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  1. #1
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    Why I Support Spotify: An Editorial

    As an LP buyer since the summer of ’69 I’ve witnessed many changes in the way recorded music is made available to the public. Some of these changes have been favorable; most, in my opinion, not favorable and driven by the greed of the music industry instead of meeting the needs of the customer. Quadraphonic, Dynaflex, 8 track, CD, ever-escalating retail prices, you name it, foisted upon a consumer base that just wanted the product they loved at a fair price.

    In the 70s the industry cried wolf about home taping, not understanding that perhaps home taping was a result of high retail pricing. The industry should have, but didn’t, “get a clue”. And like most of the public I just kept on buying while prices rose, formats changed, and the recording industry bloated itself nearly out of existence. The CD boom brought oldies re-releases a-plenty – nice for the consumer, great for the record companies, not so great for performers, etc who saw little or no royalties from re-sale of decades-old product re-invented for a new listening format the public did not really want.

    CD sales began to level off around the time of the PC boom. File sharing services such as Napster [[which I never accessed) boomed. Clearly there was a market for on-demand music. Instead of reacting with innovation and foresight the recording industry stuck its head in the sand and sued. After Napster, YouTube. Anyone and everyone could [[and did, and still does!) upload officially released music, bootleg music, bootleg video, etc. No one earned royalties, everyone watched, and Google bought. Did the recording industry see a trend? Apparently, not. Performances streamed, royalties lost, commercial ad time sold, and Google getting richer. The recording industry? Lost in a fog while new firms create streaming services such as Spotify.

    So as a consumer, what is my choice when I want to access music I love but is not readily in print? Buy an MP3 copy? No, I tried and just hate downloading music. Spend $100 on a used copy on eBay? Not gonna happen, and even if it did, there are no royalties paid on resale. Only eBay and the scalper get rich. Deny myself the music I love because the industry holds it hostage? Nope – Spotify it is.

    I fully support the artists, etc who seek a fairer share of royalties for streamed music – but I refuse to deny myself until that happens. At lease SOME royalties are paid by Spotify, as opposed to the other options I’ve outlined. Artists, producers, etc need to unify themselves to make the change happen.


    We can all beat our breasts, rend our garments, and shake our fists at the sky over the indignity of it all. But streaming is not the future, it is now.

  2. #2
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    Hi Robert!

    I want to thank you for your thread! This has the potential to be perhaps the best thread topic i've seen on this forum in years.

    You give some cogent reasons for using Spotify. I fully understand the money crunch, as I am going through one myself. In fact, it is so severe that I had to pass up that $7 sale on those Diana Ross remasters a couple of months ago on Dusty Groove. Oh well... I would hope that, if and when you become more financially solvent that you would buy the music instead of relying on streaming services. They do have their drawbacks as far as sound and availability of titles is concerned, as well as the reasons you pointed out about the artists not getting fair, or any royalties from streaming.

    I use Spotify to check out recordings once in a blue moon, just to see if I want to obtain it in some way. I could never, ever rely on streaming to satisfy my musical addiction. As an audiophile, I cannot always get the mastering I prefer. As a collector, I cannot always find what I want to hear. Unlike you, I see tons of holes in every artists' catalog, some glaring. So, again, streaming is not a viable option. And, of course, the sound is decent for what it is, but nothing to write home about. But, I do see it's value. I just hope that people are not relying on Spotify, and other streaming services for their fix.

    As I serious music lover and collector, I always have a turntable for music that cannot be obtained any other way. But, because I dislike the ritual of cleaning records, and the space that is needed for storing them [[and CDs, BTW), I use a computer to digitize, master, and archive my records, and I have done literally thousands of "needledrops" over the last 18 years! I have free, and thousands of dollars of audio software that I have accumulated over time to so the task. I started collecting and buying records [[45s and albums) in 1968, when I was just five years old. I have spent thousands of dollars on used records over the last two decades [[I fully realize that the artists don't make a penny on the first-sale doctrine) to get those recordings that have never appeared on CD, and will probably never appear as downloads. And, I get superior sound from those records because they do not suffer from the awful mastering practices of the last 15 years. And, of course, I have thousands of CDs. I also download music when I see the need. I look for the highest quality I can get.

    I play my digital files from my computer through the home stereo so I get the highest sound quality possible from lossless files, or the high-bit mp3s. I play the files on my laptop through powered studio monitors in the bedroom. I play the files in the car from a USB stick. I load them up on a server [[cloud) so I can play my music on my smartphone, or anywhere that has internet access, without having to take the music with me. In fact, right now, I am in the long process of uploading my entire music collection to Google Play for free for an extra backup, and to stream anywhere I want. It's a wonderful world! I have music anytime, anyplace, and I get to listen to whatever I want in my collection.

    There are people who get along with their Spotify, Pandora, or [[god, help us) YouTube. That is not to say any of it is bad, but the music selection just isn't there,. It's not very deep with any of the services no matter how hard you try because of various reasons, mostly because of the record label just not caring enough about a particular artist or album. This is why I prefer to have my own music. I realize that I am coming at an advantage here because I amassed my collection over decades.

    I realize that there are lots of people who refuse to deal with a computer for anything, much less music. But, as these people age, avoiding a computer for music is getting harder and harder. It's already hard to find CDs of a lot of things, even if any CDs are in print of a given title. Again, this is why having a turntable is so important. If you want to make CD-Rs, or archive to hard drives [[trust me, hard drives are more robust than you think! Just keep three copies!), you have to use the computer. If I buy a CD, the first thing I do is rip it vene before I listen to it, then file the CD away. I hate that because it's just more stuff I don't need in my life. Streamers have the advantage of not even needing to keep hard drives. But, they run the risk of one day their favorite music disappearing at the whim of an artist, record label, streaming company, or for some legal issue. I don't have that problem.

    Since you've made such a thought-provoking argument, Robert, i'll soften my anti-streaming rhetoric. But, I only criticize the technology because of how most artists are getting screwed, and for those people who can afford to buy the music, but just choose not to. To my mind, a person who is happy with only using the streaming model is not a true music lover. Why? The ones I talk to don't care if their favorite music just suddenly up and disappears one day without notice. I get that not everyone is into getting the best sound possible, and some streaming services aren't bad at all, but, after having heard studio tapes, and very revealing home stereo systems, I strive for the best I can get.

    In our lives [[i've been on this earth since the early 60s), we have see many music formats, some good, some not so good, and some that make me wonder what they were smoking. Some were excellent, but the idiot inventors didn't know how to market it. And, today, we have yet more mediums to choose from, and some new ones i've recently read about. The non-techie/audiophile public gets confused. After more than a decade of bad-sounding CDs, they don't know good sound from bad, and many actually prefer the bad sound! I weep!
    Last edited by soulster; 03-07-2015 at 12:09 AM.

  3. #3
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    bump bump bump bump bump

  4. #4
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    With all this talk about Spotify in here and also in the news I finally broke down and downloaded the [[free) app today. WOW. The music selection is great.

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