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

[SpokeyDokey]

Ok, all you folks saying to stream music from a provider and pointing out you can 'download' stuff to listen to later if offline. Presumably you can only listen back using the providers App and still don't have the option to save the (MP3?) files to your own system in a way that allows you to play it?

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?

You are not missing anything although you can listen to Spotify for free if the thought of £120 pa for unlimited music fazes you.

Streaming services are here to stay - for music and film. It's the default choice for the majority of consumers and all the better for it imo.

Looking back at my teen heroes Zep, Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Floyd etc most albums contained a few brilliant tracks and the rest were so-so. All personal opinion of course.

Even DSOTM was poor in retrospect (again imo) once you got beyond Time & Money - although I loved the whole album when I was 17 back in '73.

People who don't use Spotify etc are a bit like readers who do not use Kindle - they miss out on the sheer brilliance of accessible choice and the user-friendly convenience.

With Spotify you can cull the dead wood from albums - in fact we don't listen to albums at all; our defaults are artist, genre and occasion themed playlists.

Great for when you are entertaining too - pick or build a playlist for a whole evening and away you go. You can even pay homage to your guests personal preferences.

What's not to like.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Ok, all you folks saying to stream music from a provider and pointing out you can 'download' stuff to listen to later if offline. Presumably you can only listen back using the providers App and still don't have the option to save the (MP3?) files to your own system in a way that allows you to play it?

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?

Bandcamp has the option to download the 'official' MP3 when you buy it, you listen via the app notmally but get the files to keep. They definately have less physical releases as Bandcamp is more niche and heavily dependent on bands organising their own releases. This one is available on Vinyl, CD, Cassette and Digital -
View: https://themidnight.bandcamp.com/album/heroes

 

[winjim]

I'm still using iTunes. My iPod battery has given up the ghost now so I've replaced it with a £30 version.
Takes a bit of manual manipulation to do a playlist that plays in the order I need it to but it can be done.

I had a brief flirtation with Google music but that went to YouTube music and it wasn't the same after that.

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.

 

[winjim]

An example, I just logged on to facebook and saw this. The ability to share playlists like making a mixtape used to be. I like Jim's take on pop culture so it's nice to have a playlist from him and get inside his space a bit. He's got a similar vibe to me so maybe I'll find something new that I'll get really into.

 

[MontyVeda]

You are not missing anything although you can listen to Spotify for free if the thought of £120 pa for unlimited music fazes you.

Streaming services are here to stay - for music and film. It's the default choice for the majority of consumers and all the better for it imo.

...

What's not to like.

Spotify may be convenient for listeners and Spotify itself, but it's sh!te for the artists.

 

[FishFright]

Soulseek and Winamp.

Soulseek and Foobar2000. I was amazed that winamp was still a thing, alothough back in the day Sonique sounded a lot nicer.

 

[Dadam]

CD and Vinyl here..............MP3 is a 'compressed' format invented to make the files smaller and a decent quality system will allow you to hear the difference, I don't own a £3,000+ system to listen to an inferior quality format although I do have the ability to connect an MP3/i pod/smartphone to my CD player through a front mounted HDMI socket and have done so.
Preferred source is my Turntable although I could do with a new Stylus just haven't got the @£300 a new one costs at the moment

A big myth here. Yes it is a compressed format, and in the early days low bitrates were commonplace, and sounded rubbish. However double-blind listening tests have shown that the vast majority of people cannot tell the difference between CD and MP3 at a bitrate of 256kbps (constant bitrate) and above, played on high end gear. That is as long as the music is ripped with a decent encoder.

Even if you're one of the golden-eared elite, you can still rip to lossless formats like FLAC or stream from services like Tidal. In the early days digital storage media was vastly more expensive per megabyte. I have a reasonable though not vast CD collection, and could rip it all to FLAC and put it on a single micro SD card costing less than 20 quid, so you no longer need to make the tradeoff of size vs quality.

Comparing MP3 to vinyl as an inferior quality format is frankly risible. Vinyl has a woeful signal to noise ratio and dynamic range compared to digital formats. While I do understand the tactile appeal of sliding an LP out of a sleeve and putting the needle in the groove, there's a lot of audiophool BS spouted on this topic. Much of it stems from fundamental misunderstandings of digital signal processing and conveniently glossing over the fact that even pressing from an analogue tape master introduces approximations and filters to the original signal.

 

[FishFright]

Spotify may be convenient for listeners and Spotify itself, but it's sh!te for the artists.

But slightly less shite than buying second hand

 

[FishFright]

A big myth here. Yes it is a compressed format, and in the early days low bitrates were commonplace, and sounded rubbish. However double-blind listening tests have shown that the vast majority of people cannot tell the difference between CD and MP3 at a bitrate of 256kbps (constant bitrate) and above, played on high end gear. That is as long as the music is ripped with a decent encoder.

Even if you're one of the golden-eared elite, you can still rip to lossless formats like FLAC or stream from services like Tidal. In the early days digital storage media was vastly more expensive per megabyte. I have a reasonable though not vast CD collection, and could rip it all to FLAC and put it on a single micro SD card costing less than 20 quid, so you no longer need to make the tradeoff of size vs quality.

Comparing MP3 to vinyl as an inferior quality format is frankly risible. Vinyl has a woeful signal to noise ratio and dynamic range compared to digital formats. While I do understand the tactile appeal of sliding an LP out of a sleeve and putting the needle in the groove, there's a lot of audiophool BS spouted on this topic. Much of it stems from fundamental misunderstandings of digital signal processing and conveniently glossing over the fact that even pressing from an analogue tape master introduces approximations and filters to the original signal.

MP3 is god awful outdated rubbish that destroys transients and shrinks the soundstage to barely there. There is literally no good reason to listen to that format when lossless formats are so much better.

I'll leave the mp3's better than vinyl thing to those with cloth ears.

 

[Dadam]

MP3 is god awful outdated rubbish that destroys transients and shrinks the soundstage to barely there. There is literally no good reason to listen to that format when lossless formats are so much better.

I'll leave the mp3's better than vinyl thing to those with cloth ears.

Try a better encoder... if you have an open mind. Or don't, but don't start throwing insults around

 

[MontyVeda]

But slightly less shite than buying second hand

But not by any tangible amount. They pay around a £0.0035p per stream. And that second hand LP has already paid out to the artist, publisher, etc.

 

[FishFright]

Try a better encoder... if you have an open mind. Or don't, but don't start throwing insults around

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

 

[FishFright]

But not by any tangible amount. They pay around a £0.0035p per stream. And that second hand LP has already paid out to the artist, publisher, etc.

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.

 

[winjim]

How do I play vinyl records on my phone please?

 

[MontyVeda]

you rip it to MP3.