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David Chesky on Streaming Convenience vs Sound Quality

I got this far, but stopped reading at… “Could all the complex connections across the web be picking up electrical noise along the way, degrading the sound during playback?” ‍♂️
 
Why downloads are better than streaming.... because you own the tracks, end of.
I missed this one. You’re actually wrong. With downloads you usually get only a non-transferable licence to play the music in private. As such you don’t own the download.

Always read the small print.

For example, I’ve found that some music sellers will happily take my money for a download where the licence only allows US residents to play it. That’s really useful to me.

At least HDtracks refuses to sell me what I can’t legally have…
 
Why downloads are better than streaming.... because you own the tracks, end of.
After a catastrophic event where I lost pretty much everything but the clothes on my back, all my tunes on CD and hard drives I looked at streaming and realized for the expense of purchasing new music that I could afford streaming till the day I die and still be far ahead as per what the investment in music would cost me. Streaming costs me about $14 per month and I have thousands of bookmarks to choose from let alone the stuff I have not heard but comes up as points of interest from the streaming source.
 
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I missed this one. You’re actually wrong. With downloads you usually get only a non-transferable licence to play the music in private. As such you don’t own the download.

Always read the small print.

For example, I’ve found that some music sellers will happily take my money for a download where the licence only allows US residents to play it. That’s really useful to me.

At least HDtracks refuses to sell me what I can’t legally have…
But in all honesty, how are they gonna track what you are doing with a Flac file? Maybe they're watermarked?
 
After a catastrophic event where I lost pretty much everything but the clothes on my back, all my tunes on CD and hard drives I looked at streaming and realized for the expense of purchasing new music that I could afford streaming till the day I die and still be far ahead as per what the investment in music would cost me. Streaming costs me about $14 per month and I have thousands of bookmarks to choose from let alone the stuff I have not heard but comes up as points of interest from the streaming source.
Entirely agree - except you can't expect for artists/playlists/etc to stay there. I have Spotify playlists where for some unexplained (but obvious) reason, songs are now grayed out. No longer there.
I have an HDtracks account but am careful about buying there now, since several HD releases are actually regular 16/44 or less in reality, per many easy to find tests from credible sources. My new approach is to buy the CD, rip and scan the album art. Benefits the artists, gives me the album art I don't get from the vast majority of digital downloads.
 
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Entirely agree - except you can' expect for artists/playlists/etc to stay there. I have Spotify playlists where for some unexplained (but obvious) reason, songs are now grayed out. No longer there.
I have an HDtracks account but am careful about buying there now, since several HD releases are actually regular 16/44 or less in reality, per many easy to find tests from credible sources. My new approach is to buy the CD, rip and scan the album art. Benefits the artists, gives me the album art I don't get from the vast majority of digital downloads.
Yes, I have a multitude of dead links from collecting them over the decades and that is annoying. So many in fact that I don't even bother sorting and deleting them when they pop up because one day I figure I will sort them out but in the meanwhile I am content leaving them there as a sort of reference of what I once had access to. I am not impartial or partial to records and I totally prefer CDs but I can't get into album art on the small aspect and size of CD art. For that records are so much superior. But that is not going to happen for me. I am a streamer at heart now and recognize all the advantages of that.
 
Just couple of my thoughts.

This paper that Chesky wrote sound like nonsense to me too, as long as the material listened was coded same way, using same algorithms, there could not be audible difference. I am not sure, what was streamed and what was downloaded file. There might be some mismatch between these and streamed content was compressed using different method for example.

I think streaming platforms have killed quite a bit of music enjoyment for me. I mean, if I can listen my favourites whenever and wherever I want, I don't feel like I would sit down, put a record on and enjoy it anymore. This is psychological thing for me. Ten years ago I had ritual to sit down, have a glass of good wine and put on some good CD, many of those were recorded by Mr. Chesky himself, by the way. Now I listen my favourite tunes at work from Tidal etc, just because I feel these help me to concentrate. And then, coming home, I don't feel that I would sit down and really would listen something.

