Spotify - Streaming Music
 

Some good points straight from the horse's mouth. Personally, I share streaming music, especially on FB or on here, with the intent of getting people into it and hoping they'll take an interest more intense than clicking on links because of a concealed, imaginary duty of doing good service to ''good'' music, to the ''right'' music,.Definitely not, like some champions of this forum often gave me the impression of, for bragging about an admirable mp3 collection that will eventually cause you a headache because you'll never have the time to listen to attentively before you start an engaging discussion about music in general. Plus, I have a strong visual sense of anything I hold in my hands, so even though I feel often ambiguous about the whole downloading thing, I know I prefer to hold in my hand something that looks like it's been made by someone and admire its artistry. I still don't have a problem downloading or listening to music that's on the internet. Why should I? I know I hate almost all of you and I don't care if you live or die. Anywayz, what do you have to say about this (see thread title)?

Yawn.
I have nothing to say about the whole downloading/streaming debate what hasn't been said a thousand times before in the last 15 years.

But if you want to talk about Spotify in particular, I use it sometimes to check out new music/music I don't know. It saves me the effort/diskspace required for downloading.
I never really use it to listen to music I already know/own, because it has stupid commercials in between songs. It's surely not a real alternative for CD/LP/mp3s to me personally. A paid membership isn't worth it for me because most of the music I'm interested in usually isn't on there. It's way too mainstream.

PS: "bragging about an admirable mp3 collection" How is that even possible?
PPS: I prefer having physical objects, I buy lots of CDs/LPs/cassettes
PPPS: I do download a lot of stuff. I'm not interested in iTunes/mp3 stores and I don't think I'll ever buy mp3-releases, but I try to buy as much physical objects as I can from the stuff that I like.
PPPPS: I buy more stuff and go to more live shows than I would buy/go to if I didn't download stuff... I simply wouldn't know about them otherwise.
PPPPPS: There's nothing in my life that I've spend more money on than music.
PPPPPPS: From what I've read, Spotify isn't really interesting for artists financially. You need a gazillion plays to make a few bucks or so I'm told.
PPPPPPPS: More than I feel guilty for downloading, I feel guilty for buying CDs/LPs from big overseas corporate mailorder companies, because they're twice as cheap as the independent record store down the road.

So why did you say it? Can I get a stream of your yawning on Soundcloud then?

Where's Jenn's post?

Took it down, it was dull and same old.

I didn't say it.
I only mentioned Spotify in particular... read it again. If you require assistance please let me know.

The PS's were just to clarify my position, you can skip those.
Yes, there's a link somewhere. Don't forget to follow me.

By freely downloading almost every single album you own and formenting a ''put-down'' attitude when it comes to every other person's taste in music on an internet forum, for instance? Surely you must have witnessed this happening as a long time poster on here?

Spotify streams music. And no need to act patronising, know-it-all.

Ah yes, I see what you mean now and know who you mean. But I guess I always more interpreted that as bragging about musical knowledge rather than bragging about 10 terabytes of mp3s or whatever.... you know, here's my top 250 albums for 2011! Oh, and my top 100 Merzbow releases, etc.

I wasn't patronising. You were being cocky.
Spotify is just one possibility for streaming music... there's bandcamp, last.fm, soundcloud, thehypemachine, youtube, etc.

Dude, I know all the other websites you mentioned. Ok, so that pokkeherrie feels happy, I know what Bandcamp is. It's like, a concentration camp but for music. Oh well.

lol

Yeah, but with "spotify streams music" you were implying that talking about spotify in particular equals talking about the whole downloading/streaming debate which makes me yawn.

Look, dude. Dude. Now you've scared everyone away from this thread and it's doomed to fail. Only because you enjoy arguing with internet people so much!

Ah ok.
Spotify - Streaming Music

This thread is now about failing on the internet. lol

They all are, eventually.

Okay...this one stays.

It does now.

Look Jenn! I am a new convert of the artiste the Beatlez by streaming their music on the internet! This is my new favourite song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDdI7GhZSQA !!!!

CRAAAZAAY!!

It's not going anywhere now.

regards,
pokkeherrie (jennthebenn post preservation society)

And here I was hoping it would be my epic blog posts that would convert
you!

damn, I got beaten by genteel death and his smart phone.

I am immortal for sure, now.

That one sucks. This is my favourite Beatles song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBmLEZxiflw

last time I read your blog posts about them I laughed out really hard about the sgt pepper review, which i loved, and that was the only time i paid attention to the beatles before i decided that i loved them. even though i wouldn't say you converted me, i gave the (streaming) album one more listen and decided to pay more attention to the rest.

my smartphone is being repaired at the moment. but you know there are no winners on the internet already, do you?

jONBOY, I'm AT HOME!!!! NO LIFE!!!

