Is everyone using music subscription services these days?

Great point those last two sentences, wish I'd said that. I was a bit remiss.

 

There are folks who say collecting LPs is crazy too. Then again, all things retro eventually have a built in kewl factor. Streaming is convenient, but sound quality isn't dependable. Also, folks who place themselves in the hands of a service provider are always at the mercy of fee changes, music being withdrawn and even the service being bought or shut down for whatever reason.


Cat

 

No.

 

Hell no.

 

Used to use Spotify to try before buying, but also sometimes to check if a digital version would improve on the particular vinyl copy I had (as I was vinyl only until a few years ago). I don't know if they still do but they sometimes had information regarding the label/year of issue so I'd get an idea of what a CD with the same details would sound like. But the desktop version just takes so long to launch with all the irritating suggestions that I cancelled my subscription and don't even use the free version now. Youtube covers the need to check out new sounds just fine.

Oh should add that after coming here and learning about loudness, standard newly remastered CDs were no longer the first place I looked to improve on what vinyl I already had, so another reason to stop using spotify.

 

I use amazon and Apple sometimes Spotify when traveling and checking out new music

 

Other than the channels Dish offers, no.

 

Do these services burn coal or oil?

 

hardly remiss ~ on the contrary, it is the context of your post that is constructively persuasive.

 

My wife listens to spotify but when I tried to set up an account and found out they were missing nearly 25 of my favourite 100 songs I bowed out.

 

I had a Spotify subscription for a couple of years. At first it was great ("so much music to stream!") but surprisingly found that I was using it less and less. I've been downloading from Bandcamp so much lately that I never got around to using Spotify, so cancelled my subscription last week.

--Geoff

 

No. I do have Amazon Prime, which I’ll occasionally use to sample an album I don’t have, but I use YouTube for that way more often.

 

Using?
No way josie.

 

"Everyone"? I don't think so.
I do and especially since ECM is represented quite nicely on Spotify I'm quite happy with my subscription!
It's a great way to browse and sample through stuff. For serious listening sessions there's still vinyl and cd's; for most of the other moments Spotify is a nice medium, I think.

 

About music as background filler you might be about 40 years too late for that argument. Buying LPs and cd's is a thing for the few now.
The medium just differs every time. I think a service like Spotify is a step up from illegal downloads/copying cds. Not a large step up, but a step up anyway. I think artistic expression and medium are interlinked, but the impact of an artistic impression is not less powerful when listened to in a ''lesser'' medium. I first heard Talk Talk 'Spirit of Eden' on a cassette playing on a ghetto-blaster; it had a profound effect on me!

 

I just use the free Spotify app if I want to check something out, but no subscriptions.

 

I started with Tidal and now on Spotify Premium. Frankly, I am listening less and less to my physical media as a result. The experience has reinvigorated a zest to explore new music and genres much like what I went through when I was much younger. And I spend more time listening now since I can access the stream anytime indoors or out. I understand people have an attachment to physical media but for me, access to so much music is much more important and meaningful.

 

New things will come along too. I do worry for the future of quality audio and the notion of the home hifi. The cell phone and a pair of cheap headphones are all the audio gear most young people need. But even I think that for casual listening and for the music lover on a budget, streaming services are wonderfully convenient and cheap and those are usually the top qualities in driving consumer adoption of this sort of thing.

 

I think Spotify is great and use it a lot. Still buy cd s though mostly boxed set that has much more content than the music.
Since I still own loads of cd s I play them more than Spotify. But for new music streaming is great.

 

I don't know if the notion of permanence in music is that much different than it ever was. Most music is used functionally -- people use it for background, to set a mood, for dancing and other social functions; they use it for worship; they use it to help their kids sleep; or distract them while their doing other things like commuting or flying on a plane. It's not art music for art's sake, nor has most music ever been used by people sitting down and doing nothing but listening to it, even if the creators are driven by a mix of artistic and commercial concern. And when the social purpose is done, the audience moves on to other things. And I think that's been true of music for 3,000 years of human history. Most of the music ever made is lost. But then even some times things that were thought of as ephemeral in their time wind up saved and cherished -- we're still watching Honeymooners episodes, for example, or Buster Keaton movies, and museums of art are filled with the likes of, I dunno, pre-Columbian drinking vessels in the shape of turtles that certainly were made principally for a functional purpose and now are objects d'art, not because audiences in their day collected them and owned copies of them.

 

No. Never used services, and I suspect I never will.

Sure it's very easy way to get the music, however it's always been more than that for me......the artwork, sleevenotes packaging are as much of the experience than just the music........sorry I enjoy the physicality of receiving a new album, opening it and listening to it and enjoying the work gone into the whole package.

 

Thanks for your response. I did want to know what your thoughts were.

 

Which I think is part of the demise of music as an activity for focused enjoyment.

As a recent NPR article on music access overload stated- "music has become Muzak".

 

Yes, I have an Apple Music subscription.

I buy as many new CD's as I've ever done, so at least in a small way I know my favourite artists are still getting some money from me, as it seems very little filters down to them from streaming.

 

If you're abhorred by the notion that you're paying for nothing and at the end of the day you'll have been ripped off by Spotify with nothing tangible to show but the shirt on your back -

*Spotify is free*

If you get a subscription you can even nix the commercials and listen on the go without WiFi or data!