Modern world has killed music as it was. I know many local musicians and they all are saying the same - the market is so thin for really good music. Mostly people will listen those streaming platforms and would listen whatever they find there for that small monthly fee. No-one would buy your CD or LP anymore, at least in profitable quantities. Uploading material to those streaming platforms would give it to masses, but the fee that you are getting per stream is so small that you can't make living from it. Except if you are some popular "superstar".
 
Uploading material to those streaming platforms would give it to masses, but the fee that you are getting per stream is so small that you can't make living from it. Except if you are some popular "superstar".
Why is it necessary to make a living from it? Why not have a day job and make music in your spare time?

Vast majority of musicians have always done this. Sure they dream of being a global superstar who spends all their non-touring time in leisure activities, occasionally writes a song, and then once every few years goes in a studio for a couple of weeks and records an album.

But that's only the life of a handful of the millions of active musicians out there and that's always been the case long before streaming came along.

The one fully professional musician I know makes most of their money from doing a lot of gigs - several a week every week of the year - and selling merch. Streaming revenue contributes between £400 and £800 a month. No chance of ever being able to spend the bulk of their time just sat on a beach earning royalties for doing nothing. That's the reality of it.
 
I think streaming platforms have killed quite a bit of music enjoyment for me. I mean, if I can listen my favourites whenever and wherever I want,
Having used portable devices since I was like 10, streaming didn't make much of a difference to me. Only on a lower level i.e. practical side: clearly having to either select or drag a bunch of cassettes around, later on Minidisc or SD cards, isn't as convenient as modern detail search+play. But the principle is the same: listen to what you want, when you want.

Now I listen my favourite tunes at work from Tidal etc, just because I feel these help me to concentrate. And then, coming home, I don't feel that I would sit down and really would listen something.
I recognize this problem, so my advice would be: don't listen to your favorite tracks at work. It's a waste in my opinion. At least I cannot actively listen and concentrate on another task at the same time, it's one or the other. And indeed it's not the same enjoyment as well: I cannot enjoy favorite tracks in the exact same way when sitting down for an active listening session. So what I do instead is listening to things which aren't my super favorites. Mixes of electronic music are really nice for that if it's your thing. Or random new stuff (for me if I really like something it will stick out and then I can note it down) - we happen to have a local radio station which is ok for that. Then I'm not 'wasting' my favorites but still have more than enough to serve as background music.
 
It is very disappointing that a lot of people on this site, some with no more than a little knowledge find it convenient to assail and assassinate the character of someone they don’t even know because he has a different opinion about something. It seems that the more illustrious the character they aim their daggers towards, the more their appetite for blood grows. Shame on you. Clearly, the man was just expressing his opinion and not reporting a scientific experiment. I personally disagree with him but certainly, that doesn’t make him a charlatan who is trying to sell speakers on behalf of his son. Shame on you again.
I don't know this man, only listened to a few of his records and must even have some among my 10,000 CDs and more. Including the Opp Studies. 10 and 25 of Chopin by Earl Wild which are not better recorded than many other versions by other publishers.
What I see is that David Chersky uses a classic argument from authority, thinking it useful to clarify to his readers his supposedly illustrious past in the areas he cites. It is totally ineffective and even as always produces the opposite effect on the reader.
In addition to this authoritative argument, David Chesky takes the trouble to make his opinion known urbi et orbi on the subject: he preaches the good word and thinks that it is absolutely essential to disseminate it and to warn audiophiles of the fact that streaming is worse than local files.
It is not to attack this man in a shameful way to say it, just to note a small suspicion of "megalomania"
 
Just couple of my thoughts.

This paper that Chesky wrote sound like nonsense to me too, as long as the material listened was coded same way, using same algorithms, there could not be audible difference. I am not sure, what was streamed and what was downloaded file. There might be some mismatch between these and streamed content was compressed using different method for example.

