Hi there ASR folks!
I'm in the middle of the continental US and I enjoy learning about surprisingly good, inexpensive audio equipment, which can mostly only be found through objective testing, so I really enjoy this site. Thank you! I have the following iems - 7Hz Zero, 7Hz Zero x Crinacle, Artti R2, Tangzu Wan'er, Fiio Ex1, Hifiman RE800, RHA MH650. The following headphones - Martin-Logan Mikros-90, hifiman HE-350. The following sources - LG V60, Fiio M3K, Shanling M1s. I've been collecting and enjoying music since I was a child and involved in the audiophile world for more than a decade. I grew up on vinyl, then cassettes came about, then CDs, and finally Napster and the streaming revolution that followed and now we are back to vinyl, lol.
With that said, I would like to encourage this community, on the behalf of music artists world-wide, especially less well-known artists, to not solely use music streaming services, but actually buy their content. Unfortunately, of all the content delivery systems, streaming services (Spotify, Tidal, etc.) pay the least to artists - even less than radio.
My favorite distributor is Bandcamp. 85% of every Bandcamp sale goes directly to the artist, which is far, far more than any other distributor including Apple, Google and Amazon who only send 70% of a sale to the artists, so if you want to enable artists to live off their art it's by far the best method to do so. Artists offer merch, vinyl, CD, sometimes cassette, and digital formats and unlike with other services, once you buy music from an artist on Bandcamp it's always yours, including digital. If you make digital purchase, you can redownload as many non-DRM copies as you ultimately need of a track or an album, and stream your purchases free through the Bandcamp app, and you can download your purchases in almost any format you want including WAV, FLAC, AAC, MP3, etc. This sometimes means hires and you can communicate directly to artists through Bandcamp, so if you want to encourage an artist to make hires available, you can.
In addition, unsigned and signed artists can easily self-list on Bandcamp and are very aware that it offers them the best payment terms, so virtually all new artists are most easily found on Bandcamp as well. Tens of thousands of new artists release material within all music genres on Bandcamp every year, which you will not find on Tidal because they often don't have the resources for hires mastering and which you will not find easily on Spotify, due to the ease of manipulating the Spotify algorithms, and even if you find them, at most they'll make a few cents from your replay of their music, which is hundreds of times less than they make from the sale of a digital album, CD, or vinyl purchase you make on Bandcamp.
I mention this, because Bandcamp never comes up in audiophile forums, but what's the point of great gear if the artists can't live off their art? Audiophiles are music lovers, I presume, no? I'm not in any way affiliated with Bandcamp, I just know lots of small-time artists and I know that Bandcamp never comes up in audiophile forums and sites.
Thanks again ASR!
