Are people getting sick of streaming services...

[Robin L]

High res should be mandatory (some do, not all).

As far as these aged ears can discern, hi-rez doesn't make any audible difference. Technically speaking human hearing tops out within the limits of Redbook, anything greater than that is wasted data. Hi-rez is useful for recording/postproduction but a properly mastered recording in a 16/44.1 envelope should encompass everything we can hear. Tidal offers hi-rez on a fair number of its offerings and my DAC can resolve much greater than Redbook standard - Tidal tops out at 24/192 - but I'm not hearing any difference. That's one of the reasons SACD/DVD-A was a market failure and Blu-Ray audio hasn't really taken off the ground. Save for those taking advantage of surround capabilities (a very small group for pure audio) these hi-rez formats don't really make a difference.

 

[Cote Dazur]

What are your experiences on that?

In my house, my wife use Spotify to listen to music almost exclusively, she use to listen to FM radio, not so much anymore. She listen mostly while doing something else, as opposed to me, who almost exclusively only listen when playing music.
I still mostly exclusively listen to music I have on a medium, hard drive or Vinyl.
I only use Spotify to listen to albums I download that I do not have already on a medium. Either new music, very little, as I find most very disappointing, or, most of the time, older album I might have missed.
Streaming has never appealed to my way of enjoying music.

 

[alvigg]

The suggestions presented in Apple Music often are quite relevant for me. Often for adding to the large playlists I use as a radio station.

 

[Midwest Blade]

Using Amazon Music HD at home 90% of the time, 10% via cd mainly at the weekend place. Started using Pandora in the auto for convenience, love their music selector and have a few channels set up. On longer trips I have been tuning in to a few podcasts via Amazon or Pandora.

 

[alvigg]

I like Pandora much more since the addition of modes. I was getting tired of the same songs but discovery and deep tracks work well.

 

[JeffS7444]

It's been awhile since I had a paid Spotify subscription, but at the time I found it boring: I am often intrigued pop music from other regions of the world, but due to region restrictions, I felt Spotify was very limited in what it could provide, it's initial alternative picks were sometimes pretty good, but subsequent tracks seemed to gravitate to a tedious sameness.

But internet radio (and RADIO radio) is another matter! I sometimes discover new music this way, then order CDs from overseas.

As for streaming video services, I like to jump around, and if I weren't so lazy, I figure that a month/year with one service, and 2-3 months with another might be ideal. Just long enough to catch the most-desired content, but not so long that I start watching out of boredom.

 

[MattHooper]

I use Tidal For streaming to my two channel system, and Apple Music more generally if I’m out and about (or easy for voice operation, especially in the car). And I watch and explore a lot of music on YouTube.

I’m fine with the algorithms because they help me discover and explore new music.
The YouTube recommendations algorithm became mischievously efficient several years ago, and let me down various rabbit holes.

That said, my experience of streaming music tends to be a little more superficial than my experience I’ve listening to the collection I own, whether it’s my ripped CDs or especially my vital record collection.

If I’m just listening to streaming music, I find I tend to surf music like surfing the web, always wanting to hear the next thing and explore. So even though I would save to favourites, I would rarely revisit favourites and get to know that music very well or the artist very well, because my streaming platform was something to click on.

Not to mention the way streaming just seems to be all around me and ubiquitous, whether it’s asking our kitchen smart speaker to play something or my iPhone in the car.

So to me streaming takes on a sort of “ fast food” quality - it’s cheap fast and everywhere.
And in me, it induces a more superficial interaction.

Interacting with my own library, especially my physical records is more like fine dining. It’s like carving out a date to do it, it involves more input from me like getting dressed up to go out, and getting to the restaurant, and it’s significantly more expensive, which makes me curate the experience more carefully.

So I know my record and CD collection far better than I know anything I’ve ever saved to favourites via streaming. And it feels like a richer experience.

That’s certainly not to say that I don’t absolutely love streaming some of my favourite songs while driving. That’s also one of my favourite ways to experience music.

But at home, I tend to not even stream music in the background because that tends to make me feel oversaturated with music, and make me less interested in sitting down to listen to music on my system - I want to break from music instead of listening to more of it. So I generally these days tend to reserve listening to music as a dedicated experience.

And I use streaming more for exploration. If I really like something, I will tend to buy it on a physical format.

 

[bluefuzz]

This is my main concern with streaming, [ ... ] Are the artists getting paid?

Having been perennially impecunious, probably 75 – 90 % of my physical music purchases through the years (vinyl and CDs) were bought used/second hand. So the artists themselves have rarely benefitted from my specific purchase dollar/pound/euro. Taken altogether I doubt the streaming royalties and the occasional Bandcamp remuneration actually going to artists from my purchases differ greatly to what they ever have received from physical sales.

 

[kemmler3D]

sick of the algoritmes that determine what music they should listen to, and want to go back to active choosing and owning their music.

Without reading the rest of the thread, I'm getting there myself. Spotify in particular is really bad for shoveling a lot of same-same music at me, indiscriminately. I almost miss the days of Pandora where it would throw a lot of oddball choices in because the algorithm is "bad". Spotify has sanded down every aspect of the music discovery process, where you're now on this endless moving walkway of "curated" "taste" that leads wherever they want it to and nowhere else.

I also have other personal gripes with the CEO (thinks of music the way commodities traders think of pork bellies, etc.) and the company, the fact that they pay artists the least they've ever been paid in history without being stiffed outright, and the idea of simply ripping CDs all day and putting them on a server seems really nice in comparison.

