"Streaming has killed the mainstream"

But aside from the tactile input, gatefold sleeves give visual sensory input-the same way music gives auditory input.

 

From looking at my kids (adults now), streaming is more like the means to obtain the music. Their discovery of music/songs comes mainly from what they hear in movies, games and advertising. A quick Shazam and then they grab it from Youtube of listen or add it to their playlists on Spotify.

That communal event was a wonderful thing. Did you see Bowie on Top Of The Pops last night? Did you see Alex Harvey? Did you see Stackridge on Whistle Test? Did you see Adam Ant?...
However, it's not streaming that did away with all that. In the UK it had already gone when TOTP, Old Grey Whistle and The Tube were axed long before the streaming services kicked in.
There is still a little sense of it left in the UK with the Jools Holland Show, the Glastonbury coverage, BBC 2 and 4, etc.

 

Streaming fills in the gaps in my music collection as a positive trait. On the other hand as a negative I am less likely to purchase a hard copy of those holes in my collection since I can find most of those albums on Tidal, so I assume it is bad for artists. I do try to purchase the hard copy when I find something I really like because I do care about the artist making a living. Another downside to streaming is I tend to jump around with my listening more as opposed to sitting and listening through the entire album. On the positive side I love ROON Radio it has brought to my attention many albums I own but have lost track of and unlike most radio channels every song ends up being enjoyable since it is mostly culled from my collection of albums. Lastly on a positive side when I am listening to ROON Radio and hear something that really strikes my mood I will go immediately to that album and listen through to it, which most times is a rediscovery of music I own and love but lost track of. Streaming like everything has it positive and negative attributes but it is the future of music for this moment in time.

 

I’m listening to Tears For Fears’ Elemental right now, an album I never discovered until the past decade, and I’m very emotionally connected to it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a physical copy of it. It doesn’t matter, because the music sounds amazing.

 

Good point. Listening to music is whats important to me, if being able to tough a piece of cardboard with writing on it gives you a thill you have issues that require professional help. lol.

 

How does one find TV from that time to be the way you described it?

Lot of people think television was much better back then.

Much cleaner compared to now.

 

It was clean but not nearly as good. It is easy to name ten series of today far better than anything back then.

 

There's a lot of valid "they don't make 'em like they used to" feelings out there in the world...music, home appliances, films, journalism, etc. But TV is one major exception...I don't think anyone could argue TV used to be better, with it's network content restrictions and lack of long-term plots. The one thing that (to me, anyways) is unequivocally better in the modern age.

 

Haven't delved into these articles yet, but singles that lead with the chorus aren't exactly a new phenomenon (Beatles' "Help!" anyone?).

Music streaming is certainly now a utility of sorts, like water out of a tap as Bowie correctly predicted in the late 90's. Some things make it fun, like my friend and I started a collaborative playlist on Spotify that's been going for 5 years and now has about 1,200 songs in it total that we've both placed in there.

 

I'm from the UK where we get the BBC. There's great BBC content these days, but I do prefer 60s, 70s, 80s BBC content. Old Grey Whistle Test anyone?
Note I said prefer. Walrus used the word better. Technically I would say TV is better these days. But I do prefer older TV.

 

Usually the cardboard also has pictures to look at and words to read. I don't think if it was a blank piece of cardboard the feeling would be the same.

 

well, there used to be more music on TV. But as far as scripted shows...you had a different experience in the UK, but American TV was always so stuffy and conservative and often completely disconnected to real life experience. (Mostly talking about network TV here). The rise of HBO original shows and streaming services and such have really changed the game for the better. And even network shows can now do interconnected episodes in ways they couldn’t 20 years ago. It’s wonderful.

 

Something has become clear to me from this thread. The UK mainstream media presented much more variety in adventurous music and TV program content decades ago, compared to the US. The article mentioned at the beginning of this thread means something much different to those in the UK and the US.

 

The charts were not constructed by sales alone & were/are of dubious accuracy anyhow. IMO charts have no purpose.

I beleive this is/was the way most chart are/were constructed. ( I don't use the word constructed lightly)

Streaming is saving the music business. The big 3 could not be happier. The artist are the one's being stung by the economic model that is being used by the business.

The only person in my family that streams is my wife & this is how she does. She wants to hear songs that she can sing along to. Nothing more nothing less.

Now there is a product that I can fully embrace

 

ok I tried this, I wanted to hear some disco (don't judge) and I was led into not one non mainstream artist...all the old standbys, but I did learn Prince was apparently considered disco, its ok for what it is. I use it on occasion but I don't need Hal deciding what I should listen to next, hes invariably wrong

 

Then why are millenials trying to buy my vinyl?...

 

vinyls

 

Hal is out to assist as many people as possible as many times as possible. Hal will always go to the middle of the mainstream. Thats how Hal works.

 

So much for the writer's assertion that streaming has caused the experience of music to be solitary and asocial.

 

My whole family streams -- I keep three streaming service subscriptions at the moment, one of which my wife uses also, my daughter has a sub to an entirely different service -- and every individual in my family uses the platform differently. There's really no inherent way to stream anymore than there was one particular way people listened to music before streaming. One thing about self selecting internet media, there's not just a multiplicity of content, but it's modes of use reflect the variety of user preferences.

 

No judgement, I like it too sometimes.

The thing is, a streaming service needs you to put some work in for a few months. When you hit 'like' or 'dislike' it matters, it shapes what the machine learning feeds back out to you. Same for how long you listen to a given song, if you skip a certain song, what time of day it is, all those variables are put in the secret sauce and after 60 or 90 days it starts feeding you unique content and making you smile.

So if you say "play some disco" today, it's going to play all the hits, all the common stuff. But a few months from now, if you pay attention and put in the work with the 'likes' and 'dislikes', you'd be served some obtuse disco tracks that are from that 70's vintage but you haven't heard yet and make you go "wow, that's cool".

 

I don't know, why do I pay $20,000 for a 50 year old Rolex? I cherish vintage Rolex watches, that's why. They're cool. They tell the world I'm different than most. They tell the world I'm discerning and sophisticated. They keep great time and are fantastic examples of craftsmanship, design, and quality.

So for a Hipster that is into old music, vinyl is cool.

 

No. That's how a neverstreamer views technology and the machine learning behind streaming. How it actually works is that it asks you to teach it a few things, it becomes your eyes and ears, and then it feeds you exactly what you want to hear. Some old stuff you've listened to for years. Some old stuff you've never heard. Some new stuff that resembles the old stuff you like.

Hal is your personal DJ. And he doesn't guess. He knows you. Perfect music every time. I haven't heard a dud song in about 6 months. Amazing.

 

Open the HomePod bay doors Hal.

 

This is very insightful. I use streaming my own way. I do not use streaming to have “Hal” create playlists for me. I use streaming to listen to full albums I have either never heard before, or old favorite entire albums.

Now after a full album is played, I can either click on the stop button, or let the music continue on. Spotify will play songs in the general genre of the entire album I just listened to. Many of the songs are well known to me. What I do like is when those songs include an artist I have never heard before. I have discovered some enjoyable new artists that way.