Vinyl? CDs? Streaming?

[How1]

How does everyone listen to music these days? I’m coming to the end of a discounted period of Amazon’s Music unlimited. It’s been fine while I’ve had it, but I’m not sure I want to pay for a full price music subscription - basically paying to own nothing - and have been thinking it’d be nice to build a collection of music back up. I’m pretty sure you could buy a ton of used CDs for the cost of a years Amazon or Apple Music. Am I just living in the past and should I just suck it up and pay for a subscription?! I have been using it on my phone on the way to work and stuff, but there’s always YouTube etc.

Edited May 2, 2023 by How1
Typos

[BigRedX]

If everything you want to listen to is on one of the streaming services then you are probably best sticking with that. 

 

However at least a quarter of my record and CD collection still hasn't made to any streaming service, and that includes a lot of albums and songs that I would consider indispensable for my listening enjoyment. You could consider the combo of Apple Music and iTunes on your computer because that way you can also make the contents of your iTunes library available to stream for you via Apple Music which gets around the problem of ant essential tunes being missing.

 

This is what I have done, my complete CD collection (around 2500 CDs and most of my vinyl) has been digitised at 16bit 44.1Hz on a 4TB SSD attached to a Mac and then made available to stream to my Apple Music account.

[PaulWarning]

spotify free for me, or Youtube, unlike @BigRedXthere's very little that I want to listen too that's not on one of these platforms, I sometimes think I shouldn't, as streaming services provide so little income for small bands compared to CD sales, but it just so convenient and me not using them will make no difference at all, I'm a bit of a pragmatist

edit, I should add that most of my music is on my phone so I listen through that a lot

Edited May 2, 2023 by PaulWarning

[BigRedX]

4 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

I sometimes think I shouldn't, as streaming services provide so little income for small bands compared to CD sales

 

Unless you are buying CDs or vinyl directly from the bands at their gigs or through Bandcamp they still won't be getting very much.

[Lw.]

Spotify for most things for me, if I decide I really like an album I'll then go & buy it on vinyl. 

Given the price of new vinyl these days, I very rarely buy without listening to the album a few times first to confirm it's worth it. 

I do occasionally pop into the local record stores and buy used records without pre-listening though, good way to burn through an hour of the weekend. 

[cetera]

CDs. Very little that I listen to is on streaming sites and I like owning product rather a piece of electricity (downloads).

[How1]

25 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

If everything you want to listen to is on one of the streaming services then you are probably best sticking with that. 

 

However at least a quarter of my record and CD collection still hasn't made to any streaming service, and that includes a lot of albums and songs that I would consider indispensable for my listening enjoyment. You could consider the combo of Apple Music and iTunes on your computer because that way you can also make the contents of your iTunes library available to stream for you via Apple Music which gets around the problem of ant essential tunes being missing.

 

This is what I have done, my complete CD collection (around 2500 CDs and most of my vinyl) has been digitised at 16bit 44.1Hz on a 4TB SSD attached to a Mac and then made available to stream to my Apple Music account.

If I was going to go for a subscription Apple would *probably* be what I’d go for. I do own some stuff on iTunes - not enough to really tie me to it, but it’s enough to make me think I’d probably stay with Apple.

At this point I don’t really own much in the way of CDs, vinyl or digital though - more like an assortment of them all - so it would be almost like starting from scratch. The only thing I would need to buy hardware wise would be a Bluetooth receiver so I could use my half decent old amp and speakers. That’s also something else I need to consider; some of this gear is from the 90s and won’t last forever, if it packs up is it worth replacing considering some of it (CD player mainly) is considered ‘old tech’?

[How1]

24 minutes ago, Lw. said:

Spotify for most things for me, if I decide I really like an album I'll then go & buy it on vinyl. 

Given the price of new vinyl these days, I very rarely buy without listening to the album a few times first to confirm it's worth it. 

I do occasionally pop into the local record stores and buy used records without pre-listening though, good way to burn through an hour of the weekend. 

