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Rolling Stone Says It Is The End Of Owning Music


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https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/owning-music-buying-vinyl-cds-downloads-streaming-w521504?utm_source=rsnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=061618_12

 

 

I don't agree with most of their points here, at least I hope I'm not wrong. If cd's truly do disappear, and downloads go the same way, our ability to listen to older, end especially new artists will be crippled. Many fine niche, or beginning artists have only the cd as a format to get their music out. If they aren't already proven, neither Tidal or anyone else is picking them up to stream and the hi rez online sites have no interest in little known artists (excepting the audiophile sites that record their own artists). 

 

Secondly, tThey are placing far too much importance on the temporary vinyl resurgence which is almost entirely the result of a fad. Millennials are playing the vastly overpriced vinyl discs on $100-150.00 "record players" which are not only horrifyingly bad, as far as sound, but also reduce the records to a non hi-fi format by eating away at vinyl grooves over a short number of plays. My niece has twice called me to ask whats wrong with her unit, as all the older records she has don't sound the same. Duh!  And the truly sad part is that the people purchasing and using these junk players aren't even bright enough to realize that if the device you are playing something on only costs as much as about five new vinyl records something is seriously out of whack. There is still perhaps ten percent of the market that consists of vinyl based audiophiles that actually care about the format, beyond the 90% of Millennials who seem to relatively care less about much of anything, but they are in no way responsible for the vinyl surge. And, on top of all of the above, the supposedly exploding market for vinyl is still generating what is, in fact, a very small segment of music sold overall.  

 

"

Vinyl LP sales accounted for 14 percent of all physical album sales in 2017, The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" top selling vinyl LP. Once again, yearly vinyl album sales have hit another Nielsen Music-era record high, as the configuration sold 14.32 million (up 9 percent) in 2017.Jan 3, 2018

U.S. Vinyl Album Sales Hit Nielsen Music-Era Record High in 2017 ...

 
Lets face it, 14% of a market for physical format sales, which they claim is completely dying is beyond insignificant.
 
Am I concerned about losing the ability to have the means to listen to new, and niche artists long term, certainly. I just pray that dire situation isn't here yet. Add in that Tidal's days would seem to be numbered, and there is absolutely no competitor with a comparable music library out there and maybe they are right, the end could be near. Lets hope not.
 
JC
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I believe they don't mention hi res formats at all. 4TBs of mostly hi res music (I haven't ripped my CDs - I like CDs although I like them 15% less than SACDs/24bit material - that's the SQ difference between them on my personal scale) on my HDs prove what I already know anyway - I'm a freak :D

I don't agree with Jack White - for me vinyl isn't the physical format of the future, it's definitely the past. Its sales at 14 million last year (@Tubelover - I agree - a fad) IMO don't prove anything (M.Jackson has sold over 100 million of 'Thriller' alone). No market that's gone digital goes back to analogue with the exception of some niche freaks whom I respect cause I'm a (digital) freak myself :)

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2 minutes ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

Personally, I have enough music to listen to and 'rediscover' to last a very long time.

 

Is that why you were still posting around 3AM ? :D

 

How a Digital Audio file sounds, or a Digital Video file looks, is governed to a large extent by the Power Supply area. All that Identical Checksums gives is the possibility of REGENERATING the file to close to that of the original file.

PROFILE UPDATED 13-11-2020

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The old saying, "Everything Old is New Again" comes to mind. I buy new CD's and old ones. I believe that is just the way I will finish up my time here. Perhaps I am just getting old, but I like physical media, and I like CD's. I owned enough vinyl to know not to do that, given a choice. I saw a cartoon on audiophiles the other day, and the one fellow commented to the other, that what drew him to the vinyl format, was the expense and inconvenience.

 

Back in the day, they cost what they cost and there was no notion of connivence, well. you could get a record player that held stacks, but that was it. I like my music on hard drives, spinners or ssd, don't really care, just so I can find what I want and skip as I wish. Full sound with connivence is where the world will come back to, some day. Todays kids can't do anything, to rip or such is just too much work, so streaming works for them, for now. But someday someone will 'discover' CD's and they will be hot once again. I guess time will tell.

