The Pros and Cons Of Streaming

Anyone? What am I missing? Why stream using lossy Bluetooth when every tv, receiver and game console can use the Spotify app to stream losslessly via wi-fi?

 

Yes, same here. I've said before that when "everything is there at great ease" I just don't absorb or focus on it as much. It's kinda the sentiment of "listening to everything but hearing nothing" for me. I think as you said, we may just be relics of the past, but you like what you like. It's hard to explain I guess, especially if someone does love streaming and doesn't have the allure to the item itself or the collecting aspect, but I simply find that when I exclusively delve into streamed or downloaded music, it eventually feels too "surface oriented", like the full enjoyment of the hobby is being held back, out of reach.

That's the best way I can put it anyway.

 

That's the exact reason I continue and will continue to buy any music that I don't want to take a chance of losing.

 

Tinfoil Hat Dept...

To me, it's just more online commerce where my card and ID can be hacked, mined, emptied, sent to Russia.

If Facebook can't prevent it (or deliberately facilitates it), I doubt any smaller Tech-For-The-Herd will make customer privacy and security any kind of priority.

Besides, the playlist on freeform radio is much more interesting.

 

Why the heck doesn't that portable thing have a BATTERY? Or at least an accessory battery pack, to make it portable? Seems like that would be so cool.

 

Well, back then stuff did go out of print all the time and could become difficult to obtain on a secondary market. Sometimes I'd have to spend years looking before I came across an album on my wish list. I must say, in the year or two that I've been getting into streaming, I have not had the experience yet of an album I once listened to on a streaming platform disappearing. I don't doubt it happens or will happen -- just like cable TV carriage deals get renegotiated and channels get dropped or whatever. But so far my experience with these streaming platforms is that more content I've been interested in has become available over time as labels and artists which resisted streaming have cut deals with the streaming platforms.

 

Yeah, the major labels had a huge hand in creating the economic streaming model: They win because they own so much content that, even at .006 cents a stream they make money. It's all about volume. The individual artists, outside of a rarefied super-star class, get very little money. Meanwhile, VC money is pouring into Spotify, their employees and executives are incredibly well compensated, and most artists are getting peanuts.

I'm not going to post screengrabs of my statements, but you can look to articles by David Lowery for some useful figures...I can say before streaming, when my band's stuff was a mix of CDs and iTunes downloads, I could count on at least a couple of hundred bucks a month in iTunes sales. It covered gas, the rent on our rehearsal space, and sometimes some studio time. After streaming became the dominant digital outlet, we'd be luck to break ten bucks in revenue, even with what to us (a struggling indie band) were a decent number of streams...if 60 people bought our CD, we'd have $600. If 60 people stream a 10-track album one time each, we get $3.60.

As @chervokas points out, that means moving to a different model. For us it was to keep the stuff on Spotify for discovery, push harder on bandcamp, and release more stuff on LPs, which we can charge more money for. Leaving our music on Spotify has some problems, though -- a few times we've been added to "corporate curated" playlists, which is nice for exposure, but implies that we somehow endorse the company's product or outlook. It's like getting a commercial placement, but without the money!

But I do make streaming part of my music consumption...I just try to use it responsibly and take the artists into account.

 

That's a great approach. When you buy new physical media, you're supporting the label that release it (yes, there are crooked labels out there, but there are also a lot of good ones who put their money on the line so that musicians can make recordings), you're supporting the store that sells it (record stores being a nexus of community engagement who nurture local scenes), and on some level the musician (this depends on their contract with the label. Each deal is different, each sale is different. But with streaming, you can be pretty sure that the artist you are listening to is getting somewhere between $.006 and $.008 per stream...

 

Yeah, I remember the $20 a month tv cable. Now, it's around $150 per month.
Streaming will get more and more expensive, without a doubt.

 

Which is pretty much anything. They can pull a download or a streamed album, but they can't pull a record, tape, or a CD. And, if something is available in digital lossless, you better buy it, download it, and make backups!

 

NYA. Wonderful stuff.

A big pro.

 

What seems to be lost on a lot of folks is that this is not an either / or proposition. Streaming for me - especially not living within driving distance of a decent record store - is how I discover the new music I want to buy. It's just the modern version of the stores back in the 50s and into the 60s that let you try out records in listening booths. And frankly, when I'm streaming through my best system, it all sounds pretty darn fine. I just went on an Art Ensemble of Chicago kick. Would have taken me weeks if not months to scope everything out and then start putting money down. With streaming, I was buying AEC discs I didn't already have and had them in hand within a week. I believe 100% in owning what I like and supporting the artists. Streaming helps make that possible.

