Owned physical media and/or downloaded music vs streaming services.

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Price.pittsburgh, Oct 28, 2017.

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  1. Plectrum Electrum

    Plectrum Electrum Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    No problem :)

    You're right - I don't know if I'm getting the full quality I'm paying for. In fact, from time to time I'll notice a split-second 'jump' where the quality increases slightly (more high-end). This is probably the bitrate fluctuation you're talking about. With that said, I still feel like I get good value for my money. I do respect people like yourself who prefer to stay physical, though. I still love CDs myself :)
     
  2. jgkojak

    jgkojak Mull of Kansas

    Location:
    Lawrence, KS
    My problem with streaming is that you can't specify versions. I'm picky about the things I care about (Beatles, Dylan) and know what released version I want to hear.
     
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  3. Dynamic Ranger

    Dynamic Ranger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Old Town, Maine
    Whether it's good sound, or crappy sound. Oh well. The fact of the matter is, it's still not the real thing. It doesn't become a part of you, or have sentimental value the way physical media does. Streaming is the devil! It's all about portability and a quick fix. It's easily disposable, and you can't collect it, or treasure it. And that's not fun.
     
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  4. Plectrum Electrum

    Plectrum Electrum Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    This is one bugbear I have with it. Often (certainly on Deezer) they'll have the latest remaster up, and no other versions.
     
    ukrules likes this.
  5. Yost

    Yost “It’s only impossible until it’s not”

    Maybe I should add that I listen to music on the go on an iPhone with 128 GB of memory. 81 of those GBs is music from my own library. I could stream while on the road, but I hardly need it. :cool:
     
  6. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    Thank god there is now a thread for people to bitch about how awful streaming is. I feel like listening to this band who only had one good song. I better start saving up to buy that $50 out of print CD.

    Sure does appear that many of the ones talking as though streaming is the devil are the same exact ones who are so proud of not listening to or liking any new music.
     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2017
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  7. HotelYorba101

    HotelYorba101 Senior Member

    Location:
    California
    I really do disagree that "it doesn't become a part of you or have sentimental value". And I disagree that it is easily disposable

    The past few years I have had made so many great positive and warm musical memories that have come from listening to them via streaming services or digitally. And it has brought me joy and it means a lot to me. Are you saying that because that wonderful music is in a different medium, that all the sudden it loses its meaning in the world?

    For some people, I have noticed they care about collecting music most. I care about experiencing music first and foremost, everything else is secondary

    Calling it "not the real thing" is a musical "true Scottsman fallacy", to me if you are listening to music regardless of the medium, it is the real thing.
     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2017
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  8. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    Physical media only. I do use an iPod (in the car), but every album or song (7,000) was loaded from a cd (or cdr).
     
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  9. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    Microsoft's OneDrive has supported streaming your own uploaded music for about two years now.
     
  10. Dynamic Ranger

    Dynamic Ranger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Old Town, Maine
    What can I say, modernity sucks!
     
  11. RoyalScam

    RoyalScam Luckless Pedestrian

    Bingo.

    I also use it to listen around the house and on the go. The immediacy and more-than-simply-decent sound quality of Spotify Premium makes it the best $10 I spend all month. But it will NEVER replace my physical collection.

    And here's why: I won't wake up one day and not have access to my Prince CDs (short of thievery, or CD rot). But I did lose access to it on Spotify for a long period. If I want to hear Robbie Dupree's "Steal Away" or Michael McDonald's "Sweet Freedom", I can't do that on Spotify (currently)...but it's right there on my shelves.

    Streaming is a supplement, not a replacement.
     
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  12. MikeManaic61

    MikeManaic61 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    Streaming isn't all that bad but like others said it's used to demo albums you're not sure about. On some services, they have a "shuffle only" option which doesn't work out for some songs sequence into each other (Dark Side of the Moon for example).
     
  13. HotelYorba101

    HotelYorba101 Senior Member

    Location:
    California
    Honestly though, its really doesn't! I am so thankful for modern technology and as a musician and a music lover I find it all really exciting. Perfect, no. But its a fun time to be living in, and I embrace it all

    I feel like those most bashful of anything modern tend to have the least experience with utilizing/experiencing it to its full potential in the first place
     
  14. Wild Horse

    Wild Horse Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    I love streaming, so convenient. I have Spotify on my Moto Z Droid phone. For $50 I bought a JBL speaker system that pops right on the back of the phone. It just makes the phone a little thicker, but the sound is incredible.

    It's pretty awesome to just lay down on the couch with a book and my phone and listen to pretty much whatever I want that has ever been released. It couldn't be easier, and my phone takes up no room. Plus I can plug it into my stereo system in my truck.

    That being said, I'm old enough to remember when all there was was just vinyl (or 8-track, cassettes). And, being young with a limited budget you had a relatively small collection of vinyl albums that you really loved. You would spend hours and hours listening to an album, and looking at the artwork (which blows on CD). You'd really get to know the album, as opposed to "Okay, what's next now out of a million choices?".

    Both ways are good.
     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2017
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  15. genesim

    genesim Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
    Crappy sound is inconsistent sound that doesn't properly credit artists and doesn't clearly indentify its true source.

    I don't need access to "millions" of artists. Savor the taste of good food, not mediocre hodge podge licenses.

    The hate for streaming is that it is killing the artust future by selling their work at discount while having spotty quality. There is no way I believe that it is a true lossless stream. Too many variables. Bit rates from servers are horrendous.
     
