The Union - Fish Forum

Streaming Music

Other bands and gigs
#1

Well, it’s news to me but apparently downloading and actually ‘owning’ music is now considered old-hat! Never mind playing a CD!

Just watched a BBC news report about how streaming music (150 times = 1 sale) will now count when they compile chart positions. - Okay, a minuscule effect per-stream, but I’m not sure how I feel about this, given that people are not actually showing their love for a particular piece of music by paying for it. - One young girl being interviewed suggesting that it was so much ‘less hassle’ to listen to a track streamed live, rather than download or putting a CD on. - Not exactly sure how much hassle one can experience in taking a CD out of it’s case and putting it in the player?! A sign of the times.

People will always love their own music, but surely the romance of acquiring and playing it has well and truly gone…for some at least…

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#2

I did subscribe to streaming services for a bit last year.

Got to say that overall I felt more detached from the music than ever. Without any “ownership” there’s no reason to make any effort to to get any value from it.

I believe a while ago we talked about how being able to pick up CDs at just a few £ each devalued them a bit. When the music is (essentially) free what’s the value then?

I treasure my CD collection because it’s mine. I chose what to buy. I went out and bought those CDs on recommendations or what I heard. They are a marker of my life. And they will still be there, ad free, even though I don’t have to pay any more for them. I don’t need internet access to listen to them, or a computer.

I feel sorry for artists that have to struggle against this legalised distribution which is essentially making more money for the streaming services and cuts the artist out in yet another way.

On the positive side, I’m glad that streaming listens are being recognised for chart positions. But why don’t we start to aggregate listening data from last.fm and iTunes? Surely we should start to value music that is actually being listened to rather than simply what being bought?

Maybe there’s an opportunity for another official chart? :thumbsup:

Ultimately though, if I can’t break it, then I guess I don’t own it :smile:

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#3

Aren’t charts rather old-hat now too?

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Aren't Charts Old Hat?
#4

I’ve no interest in charts. I always buy a physical copy of an album on cd. The only time i download is if the seller, mostly Amazon, offers an mp3 version of the cd once purchased so don’t need to wait a few days until it arrives. Pre-ordered the new Steve Rothery cd months ago with his Kickstart campaign and was emailed a link enabling me to download the album. Proved really useful as i’m on a 2 week holiday abroad so would have had to wait until i got home to listen to cd where as i am now relaxing poolside with it on my phone.

#5

It seems that Taylor Swift has had enough of Spotify now:

I thought, “I will try this; I’ll see how it feels.” It didn’t feel right to me. I felt like I was saying to my fans, “If you create music someday, if you create a painting someday, someone can just walk into a museum, take it off the wall, rip off a corner off it, and it’s theirs now and they don’t have to pay for it.”

The whole article is here.

#6

After reading Fish’s thoughts about album sales, I noticed Paul McCartney also has things to say about streaming. Mainly that it’s very difficult for new artists to make money out of the current music business model due to piracy and streaming.

Now we’re at a point where established artists are going to be hanging up their equipment; the likes of fans such as us will be buying less and less physical media.

What has music become? For kids that are listening to music now it’s little more than what we used to consider renting a movie.


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