Maybe I will at least switch to Tidal.

 

[bluefuzz]

I am often intrigued pop music from other regions of the world, but due to region restrictions, I felt Spotify was very limited in what it could provide

Curious. I have quite the opposite experience. I am constantly discovering artists from all over the world on Spotify that I would be unlikely to find otherwise. Far too much great new music than I will ever have time to listen to. Licensing restrictions are bizarrely random and have little to to with geographical region, but more to do with global capitalism ...

 

[Jimbob54]

Taking my moderator hat off for a minute .

I view streaming services (all of them ) in the same class as supermarkets , mass online retailers, big tech and big pharma .

I don't like it but I'm not going to put on the hair shirt.

 

[bluefuzz]

Bandcamp is the best platform I know in terms of how much they pay.

Yes, they seem to be the best of the bunch in that respect. Although I am somewhat puzzled by the fact that every artist I follow on Bandcamp seems to think I should not be able to live without a 180 gram vinyl issue of their latest opus where I can purchase their whole back catalogue as flac files for the same price ...

 

[Mean & Green]

The only music streaming service I use is YouTube the free version to try new to me music.

I have amassed a decent physical library over 30 years and have all of my CDs ripped. I choose the versions and masters I prefer of any given album and see no need to to pay a sub to listen to music I already own.

I use my network player purely for my own digital library.

I discover new music via the radio when commuting in the car and I follow artists that I like on social media so I don’t miss new releases that interest me. I buy CDs and LPs and don’t intend to stop doing so. Personally I think streaming is better suited to those who have not curated a personal library over many years. I wouldn’t want to start again from scratch now.

I do see the argument against algorithms and user interfaces. Personally I get sick of touch screens and software updates that can cause more bugs than improvements.

 

[Sokel]

No streaming for me (as if they care) until they treat and pay artists what they deserve.They wouldn't exist without them,is such a shame to see them crushing dreams and make young,talented people have "day jobs" instead of making an good living through their art.

Nope.

 

[fatoldgit]

I'm not sure where the complaint is about being "pushed" to listen to other things.
.

I can only imagine it's "lazy listeners" (who select some service provided mood/genre playlist) that use streaming as background noise.

So the algorithms start to piss them off cause its has to keep feeding the pipeline and screws up (relative to the listener)

This is different of course from the person who has manually curated a large playlist...that is not a "lazy listener" as above.

And this is different from the traditional thing of setting aside a dedicated slice of time to spin some albums end to end.

Peter

 

[Timcognito]

Streaming is just one outlet ~100k titles on Qobuz all in CD or HiRes quality, my NAS with 1000+ CDs and Internet Radio ~15 presets many with archived shows of favorite content/DJs. The key for me is having a single dashboard on large dedicated tablet to operate with a comprehensive connected app, in my case Roon for DSP and deep dives into content and BluOS for faster and simpler function as a remote control. The tablet is also handy for internet searches, connection to email, ASR, music forums, etc

 

[Waxx]

Yes, they seem to be the best of the bunch in that respect. Although I am somewhat puzzled by the fact that every artist I follow on Bandcamp seems to think I should not be able to live without a 180 gram vinyl issue of their latest opus where I can purchase their whole back catalogue as flac files for the same price ...

That's because that's where the artist really earns money. Not from streaming or even bandcamp (altough it's by far the best payer). Vinyl, merchandise and live concerts or dj sets is how artists earn money, not by streaming. Even local top30 artists in Belgium can't live from streaming alone.

 

[fatoldgit]

Same here. 10~12 years ago, i was boasting about my collection of about 3000 CD ...
First shock was when i used ROON and it started looking into my collection ad suggesting me albums or pieces, I had forgotten all about.

I think that a largish collection of albums (I have 5000) and whether streaming helps depends on how eclectic your tastes are.

My collection is clustered around a couple of genres so there isnt that much new to discover but if you like say 20 or more genres than I can see how it would be very hard to "max out" any specific genre (i.e. lots of new stuff on a streaming service that would be impossible to discover otherwise)

I have Qobuz and the feature I like the most is the "label" drill down. I have a set of favourite labels (Bluenote, fantasy, Chess, Delmark etc) which now totals about 40 and used/use that to find obscure albums/artists that I missed over the last 50+ years of album collection.

I wrote a little program that sucks own the current list of albums under a label, compares that to the last list and spits out the new stuff (a list of qobuz url's) that I can then play and then buy the CD/download if I like it.

Do that every few weeks and always find a handful of new stuff.

Peter

 

[Robin L]

So I know my record and CD collection far better than I know anything I’ve ever saved to favourites via streaming. And it feels like a richer experience.

I've owned thousands of LPs and CDs no longer in my possession. I don't save anything to favorites for streaming, I hunt down recordings I once owned and look for recordings I always wanted but never could find or afford. Right now, I'm listening to the HMV/EMI/Warner Classics Icon box of Andres Segovia. I've owned some of these recordings on CDs in the past but there's more selections in the Icon box than on the single CDs previously issued and the sound is better than on the older transfers. 78 era recordings gain the most from digital transfer technology and they really can't get any better sounding than they do via streaming. Having the physical object in hand doesn't make the experience any "richer" for me. Having the sound improved does.

 

[fatoldgit]

Lets asssume a CD cost $10. Let’s assume you want to have a good collection of 3000 CD. About $30,000 …
Or 140 years of Spotify at the current rate …
Of $15/month

…

Peace.

That's fine as a "go forward" proposition... doesnt help us oldies that got screwed over before say 2007 (the dawn of streaming).

Peter