That is one my faves too. Pretty apt for the way I feel at the moment too.

Thanks, for I moment I feared you were posting that from an an east-London pub bog again.

Real winners don't use the internet, they use drugs... in weightlifting and cycling at least.

Your dad is here wearing your mum's clothes! do you waNNA SAY HELLO TO HIM??? Uhhh??:confused: :mad:

I realise that you're not necessarily talking economically, but I think this isn't primarily about format. Some of you like tapes (which I abandoned as a format ages ago and haven't missed). Some of you like digital formats, some LPs, some CDs. Most have a mixture of all of them.

I tend not to like having music on my computer because my primary relationship with music was that it was a physical thing. Lee is the same, apparently. A lot of people on this forum are. Whether one is better than the other is kind of moot to me - call it a primary psychological bond, if you will. The fact I tend not to feel anything on my hard-drive is 'real' is less to do with the facts of the matter and more to do with how my emotional relationship with music was formed.

But the economic thing is a biggie. I do think that it's had a negative effect on the ability of bands/ musicians to be musicians. There are fundamentally two reasons why your favourite band aren't visiting your town/ city: they're broke, or your scene's shit - both are from the same cause, IMO. I don't mean your scene's lacking in hype bands - I mean people don't go out to watch bands. Where I'm living now has just enough people watching gigs to make it run at a moderate loss. It's run on goodwill, but at least people turn out for the gigs. Where I was previously had some good bands who would routinely play to no-one; a large-ish out-of-town band comes around and suddenly people can be bothered to leave the house.

[Edit: please note that the reason ATP are throwing money at bands to reform is because it's much more of a money-spinner than supporting bands through years of not-selling-that-well, and they're the biggest shakers in 'alternative' music]

I think it's difficult to impute a direct causality between 'change in relationship to music' and 'bands are broke as fuck therefore no-one can tour' - there are, obviously, many other factors at play. But fundamentally I see the over-consumption of free music as essentially devaluing music itself. We don't need big studios and massive vans; but unless I'm headlining a 100+ venue (unlikely at present), I can't afford to play in the next nearest city, and it's unlikely I'd get paid for supports. With a full-time job I can make the loss 'because I care about the music, man' but ultimately musicians aren't getting paid and the music scene is struggling as a result.

This is kind of a trickle-down thing - don't worry about downloading BEP's album, they make their money back on product placements in videos and other indirect revenue streams. But the idea we've inherited from the 80s - perhaps emblematised by Fugazi or whoever - of 'indie or die' simply can't happen any more, and most decent/ creative/ experimental/ blah musicians will not come to your town until they're retired or win the lottery.

I don't want to be whingey about this, but surely people must have opinions on this? I realise that the long-standing, boring old fuckers like me have probably made their points known a few times, but what about the people who've not been on this forum forever? Do you just not have opinions on things now?

Also worth noting that I think the last time we did this was for mp3s/ slsk etc, probably around the 06/07 mark - things have changed a bit, no?

Fine. I'll play. I actually don't have a firm stance on the issue, just a few questions and random thoughts. But you asked.

-Aren't record companies notorious for ripping off their bands? I mean, mechanichal rights are a few cents for each copy (so sorry--"unit") sold. I can see why the company has taken a hit, but does it make much difference to the artist?

-How many companies have gone under? I don't know. I'm asking.

-Bands have always had a rough time on the road, haven't they? I just heard an amusing story about Elvis Costello and the Attractions going flat broke in the middle of a US tour in the early days. The drummer made the mistake of mentioning he had a credit card. He's probably still paying it off.

-I always assumed there was a sort of "If I download something and dig it, I'll make an effort to make sure the artist will eventually get some of my cash" mentality among music lovers. Maybe not. Tightwads. I was hoping some sort of "pay what you feel" system would work, but maybe that's putting too much faith in humanity.

- I too feel music has been devalued, but only because of the sheer glut of it floating around. I'm guilty, you're probably guilty, lots of people you know are guilty. Simple economics: too much stuff, value goes down. But then, how does the indie artist get their material out there? I know! Tough situation.

-Barely related: I took my external hard drive to a pal's place to share some stuff I stole. His fucking cat knocked it to the floor and it hasn't worked since. There are quite a few lessons in this short story, I think.

-This is just childish: I think back to my younger days when I'd pay over ten bucks for a new tape. I did this all the time. Hundreds of times. So now the industry's hurting? Fuck them!

-Maybe I'm a different beast nowadays, but I can't think of too many instances when I'd buy some music without having a fairly good idea of what I'm getting beforehand. Seems streaming is very important to getting cash out of folks like me.