 

Ok, great post, would you mind giving a little more?

I would say you are exactly the kind of musician I'm most interested in.

Would you say that you have any more fans and therefore paying concert goers as a result of streaming? Or that if not, it's a possibility? When you mention a newer biz model, is there a way to maybe think of new ways to get plays on the paid websites? Maybe promoting it at shows (which would be counter to selling CDs) or putting a link on the website.

My favorite shows have always been going to clubs to see acts playing original music. These are the musicians that truly matter, that provide the backbone of a given city's musical scene.

 

It would compromise the spectacular sound quality. There is a ton of competition in the battery Bluetooth space. Zero competitors in the plugged-in wi-fi space.

To Apple it’s all about putting 45 million songs in rooms in your home without the need for any sort of connected device or player, just wi-fi and your voice. It’s brilliant in that regard, a must-have for any audiophile.

 

I don't have it but my friend who has a 15K hifi has it and tidal, he is an audio nut and has it set on the highest setting, You AB spotify and Tidal with the same decently recorded track and it's very obvious spotify sounds pretty rubbish... Loss of detail, top and bottom end... Once you hear it you can't go back..

 

If it's a new release and you are available to listen to it on that night it's a good thing I suppose....does kinda kill the anticipation of getting a new CD/Vinyl, but you can add it straight to playlists and stuff so all good if you ask me!!

 

Tidal is good, but isn’t night and day better. I highly doubt anyone could tell the difference blindly.

 

The Wolf Alpha 3 is a nice player. See: Music in the Round #95: Wolf & NAD

 

Yes, I notice that most younger guys at my Office stream music. One guy frequently listens to a blues channel. I’ve walked in at various times and said that’s Albert King, Otis Rush, Magic Sam or Sonny Boy Williamson etc. He is amazed that I know who these people are and can recognize their work. Yet he constantly tells me how much he loves the Blues. That now means setting the streaming service to Blues and leaving it on in the background. Not much commitment in it. I’m not judging but it does seem a little disposable.

Seeing the broad definition of streaming on the thread, I do stream regularly. I have a Walkman with AptX Bluetooth that I use for streaming in the car and on a secondary system for casual listening. It’s stocked with tunes from my personal collection. I just avoid streaming services.

 

I can only speak from my experience and what other bands we play with tell us...I've never had someone come up to me at a show and say they heard of our band through Spotify or Apple Music or Tidal. But we get monthly checks for several dollars, so we know there are streams happening. So it's not impossible...but our most loyal fans seem to have discovered us via the labels we record for (all of whom have loyal followings), from tours we've done as an opening/supportive act, or film/TV placements.

A lot of the records we release are limited editions, and once the LPs/singles go out of print, we have them on BandCamp and iTunes, so people can buy paid downloads. We encourage them to do so via social media and the website, and the scarcity of the out-of-print editions drives traffic (newer fans, mostly) to those outlets. On the road, we'll tell someone if they ask at the merch table, but we're pretty focused on selling LPs, 45s, CDs, cassettes, etc.

I'm definitely not anti-streaming...it just replaced previous means of accessing music with one that pays a heck of a lot less. Nice to see some artists (Taylor Swift, David Lowery) doing all they can to educate people about the shortcomings of streaming...maybe one day the model will compensate musicians more!

 

You are on to a key aspect of streaming here; lots and lots of people treat it like radio and has it playing in the background all day. The exact song/artist isn't a conscious choice most of the time - they listen to whatever is on the current playlist. If streaming wasn't a thing these people wouldn't go out and buy 6 albums a day to fill that same space, they would be listening to radio instead.

Equating streaming with (lost) sales really doesn't fly in my book, a huge proportion of everything streamed is basically 'radio play'. A radio station with 1 million listeners doesn't pay you $4000+ for playing your song once. Spotify however does if your song is played the same number of times.

 

Yes but 7 years ago this same guy had a stack of CDs on his desk everyday. He didn’t play the radio in his office. He ran the CDs on his disc drive into desktop speakers (Disc drives are being eliminated too).

Granted they tended toward Metallica and Audioslave not Blues, but he was buying music. He has now gotten rid of his CD collection completely. Streaming from his phone and computer are his music delivery systems.

 

Wi Fi streaming is the way to go.My brother does it now. He either plays records or streams Wi Fi. He’s held on to his CD collection but I don’t think he listens to it very often.