/Iphone- listening on them can be done while keeping you CD collection and only ripping the songs they want to listen to 'on the go'. A CD collection and listening on an ipod are not mutually exclusive.

Cyber- Not sure what this means...many years ago if you asked to cyber on the net you were asking for something a little different than music.

Streaming- Nothing to do with ripping your CD collection.

 

Whereas a massive collection of CDs and LPs, all stored in one location, can never be lost?

That "data backup failure" your friend experienced says nothing about the wisdom of keeping music stored digitally. Only that he hadn't anticipated this problem before it occurred. I would never trust my collection with third-party online storage sites, hence no need to pay a monthly rate. External drives, blu-ray burners and blanks are dead cheap. It is only a question of working out the backup routine that suits you best. For me, that also includes backing up CDs and everything else physical.

 

I had a massive failure of my music server last month. A decade of ripping and tagging lost.

Guess what? I had a backup.

 

I suppose if your house burns down, you can lose it. But if that happens, a music collection would be the least of a person's worries.

 

I suppose if you have little or no knowledge how data backups work, that story could be pretty frightening.

 

You can also buy a backup drive or two and keep them in a separate location. I keep mine in a drawer at work.

 

That's frightening!..........how little people understand about backing up their files so they don't lose it all.

 

I have spotify premium and i use it everyday, to bad so much music are not available there.

 

Spotify premium has replaced my need for a physical music collection.

But, I'll always keep my vinyl records.

 

I once accidentally left my CD wallet on the Metra commuter train - this was probably around 2005 or so. It was a Friday. 20 CDs gone. It took me almost half of Saturday to locate all of those albums online for download.

I eventually recouped the CDs from Metra's Lost & Found department, but that was the exact moment when I learned to stop worrying about stupid things like this.

 

Do they really have that much? Or do you not like anything off the beaten path? Anyway... I'd have much better use for that 120$ a year.

 

I browse quite a few music review sites, this Hoffman board, Discogs, Ebay, my Facebook feed (full of music release news from labels I like), Sly Vinyl, Superdeluxeedition daily, and I read a lot about music and post about it, far far more than I spend actually listening to music. My browse/read to listen ratio would be about 10:1. I pore over Discogs finding new or 2nd hand LPs to buy and when they come in, I give them a good clean, spin them once to make sure no defects, then file them. One of these days, always "one of these days" I'm going to get around to listening to the albums in my vast and ever expanding vinyl collection.

 

"Off the beaten path" is what they excel at, actually.

I've discovered so many obscure albums at Spotify. But, the album has to be in print. The biggies that are missing are The Beatles, ACDC, Peter Gabriel, Bob Seger ... but I have the albums I want from them on vinyl. Spotify will eventually have everyone. And what's cool is you can save all the albums you like for access on and off line, with album covers in alphabetical order you can look through, so it's a personal virtual music collection.

 

Has to be in print? As of right now? Geez, that gets rid of 3/4 of my collection right off the bat. The biggest problem I had with these services when I even considered them was they made you sign up before you could even browse and see what they had. It's like walking into a furniture store, and them making you sign up to recieve their emails before you can look at the couches.

 

Sure. Just like every single album has been released on CD.

Spotify is nice to have but its not going to have everything including obscure material and it will be limited by licensing, exclusive deals, etc.

There's the potential to have everything but that's never going to be the case. I suspect also that more obscure stuff just won't be available as they will go with the most popular artists while others will fall by the wayside.

 

Don't quote me on the 'in print' statement, it just seems that the albums they don't have are the ones you can't find on CD. It's rare I run across one, but when I do, it's one that isn't available on CD.

Spotify is free to check out as long as you want, but with 128 kbps sound and commercials. But, a better idea is to go for the free one month premium subscription with CD-quality sound and all the features. You can spend the month just checking out everything they have.

https://www.spotify.com/us/premium/...defgodH7wAaw&dclid=CJmT1teQwsMCFQuAfgod-YcA9A

Remember to check the 'high quality streaming' box in preferences if you do the 30 day free trial.

 

Well, there's never been anything missing that I've considered a deal breaker. I've been using the service for about 2 years and they just keep acquiring more and more.

Obviously, it's best to hang on to your physical collection if you're worried about what they may not have. My CDs are all boxed up in the garage, and I doubt I'll ever be taking them out to play again.

On Spotify you'll spend a lot of time discovering new music anyway.


I don't mean to sound like a commercial.

 

I don't doubt that they have a good selection. I keep my CDs on display and will occasionally find something I just want to play but usually I'll either use my ipod, ipad or iphone to listen to stuff (or my computer) however, having said that, I've found that there is some pretty obscure stuff that is missing that I enjoy.

At the end of the day, I doubt they'll have everything I enjoy.

 

It will be like classic rock radio is today. No thanks.

 

Haha.. they won't! I just took the plunge and looked, at least you can sign up and browse with Facebook, so that made it easy enough to do. One group I love that I'd like to get more of is the 5th Dimension. Out of 10 studio albums (of the original group) they have "The Magic Garden", and a greatest hits package. Big whooptie-doo.

 

I just checked. spotify has what appears to be nearly their entire discography, including a truckload of obsolete 'greatest hits' packages. (missing is love garden, which I'm unfamiliar with.)

for the record, an album does not need to be in physical print to be on spotify. far from it--I'm always surprised at the level of obscurity available on the service. it goes a lot deeper than the 5th dimension.