Not on Spotify! What?

[NancyJohnson]

Wife asked, 'Why isn't everything on Spotify?'

 

Went through a brief thing about rights issues, ownership, disputes, maybe artists just don't want their stuff on an online platform.  I just mentioned there was stuff by a few bands that I'd love to hear again but because my taste is a bit eclectic and much of this saw release on small (now defunct) labels, this material is never going to resurface.

 

So this weekend's question, what's missing for you?

[AndyTravis]

An album called “The Chancer”

by a band called Nash.

 

An album called “Tetra Splendour” by a band of the same name.

 

both early 2000’s

[NancyJohnson]

Screams - Screams

Charlie Sexton Sextet - Under The Wishing Tree

Blue Tears - Blue Tears

XTC - Instruvenus/Waspstrumental

Straw - Keepsakes

Green wheel - Soma Holiday

Girl - Sheer Greed

Fortune Drive - A Modern Question 

[Doctor J]

A reason.

 

I've been buying music since I was a kid, I've no need to rent it again from those greedy barstwards.

[LowB_FTW]

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

So this weekend's question, what's missing for you?

Nothing, because I don't have a Spotify account.

I don't stream music, I'll buy it if I really like it.

There's some stuff I buy on records but mostly I'll by from the iTunes Store and recently I've started to use Bandcamp more.

 

Mark

[SurroundedByManatees]

A band called Dropbox, they had 1 album which I have on cd somewehere. I think it was produced by Sully Erna from Godsmack.

[itu]

Peruchin, Esquivel... older recordings from say 30's, 40's, 50's.

[PaulWarning]

some obscure stuff isn't on Spotify but it's usually to be found on Youtube, would I prefer people to buy my bands music in a physical format? absolutely, but unfortunately most people stream there music these days, the Genie is out of the bottle, and it's making recording new music uneconomic for small bands like us

[Mediocre Polymath]

The one that bothers me is when the songs are on Spotify, but the mix is completely different to the CD release. There are a couple of early Jason Isbell albums in particular where the Spotify mix just seems to have a few of instruments missing from the audio.

 

Take for example the fun bit of boogie that is "Never Could Believe" off Here we Rest. Here's a YouTube link with the CD mix (that particular upload also includes the brief instrumental "Ballad of Nobeard"). The Spotify version meanwhile has a weird echoey mix and the first guitar solo is just missing, meaning there's a weird interlude where the piano player and rhythm guitarist seem to be vamping between verses.

 

There's also "The Blue", a lovely song off his self-titled 2009 album. The original mix has a metronome that's very prominently and deliberately left in the final mix, but it's gone in the Spotify version.

[BigRedX]

So much music I can't even begin to list it. Last time I looked somewhere between a third and quarter of the music I have on vinyl or CD was missing from Spotify. Most of it was from Japanese artists and indie bands from the late 70s and early 80s, but there are also some surprising modern artists missing too. 

 

As a punter streaming services are useful for checking out artists I haven't heard of before, and as an artist I see it as free advertising for the band. Until our debut album is released later this year the only way you can listen to my current band is streaming, buying download, or coming to see us play live. We did a limited CD run of our last single simply so that we would have some music on the merch table, but we have also made a deliberate decision that we will only sell it at gigs, and bonus track that comes with it will only be available on the CD. Looking at our Spotify streaming figures, most of our audience is not in the UK. When the album does come out we will be selling physical copies on-line so it will be interesting to see how many people are prepared to pay international shipping...

[spongebob]

I use Qobuz, similar issue with some. 
 

A lot of Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom record label releases are absent - one of my favourite soul albums…..the s/t by The Notations - criminal it’s not out there. 
 

So much so, I’ve thought about getting a CD player for the hi-fi, and rebuying some of the older reissues. 

[NancyJohnson]

6 hours ago, BigRedX said:

So much music I can't even begin to list it. Last time I looked somewhere between a third and quarter of the music I have on vinyl or CD was missing from Spotify. Most of it was from Japanese artists and indie bands from the late 70s and early 80s, but there are also some surprising modern artists missing too. 

 

As a punter streaming services are useful for checking out artists I haven't heard of before, and as an artist I see it as free advertising for the band. Until our debut album is released later this year the only way you can listen to my current band is streaming, buying download, or coming to see us play live. We did a limited CD run of our last single simply so that we would have some music on the merch table, but we have also made a deliberate decision that we will only sell it at gigs, and bonus track that comes with it will only be available on the CD. Looking at our Spotify streaming figures, most of our audience is not in the UK. When the album does come out we will be selling physical copies on-line so it will be interesting to see how many people are prepared to pay international shipping...

 

I'd concur about the discovery factor.

 

Streaming platforms are a bit divisive on several levels; people taking this stance about royalties and audio quality. 

 

On the first point of royalties, I often wonder why people feel so hard done by for artistes; I worked on projects decades ago and I know some of my work is still being used today in old employers systems.  Why should I expect ongoing royalties, whereas musicians/bands still expect a cheque once in a while.  Don't get it.  

 

Audio quality.  Argument is subjective and let's face it, I doubt 99.9% of Spotify users would be able to tell the difference between a FLAC/MP3/whatever file format.

