Spotify Is An Enemy of Sustainable Arts

And their high priest is to be found, curiously enough, on an audiophile music forum.

 

Hahaha I'm a class hopper and so I've mingled with both types of person a lot. My London mates understand olives And avocadoes. Definitely avocadoes. Not music though - I'm convinced the majority of people actually stop listening around the age of 25. I think this forum is a bit deceptive in that people here actually do listen to music, and a lot of it.

 

Not true. I love so many different kinds of foods and there are about five foods I can't enjoy. One of them is olives. I've tried them many times over the years and it ain't happening.

Now the Beatles... them I love.

 

That sounds really interesting. "Her new release, Clockwise, is an homage to some of her favorite 20th Century composers as seen through the lens of their works for percussion. For the project, Webber researched and analyzed various percussion compositions by Iannis Xenakis, Morton Feldman, Edgard Varése, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Milton Babbitt, and John Cage, isolating particular moments that could be extracted and developed into new works."

If you buy lots of avant garde jazz you might want to sign up to Squidco's mailing list. They have tons of that stuff. They send out an email with new releases every week or so, and they all have soundclips. And they have a rewards program, where you get $10 to use when you purchase 10 CDs (doesn't have to be all at once, they accumulate).

www.squidco.com

 

There are cooks in working class kitchens, even some with humble Bluetooth speakers, who can serve up dishes that will take you to heaven, you know. Don't confuse fine dining with a 4 figure restaurant bill.

 

Thank you! I was trying to figure out how to reply. You said what I was trying to come up with.

 

Yeah it's a very cool album. Creative and different.

 

I've read good reviews of some of the Steve Lehman releases on the same label.

 

A lot of us here on this forum are working artists, so in addition to mere personal preference, many of us take streaming personally. It's a well-known fact that Spotify rips off artists (see thread title).

 

So, you're saying this aspect of your post, which I was addressing:

Is mainly tied to your personal disdain for streaming because you are somehow, personally, being ripped off by streaming? Do I understand your comments below better now?

While I have to say, it's difficult to assume all that from your original comment, I'll just leave it as "OK, sure..."

 

Pi Recordings puts out some of the best music around. Unfortunately for me, the label doesn't stream its material, so I don't hear as much of it as I'd like. I have to pick and choose what I buy as a budgetary matter. This year I've loved the Webber album and the Tyshawn Sorey/Marilyn Crispell duo album they put out, The Adornment of Time. I'm really curious about We Are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, that they have out this year, but I'm not ready to shell out for it. I love all the Amir ElSaffar stuff they've put out and they always have interesting stuff coming out from Jonathan Finlayson and Steve Coleman and Tyshawn Sorey. If I could subscribe to Pi and get all the music for an annual $50 subscription, like I do with Dave Douglas' Greenleaf Music, I'd do that. There's lots of music in their catalog I'd like to at least hear.

 

This is for sure. This could be the title of a theme song for the internet.

 

Obviously most of us here are, and certainly I am, an audiophile. I care very much about the audio experience. I don't really spend a lot of effort tracking down different masterings of music, or spend a lot of money buying music I already own if I have a copy and a new mastering comes along. I DO often hunt down better transfers from 78s of old material. I also listen to a lot of music where there aren't like 12,000 different masterings out there.

Spotify is absolutely NOT the best sound you can get out of streaming. The highest res files are 320 kbps Ogg Vorbis, which isn't bad as lossy compressed digital goes, and is absolutely fine for something like in-car listening, and they definitely ask for stuff that's mastered for their platform. But Tidal's 16/44.1 FLAC and Qobuz's lossless digital in redbook and higher resolution, all can sound very good -- and a platform like Tidal lets you bypass the Windows audio stack so you can get the best possible sound.

 

My beloved has a 70's Marantz reciever, Marantz cd player a some paradigm monitors in the Kitchen.

 

To me, Spotify loses every argument: ethical, aesthetic, etc. I've been posting about this here for ages. If I wasn't a working artist I'd still have nothing to do with streaming because, as a music fan, I think streaming is lame. But because it also affects my livelihood, it's also something I find deeply problematic. What's the disconnect here, exactly?

 

I can only imagine what a kitchen environment could do to a vinyl record and stylus. CDs make a lot more sense, streaming at the command of Alexa/Siri even more so.

 

Father And Son Test-Drive Their 3D-Printed Lamborghini

 

Serious question, have you asked for your material to be removed from streaming services?

If so, and you are therefore not on any streaming service your physical music sales would considerably spike, therefore putting you in the same position revenue wise as in the pre-streaming era?

 

I think that's a very simplistic summary to the problem. it's all about the ecosystem, audience expectations,, etc. Streaming has, in some instances, destroyed physical sales, and this isn't on an artist by artist basis. We have a generation of music fans who just don't accept they should have to buy an individual release.

 

If your perception is correct then it’s not the streaming services that are at fault, it is lazy, disenfranchised music fans/consumers who are no longer willing to pay a sum of money up front to support an artist.

Obviously does not apply to most people on here, I firmly believe in supporting my favourite artists by buying their physical releases. I also have an Apple Music subscription, wouldn’t be without it now.

 

I don't recall blaming the streaming service. The argument, as I understand it, isn't against the streaming services par se, it's about the money they return to artists per play.

 

I hear you. As a committed listener I don't do much streaming either. When I found out it was included in my Amazon Prime subscription at no additional cost I shrugged and tried it. It's pretty good, really. Not so much for mobile devices because you have to download in advance. But the higher quality streams, which claim to be HD but actually are not when you read the particulars, sound excellent on a high quality system. The guy who's been selling me audio products for 30 years and whose opinion I trust says he has heard high quality streaming that is 'master tape' quality. I was surprised to hear this from someone who spent years trying me to go back to my LP collection and upgrade my TT and cartridge. I'm afraid that people who think streaming is lame and that there's a disconnect just don't understand the importance of this developing means of distributing recorded music. You may not be looked on in the future as a buggy whip sales person, but I wouldn't be surprised if you are.

 

So, as I suggested before it must be the music consumer of today that is at fault, as they aren’t prepared to shell out a measly £10 or so for a CD, something that an artist has poured their heart and soul into?

 

The introduction of motor vehicles was an improvement over buggies. Streaming doesn't improve music listening. The sound quality is not better than CD.

 

I agree it is the music consumer's fault. They want convenience over sound quality and ownership. Since Napster, many people believe that music should be free, or next to free. $9.99 a month rental fees are ok with them.