I think streaming platforms have killed quite a bit of music enjoyment for me. I mean, if I can listen my favourites whenever and wherever I want, I don't feel like I would sit down, put a record on and enjoy it anymore. This is psychological thing for me. Ten years ago I had ritual to sit down, have a glass of good wine and put on some good CD, many of those were recorded by Mr. Chesky himself, by the way. Now I listen my favourite tunes at work from Tidal etc, just because I feel these help me to concentrate. And then, coming home, I don't feel that I would sit down and really would listen something.

Modern world has killed music as it was. I know many local musicians and they all are saying the same - the market is so thin for really good music. Mostly people will listen those streaming platforms and would listen whatever they find there for that small monthly fee. No-one would buy your CD or LP anymore, at least in profitable quantities. Uploading material to those streaming platforms would give it to masses, but the fee that you are getting per stream is so small that you can't make living from it. Except if you are some popular "superstar".
It happened to a lot of people well before streaming. Those MP3 players and Napster and iTunes were the thing that changed the "use" of music for many people. So we're talking the turn of the century. It's no surprise that the loudness wars really take off at around this time as well: music does better when it can be heard, after all.

So, you know your version of the problem, and you can do something about it. You see, it's not "streaming" that`s to blame, it's that habit of listening at the wrong time in the wrong place.

So, don't listen then. Or, if you do, make it short bursts between tasks, at lunchtime, whatever.

At home, you can change your listening habits as well. Stream from the better paying services (Qobuz, by a big margin, then Tidal, then Apple Music, IIRC). Buy CDs. Buy LPs. Whatever you need to make it work Stream entire albums (yes, it can be done, quite easily). Set aside a time a couple of times a week to just listen, and do nothing else.

While getting used to a different pattern, don;'t start changing gear or anything else that gets in the way of just listening.

Also, go to some concerts/gigs if you can - that pays musicians as well!
 
I don't know this man, only listened to a few of his records and must even have some among my 10,000 CDs and more. Including the Opp Studies. 10 and 25 of Chopin by Earl Wild which are not better recorded than many other versions by other publishers.
What I see is that David Chersky uses a classic argument from authority, thinking it useful to clarify to his readers his supposedly illustrious past in the areas he cites. It is totally ineffective and even as always produces the opposite effect on the reader.
In addition to this authoritative argument, David Chesky takes the trouble to make his opinion known urbi et orbi on the subject: he preaches the good word and thinks that it is absolutely essential to disseminate it and to warn audiophiles of the fact that streaming is worse than local files.
It is not to attack this man in a shameful way to say it, just to note a small suspicion of "megalomania"
Having read that, earlier in 2024, he was talking to Lenbrook about setting up a streaming service with them, actually a "streaming sounds bad" argument from him now seems a little disingenuous. Unless, as I wondered before, the comment is in fact the first step towards "I've got a better streaming service..."

Here's what Audioholics reported in June.

If HDTracks is anything to go by, it won't stream much outside the USA anyway.
 
When I wrote "I don't know this man", I was saying it personally, because I know his story and the fact that he is a personality versed in audiophilia which is not very rational...
 
Wonder if this has anything to do with HDTracks mqa streaming deal with Lenbrook falling apart?
 
"For a benchmark, I rely on the sound of live music"


That statement alone tells me more than I need to know. I did some live sound work at a couple churches, (those mega huge expensive type) and even at its best, live sound in those spaces, simply is a different "thing" and to me, never sounded as accurate and smooth and detailed as my nice home systems.

It can sound good for sure in some key ways, and be loud and have huge bass impact, but never resolving or detailed.
In the end, it sounds like sound going through, Loud Pa speakers, that sacrifice "Some" quality and detail simply to be loud and durable.
 
I did some live sound work at a couple churches, (those mega huge expensive type) and even at its best, live sound in those spaces, simply is a different "thing" and to me, never sounded as accurate and smooth and detailed as my nice home systems.
Churches were meant to inspire and overwhelm. A massed choir or massive pipe organ is a joke by comparison on almost any HiFi.
 
Churches were meant to inspire and overwhelm. A massed choir or massive pipe organ is a joke by comparison on almost any HiFi.
I'm not sure @beagleman was referring to that type of church - more the pentecostal type with a Christian take on modern music. I may be wrong.
 
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