I own some vinyl and the player, but at this point I’m pretty much ruling out a large vinyl collection because of the price. I like vinyl mainly for the artwork tbh. 
 

If I had to subscribe for music for the rest of my life it would cost me about 4 grand or something near. I reckon I could rack that up in LPs a lot sooner! No snazzy artwork though. 

Edited May 2, 2023 by How1

[BigRedX]

1 minute ago, How1 said:

If I was going to go for a subscription Apple would *probably* be what I’d go for. I do own some stuff on iTunes - not enough to really tie me to it, but it’s enough to make me think I’d probably stay with Apple.

 

Anything that you bought from iTMS will already be on Apple Music. iTunes is not just the iTMS store. The advantage is for CDs that you own and have added yourself (and vinyl if you own the means of digitising it) that haven't yet been made available for streaming.

[gjones]

Secondhand CDs are stupidly cheap on Ebay. So if you wanted to physically own the music you play, it wouldn't cost you that much. 

 

I was reluctant to use a streaming service for quite a while, as the payment per stream, that artists get, is pretty miniscule and I felt this was unfair. But I did some research and found that some are more generous than others. Tidal is the most generous, followed by Apple and Deezer. I don't know where Amazon comes in the list.

[jonnybass]

I use all of those formats, spotify is good to get a taster of bands etc or learning covers, I stream and buy through bandcamp and I buy Vinyl from small indy stores or bandcamp too.

 

Jonny 

[casapete]

I’ve stuck with CDs rather than entering the world of streaming. I guess it’s coming from the

generation that got used to owning music rather than renting it. I have a large CD collection,

and TBH don’t buy that much new stuff anymore anyway. I do use Spotify ( free version ) 

occasionally though, mainly to check out whether I like something enough to buy it or

for rare recordings I can’t source myself. I have no qualms about buying s/h CDs from

Ebay or wherever, as it’s usually a CD copy of something I once had on vinyl - I’ve already

bought plenty of things twice when I ditched most of my vinyl anyway. 
Streaming does seem to have altered how bands make money now - for me the sharp rise

in concert tickets has been largely down to this i.e. touring used to be about promoting 

albums, now it appears to be the other way round. 

[martthebass]

CDs and Vinyl for me.  I don't buy much new Vinyl but if I'm musing through one of the second hand record stores I'll occasionally pick up a gem.  As others have said, CDs can be had for cheap and I prefer ownership to a bit of software....which I'd no doubt lose or manage to destroy or somesuch.

[NAS Bass]

Mostly vinyl, CD's and some cassettes. I already own them and can't see a good reason to pay again to stream that same music. Anything new that I get via download is on Bandcamp as I wont touch Spotify, Apple, etc

Edited May 2, 2023 by NAS Bass
typo

[MrCrane]

CDs backed up to FLAC format and then converted to mp3 on an iPod Classic with a 512 Gb Solid State Drive for listening to.

Some FLAC downloads from Bandcamp, but only a few.

Edited May 2, 2023 by MrCrane

[BigRedX]

21 minutes ago, gjones said:

Secondhand CDs are stupidly cheap on Ebay. So if you wanted to physically own the music you play, it wouldn't cost you that much.

 

Only if what you want to buy is fairly mainstream. Anything released in small quantities and no longer available new can be surprisingly expensive. I had to price up my CD and vinyl collection for insurance purposes about 10 years ago and some of the CDs were worth a lot of money (and those were actual sold prices on Discogs - not what unsold CDs were being offered at).

[velvetkevorkian]

I've sworn off physical media for space reasons (although I should really go back and re-rip my CD collection at higher quality...) -- 99% of the time now I'm buying downloads from Bandcamp, or occasionally one of the other digital storefronts if there's something I want that's not on BC.

[Crusoe]

My CD player died a few months ago, so I haven't really been listening to music in the house, other than on the radio, or via the Echo. I have an MP3 player with most of my albums on it and listen to it when I'm out (I can connect it in the car with an aux cable too). I've ordered a Positive Spark Go, which doubles as a Bluetooth speaker, so I'll be able to play the MP3 player through it too.

