How do we buy music these days?....

[FishFright]

How do I play vinyl records on my phone please?

Record them on something digital , save as a FLAC and then transfer to your phone.

Never use MP3 for anything but audiobooks.

 

[MontyVeda]

I buy second hand music too but it gives as much back to the artists as a cheeky download that someone else bought before sharing.

but that second hand LP gave to the artist when purchased new, unlike a cheeky download.

 

[FishFright]

but that second hand LP gave to the artist when purchased new, unlike a cheeky download.

Because like petrol cheeky downloads are wished into existence ?

 

[MontyVeda]

Because like petrol cheeky downloads are wished into existence ?

well one ripped CD can be downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, but one CD can only be sold one at time on the 2nd hand market.

It's physical innit.

 

[Julia9054]

I used to use Google play but YouTube music is terrible. I know it's supposedly bad for artists but I use spotify now and I really like it. I don't have time in my life for CDs or even MP3s and transferring files between devices. Streaming's also kind of like radio. I listen to stuff I wouldn't want to buy, and sometimes it comes up with good suggestions that I wouldn't have heard otherwise and I might want to investigate more.

The whole way we're introduced to music and the way we involve ourself with it has changed. Artists don't need a huge record label behind them. Look on social media and bands are releasing self made videos, sometimes several videos for the same song with studio, live, lyric and solo playthroughs, like you'd get different mixes on a 12" bitd. They're making short behind the scenes videos, interacting with their fanbase, chatting, doing livestreams and interviews. There's a huge reaction culture introducing people to new music and artists are getting involved in that. Making playlists of their influences as well, that sort of stuff. It's a real community kind of vibe. To be honest I'm finding it really exciting and I think I'm listening to more new and interesting music now than I have at any point since my 20s.

None of which pays their rent, unfortunately

 

[FishFright]

well one ripped CD can be downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, but can only be sold one at time ion the 2nd hand market.

It's physical innit.

With a grand total of zero going to the artists in both cases.

 

[MontyVeda]

With a grand total of zero going to the artists in both cases.

i think you're missing the point.

 

[Dadam]

Even Fraunhofer gave up MP3 years ago because it was outdated and rubbish.

Or perhaps because their patents were about to run out, and they had patents on AAC with longer to run. 🤔
Prediction: in a few years time Fraunhofer will announce AAC is outdated and rubbish and there'll be another flavour of the month codec.

 

[marzjennings]

Once you stop your subscription your access to the music stops? You never 'own' anything despite spending £100s of pounds a year according to a few of you. Or am I missing something?

This is why I'm considering dropping apple music and just going back to buying music through itunes. I'm sort of stuck with itunes as I've been using Apple for years and now have over 12000 tracks in the app, though admittingly more than half of that count is from ripped CDs. Plus apple music seems to keep dropping tracks I add to my library, claiming 'not available in your region', so I have to buy them anyway.

My wife uses Spotify, but I've never got on with it.

I still have a pandora account as I think they have the best algorithm for creating streams of similar music.

And I just check my old Amazon account and it seems I can still download mp3 versions of CDs I bought years ago.

Not much help to you, but I do regret not just sticking with CDs and ripping them to a lossless format.

 

[FishFright]

Or perhaps because their patents were about to run out, and they had patents on AAC with longer to run. 🤔
Prediction: in a few years time Fraunhofer will announce AAC is outdated and rubbish and there'll be another flavour of the month codec.

That is why they exist.

But for local listening you may as well use FLAC etc , lossy data compression is only any use to streaming platforms.

 

[Dadam]

I've got about 30Gbs ripped in approx 200-220kbps VBR MP3, extracted using EAC and encoded with LAME using the '--preset standard' switch. It would take me weeks to re-rip it all and I can't really be arsed as 90% of my local listening is via Apple music, quite a lot of which is lossless these days and the rest sounds (to my cloth ears) pretty decent. I did a batch of FLAC ripping a couple of years back as I'd just bought a new DAP with FLAC support, but I got bored and it didn't sound better by enough to be worth it. Maybe a couple of points in a couple of tracks, but I couldn't really remove cognitive bias from the assessment.

I get that better codecs are available these days, but with decent settings, MP3 is more than good enough for most people. But then most people these probably listen on phones and tablets and so are using AAC by default.

 

[winjim]

Record them on something digital , save as a FLAC and then transfer to your phone.

Never use MP3 for anything but audiobooks.

So digital is better than vinyl.

 

[FishFright]

So digital is better than vinyl.

Try to listen to a 4 bit sample and then you'll realise how poor digital is a lower levels. A very quiet section of music may only have a peak to peak of a handful of bits and at such low levels it's not capable of reproducing music in any meaningful way. This is also why quoting the signal to noise ration is pretty pointless.

Try it for yourself if you have Audacity etc.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Re Spotify payments to Artists - no one is forcing anyone to sign up.

The problem is, once 'bread on the table' and 'rent' is mentioned every teenage 4-piece or baggy-trousered Rapper that knocks up a god-awful track in a garage or bedroom suddenly that thinks they should be paid a fortune by the likes of Spotify.

If they want to make some money stick to the local gig circuits.

 

[winjim]

Try to listen to a 4 bit sample and then you'll realise how poor digital is a lower levels. A very quiet section of music may only have a peak to peak of a handful of bits and at such low levels it's not capable of reproducing music in any meaningful way. This is also why quoting the signal to noise ration is pretty pointless.

Try it for yourself if you have Audacity etc.

I don't have Audacity installed on my work PC.