[AndyTravis]

The A.M - The A.M album - Michael Tighe’s band post Jeff Buckley, I’ve had it on CD 3 times now…lost with each car sale/house move.

 

Fantastic Indie Pop.

 

There is a US based fan who’s uploaded it to YouTube for when I want to hear it.

[spongebob]

Streaming quality can be amazing……not on Spotify, though. 
 

Qobuz has hi-res variants, and of course it’s dependant on the system you use. 
 

Streaming can be amazing, but the best sounding gear isn’t cheap……you could finance a massive record collection for the price of a high quality streamer. 
 

I went down the streaming route a few years back…..sold all my physical stuff, bought the best unit and speakers I could get. No regrets. 👍

[NancyJohnson]

3 hours ago, spongebob said:

Streaming quality can be amazing……not on Spotify, though. 
 

Qobuz has hi-res variants, and of course it’s dependant on the system you use. 
 

Streaming can be amazing, but the best sounding gear isn’t cheap……you could finance a massive record collection for the price of a high quality streamer. 
 

I went down the streaming route a few years back…..sold all my physical stuff, bought the best unit and speakers I could get. No regrets. 👍

 

We've gone the Sonos route throughout the house; stereo pairs around the house and our main listening room (lounge) has a stereo pair and a mini-sub. 

 

I'd say without hesitation that tonally the lounge set up is easily on par with what it replaced (Arcam/B&W), irrespective of the source.

[warmnotes]

I try to buy as much music as I can via bandcamp or secondhand on CD or record and just use Spotify for historical research purposes or to hear stuff I haven't been able to find anywhere else.

 

Few things I tried to listen to recently and couldn't find on bandcamp or Spotify were 

 

Triphasic - Shaman

Dr Phibes and the House of Wax Equations

Throwing Muses - first album 

 

[nekomatic]

On 01/02/2025 at 15:45, NancyJohnson said:

On the first point of royalties, I often wonder why people feel so hard done by for artistes; I worked on projects decades ago and I know some of my work is still being used today in old employers systems.  Why should I expect ongoing royalties, whereas musicians/bands still expect a cheque once in a while.  Don't get it.  

That’s fair enough if the artist got a nice healthy advance from their recording contract at the time of the original release; less so if they put time and effort into it unpaid in the hope that they’d see a return from people buying it. My understanding is that the former situation is rare these days for all but the biggest artists. 

[NancyJohnson]

3 hours ago, nekomatic said:

That’s fair enough if the artist got a nice healthy advance from their recording contract at the time of the original release; less so if they put time and effort into it unpaid in the hope that they’d see a return from people buying it. My understanding is that the former situation is rare these days for all but the biggest artists. 

 

I suppose the one prominent voice here over the last week or two is/was Bjork, claiming Spotify was the worst thing etc.

 

It's worth bearing in mind that irrespective of the royal rate per play, she could potentially net $3-5k per million plays, she has one track that's off her first or second album that's on 79 million plays, so potentially $300k for one song, recorded and released 30-odd years ago.  There's others over 50m plays.  I've no idea what her deal with Elektra/One Little Indian is/was, so any revenue from sales is open to supposition, but let's say she's made a comfortable income from this platform and she's on Apple/Deezer/Tidal.

 

If she hates Spotify so much, come off the platform.  Don't bite the hand that feeds.

[dmccombe7]

I guess i'm in the minority not using Spotify. No particular reason other than i prefer to have a CD than a download.

Dave

[paul_5]

Me too. I listen to music every day, mostly on my iPod classic; it sounds great and I've never been frustrated by wifi dropouts or server problems.

 

 

[EMG456]

On 01/02/2025 at 15:45, NancyJohnson said:

On the first point of royalties, I often wonder why people feel so hard done by for artistes; I worked on projects decades ago and I know some of my work is still being used today in old employers systems.  Why should I expect ongoing royalties, whereas musicians/bands still expect a cheque once in a while.  Don't get it.  

 

Normally if you work as an employee or sub contractor for any organisation where you will be creating a product that will have a value into the future - could be a bit of music, some graphics or video, a software application or even a small module in one, a paragraph of text even - there will be a clause in the contract that signs over the ownership of the intellectual property - that thing you have created- to the company. That's why you get no ongoing benefit from your work- you signed that away to them in return for some sort of reimbursement at the time.

 

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

I guess i'm in the minority not using Spotify. No particular reason other than i prefer to have a CD than a download.

Dave

I don't have a spotify account either due to distaste of their questionable business activities. I do use streaming services for video but those are not things I feel strongly about ownership.

Music is a different thing for me as indeed is stuff like subscription software. I don't agree with the model so I won't partake. I don't object to a music download that I own the right to use in perpetuity but I would never leave that and stream it from a cloud server- company goes down and your money has gone up in smoke.

Have recently purchased a turntable again for the first time in about 40 years and am working my way through digitising our collection of three big boxes of albums many of which have never made it into our digital library- it's proving interesting.

Edited February 3 by EMG456
2nd quote erased text I had put in replying to first quote!