Some people are still afraid of the dark… Purveyor of Remorseless Audio

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6 hours ago, ddetaey said:

If I (try to) understand the Qobuz offering, it is all about download sales.

With their Sublime offerings, they offer steep discounts on hirez downloads, with prices cheaper than the regular redbook downloads.

So they are trying to make buying hirez so attractive, that a lot of people will do so .

In fact, if one is into hirez downloads, one can 'earn back' the sublime subscription when buying +/- 30 hirez downloads in 1 year.

So I am not really afraid downloads will go away soon.

Ad for CD's, it's not so difficult/costly for an artist to have a limited number of Cd's produced. In fact, having only a limited number available could maybe help them for greater visibilty, if prople would like to buy them even at higher prices.

Dirk

 

 

 

Good points Dirk, but the issue for much of the market is that while Qobuz's library is great for classical music buffs, its very lacking in rock, and many other key formats.

 

JC

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In the 70’s record stores the genres to choose from were male and female vocal, classical, jazz, and the largest was groups, that’s it. Look at today with an explosion of genres, it’s not physically possible to stock even a shallow depth of music people are willing to search then buy. Too much choice?

 

For the last three years or so the amount of space devoted to vinyl hasn’t grown in the stores in my city, so the surge in vinyl is overhyped. Much like the OSX share at 14%, there’s more optimism than reality.

 

Thank the stars for Bandcamp where new musicians can get a foothold and make a name for themselves, there’s a huge choice of very talented people.

 

To the rolling stone article, since when has any streaming service not bled heaps of cash, please name ONE that makes a profit!

AS Profile Equipment List        Say NO to MQA

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Whatever happens with recorded music, I'm happy I started my serious purchases when the Compact Disc became dominant.  As I browse Amazon or arkivmusic.com, it appears that only around 20% (if that) of my collection is still available now.  If I were young now, and just starting to find and collect music I love, I'd be missing out on a lot.

 

As a child, and then as a teen, I recall wearing out copies of the few LPs or cassettes that I owned.  It was horrible having to buy another copy of something beloved, rather than being able to spend money to expand my collection.  I'm lucky, perhaps, that none of my CDs (so far, anyway) have deteriorated.  It seems I narrowly missed buying Hyperion CDs during the period when they were manufactured in that infamous plant with all the CD rot/bronzing.

 

When I die, my beautiful collection will most likely end up in the rubbish bin, or sold for pennies, since no one I know is interested in my music (mostly opera and symphonic or chamber music, with some classic vocal jazz and a few pop vocalists).

请教别人一次是5分钟的傻子,从不请教别人是一辈子的傻子

 

 

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20 hours ago, Hugo9000 said:

When I die, my beautiful collection will most likely end up in the rubbish bin, or sold for pennies, since no one I know is interested in my music (mostly opera and symphonic or chamber music, with some classic vocal jazz and a few pop vocalists).

Someone should offer a service "Adopt CD collection" ?

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On 6/17/2018 at 5:50 AM, TubeLover said:

Good points Dirk, but the issue for much of the market is that while Qobuz's library is great for classical music buffs, its very lacking in rock, and many other key formats.

 

JC

In my experience if your write them a mail asking to add a certain item they follow up pretty soon.

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On 6/17/2018 at 5:48 PM, One and a half said:

Thank the stars for Bandcamp where new musicians can get a foothold and make a name for themselves, there’s a huge choice of very talented people.

+1 .  That's were I purchase a lot of my music (CD or dig lossless download).  I don't stream in my main rig.

My rig

 

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On 6/17/2018 at 8:16 PM, Sonicularity said:

Since the original Napster came out back in 1999, I've been in music nirvana.   It changed everything.  

 

Streaming music service is the result , and I love it.  I honestly can't understand how it survives as a business.  

 

 

 

 

Its funny, when Napster was tanking and was the evil of all evil, the streaming model of today is basically the same / a version of it.  Pay a few bucks a month and get access to everything (e.g. seed file), while the artists get squat.  That maybe an oversimplification but....

My rig

 

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