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  16. punkmusick

    punkmusick Amateur drummer

    Location:
    Brazil
    I buy vinyl and cd every week and still I use Spotify in my bicycle rides. It is very useful and easy. It will never substitute my records and neither it has everything I like but I like it very much anyway. I'm 42.
     
  17. HotelYorba101

    HotelYorba101 Senior Member

    Location:
    California
    Crappy sound is crappy sound, to me on the streaming services I have utilized I have found the quality to be fairly decent

    And I like having access to a lot of different artists, to each their own.

    And you should check out the book "How to Make It In The New Music Business" by Ari Herstand. The music industry has changes, streaming, and the concept of an album in general, serves a different purpose than it did even ten years ago. Artists still have futures, and streaming is a promotional fan-making vehicle. People can try and fight it, but it is the present and the future and it isn't going away, as a musical artist I am choosing to embrace it and make the most out of it
     
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  18. Remote Control Triangle

    Remote Control Triangle Forum Member Rated 6.8 By Pitchfork

    Location:
    Las Vegas
    From this gen x'ers point of view, not all technological advances make things better. They tend to only make things only more convenient and easier, but not necessarily better, and they often come with a major price. I see a lot of technological advances as a double edged sword, bringing supposed advances while some of them are capable of decimating entire industries.

    We've seen what Amazon has done by making things more convenient, easier and cheaper. Mom & pop shops simply can't compete on price and many have been wiped out. Even major retailers are now forced to close huge numbers of their stores. All because Amazon has done a better job exploiting our insatiable desires for easy and convenient. Internally they're an off the charts aggressive company, absolutely hell bent on dominating the retail space, the cloud space, they're even working on getting into the transportation business. There isn't much they don't want to have their tentacles in.

    Social media has been a major technological advancement, allowing people to reconnect after years of being apart, and allowing people to communicate in ways we have never been able to before in our history on this planet. It's been revolutionary -- but it's come at a price. There have been numerous scientific studies that have concluded that people who spend a lot of time on platforms like facebook report greater feelings of isolation and depression. This is no surprise to me, social media literally by definition removes the human element of human connection.

    In moving from an analog world to a digital world in music, music has never been easier and convenient, but it too has come at a price. The "magic" of analog warmth has been missed by many, sparking the mild resurgence in vinyl. And then there's this weird feeling of disconnect with music -- I've been reading that even millenials are seeking to find ways to connect with their music on a more human level, sparking a renewed interest in cassettes along with records.

    Most of these "disruptive" tech companies aren't bringing anything new to the table. They're just making things easier and convenient for our lazy asses and then the press calls them "disruptive" like that's such a high compliment. And there's another psychological loophole of our collective society that is also being exploited, either deliberately or by accident, and that is our almost universal acceptance of any new technological advancement as being inherently "good." When something is presented to us in clean, uncluttered package like a new app, a new platform, we seem to automatically conclude that it's "good" simply by virtue of it existing. "Well, if this isn't good, then how could it exist?" I think this is how Spotify gained popularity...it just looks so harmless, so friendly and nonthreatening. Ah, how wrong we were. Streaming platforms such as Spotify have already proved themselves to be one of the biggest double edged swords the music industry has ever seen.

    In my opinion streaming platforms represent a hostile takeover of music. They're created by tech guys who don't have a creative bone in their body, yet are very good at making money off the backs of those who are creative, screwing them over in the process. And we like this? We support this? Why? Because we're lazy sh!ts who won't give up our precious ease and convenience? Because we're afraid of being perceived as luddites? That's what they're counting on.

    I will only ever use streaming platforms for previewing albums, never as a replacement for physical media. This luddite thinks that's the best use of them.
     
  19. broshfab4

    broshfab4 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    I don't need a buffet filled with 90% crapola, my friend. I prefer a good steak, not a bunch of hamburgers from McDonalds!


    Not the same thing by a longshot. I don't need nor want a Wifi connection when I'm enjoying my music, all I need is my liner notes right in front of me. Don't need to search for it.


    Don't need my vinyl collection in the car or at the gym. Records are in my listening room, that's the way it's been and that's the way I enjoy it. For the car and when I'm not at home that's why I have a CD player!

    So far I've seen zero reasons why I would need to stream music. If anything else, it's detrimental to artists! They are being paid pennies.
     
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  20. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    Which paid streaming services force one to use a shuffle option? That's a new one on me.
     
  21. MikeManaic61

    MikeManaic61 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    Spotify does unless you pay for their Premium membership, otherwise it won't let me select the songs I want to hear.
     
  22. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    I thinking comparing the unpaid version of Spotify to ANYTHING is meaningless. That's just a setup for disappointment.
     
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  23. TonyCzar

    TonyCzar Forum Resident

    Location:
    PhIladelphia, PA
    There's a streaming service out there with a command-line interface? Now THAT'S what I call retro! ;)
     
  24. Opeth

    Opeth Forum Resident

    Location:
    NH
    I value the music I love.. I'll pay for it in the best sounding version I can find. I won't devalue it by streaming and I won't listen to a compressed version.
     
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  25. Curmudge0n

    Curmudge0n Well-Known Member

    Location:
    SE Michigan
    Streaming works great for discovering new music, playing something in the background, or for those times I'm mobile and didn't plan ahead, but personally, I just don't feel the connection that I get from physical media. There is just something satisfying about handling your music.
     
    Price.pittsburgh likes this.
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