[meterman]

CDs and vinyl mostly. There’s a lot of music that I love that hasn’t yet made it to YouTube never mind streaming platforms. I rarely buy new vinyl nowadays but a couple of labels send me their new releases as a promo thing. And I don’t listen to music ‘on the go’ so it’s usually CDs at home for me. I am an old git, though 😂

[Lw.]

36 minutes ago, gjones said:

I was reluctant to use a streaming service for quite a while, as the payment per stream, that artists get, is pretty miniscule and I felt this was unfair. But I did some research and found that some are more generous than others. Tidal is the most generous, followed by Apple and Deezer. I don't know where Amazon comes in the list.

Worth noting here that the royalties calculated & paid out by the platforms isn't done on a per stream basis (despite what many high profile artists think), it's not even done on a per artist basis. Fair point though, the artists don't get much cash from streaming but it's a mess of the labels making. It's not just digital though, the whole industry is structured so that the artists receive the smallest share of the income. 

 

Speaking of messes - I've moved house three times with my CD collection in boxes, they're all just sat in the loft taking up space as I don't even have a CD player anymore! 

[How1]

I’m even more unsure now than at the start of this thread. I was honestly expecting it to be a lot more one sided towards streaming.

[PaulWarning]

I not sure whether I'm right but when you download off Bandcamp the band doesn't necessarily get any money because when the pass on a physical sale they take a fee that gets debited to your account, when you get a download that income is taken off your account, so in the case of the band I'm in we've made no money from, admittedly not many, downloads.

When I do pay for a downloads I search round for a site that doesn't do this.

[How1]

19 minutes ago, Lw. said:

Worth noting here that the royalties calculated & paid out by the platforms isn't done on a per stream basis (despite what many high profile artists think), it's not even done on a per artist basis. Fair point though, the artists don't get much cash from streaming but it's a mess of the labels making. It's not just digital though, the whole industry is structured so that the artists receive the smallest share of the income. 

 

Speaking of messes - I've moved house three times with my CD collection in boxes, they're all just sat in the loft taking up space as I don't even have a CD player anymore! 

From what I remember, this has always been a complete shzit show. I remember some label guy once telling me that if a cd costs a tenner the band usually get less than a pound out of it. It’s probably worse than that now.

 

I’m not all that worried about this anyway tbh, most of the bands I listen to are either dead or that rich I think they’ll be fine. I’ve also bought some of their albums more than once on various formats already.If there’s something new I like, I’ll put my hand in my pocket.

Edited May 2, 2023 by How1

[BigRedX]

33 minutes ago, How1 said:

I’m even more unsure now than at the start of this thread. I was honestly expecting it to be a lot more one sided towards streaming.

 

We're all old. Most of us grew up with physical media, and like what we know.

 

I'd be happy to switch completely to streaming but, as I already said a lot lot of what I want to listen to isn't yet available here in the UK either due to geographical licensing constraints or because it's old and originally released on a small indie label. Also there's no guarantee that any of the streamlining services can ever be truly profitable and as a result may close at any point and then you'll have no music to listen to.

[Chaddy]

I used to stream for generic before cancelling as the cost wasn't worth it. ( wish I could use Apple Music due to the quality ) and I purchase in FLAC for anything I like to support the artists etc and see them live if about naturally. 
Sometimes it opens the door up for other music than isn't say "sponsored down your throat" as bad as Youtube. 

If I really like the band, I go for more the catalogue in Vinyl due to the art work for example, However as were moving soon I'm looking forward to chilling on a sofa with it playing finally on a deck with a tube amp. 

And google Podcasts I find more appealing now in the car , so I listen to the Good, the bad and the Rugby , Some F1 stuff ( got bored of it all now ) , or some comedy stuff. 

Edited May 2, 2023 by Chaddy
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