I have 5,000 or so LPs, a few thousand CDs, but it’s still not enough.
That’s my excuse/entrée into this thread, because I have something else to say. I have a big problem with digital. Lots of people say that they love it, that streaming allows them to expand their musical horizons. That’s great. Spotify is great value (if you don’t mind ads, it’s free).
All of this is lovely for the consumer but it is terrible for artists. The present model, especially Spotify, is completely unsustainable. What artists get paid for a stream is utterly criminal. Same goes for Amazon, Deezer, Apple, Tidal, all the others. Prices are going to have to go up for the consumer or there just won’t be any moew new music.
To be frank, anyone who streams and who says they care about artists (and I mean ordinary musicians trying to scrape a living, not big stars like Drake or Adele or Pink Floyd or Queen) ought to take a long hard look at themselves.
Your convenience comes at a cost - the immiseration of musicians.
I take all your comments on board Kevin and am eagerly awaiting the ESE and the Vooduu people album, which i shall buy. But do i need to look in the mirror, no, i have nothing to do with this industry, other than an end user…i am 60 this year, i never asked for streaming and its ramifications.
Kev, I cannot disagree with what you say about the streaming model being detrimental to the artist but we can hardly blame the consumer for this situation. In fact their is probably no single entity responsible for this situation.
One benefit of the internet is that it has generally driven prices down for the consumer. In the music industry this of course has been at the expense of the artist’s income. But I am sure it is a complicated situation that I do not pretend to understand.
The fact remains the consumer will only pay so much for a service until it is perceived as poor value. And I would wager there is the usual price elasticity phenomenan at play in the streaming market. I believe I heard that streaming subscriptions are increasing at a far slower rate now as the market matures. This would imply that the capacity to increase prices for streaming to the consumer is limited. So if the artist is to get a better deal from streaming then the industry is left with the ‘slice’ of the streaming revenue that is passed on. I am sure you are right when you say this is vanishingly small.
The youth of today have grown up with the conscept that music can be free, particularly via the less well regulated internet sites. This might be causing some price sensitivity amongst the young towards music ownership and the conscept of ‘owning’ music is becoming somewhat alien with the much of the youth of today.
I would suggest that the streaming industry will only increase the slice of the pie given to artists if it is in their ultimate financial interest to do so.
@Gazza I’m not accusing anyone of anything. and I agree with you, the present mess is entirely of the music industry’s making.
You as a listener have no need to look in the mirror. But nothing is free. Someone always has to pay and in the case of streaming services, it is the musicians. Even if you are self-managed and take all of the pie yourself (as opposed to a record company nabbing most of it) the pie is pitiful.
I am afraid that for new music to continue to be made, prices for streaming are simply going to have to go up at some point.
Sorry Kev…got the wrong end of the stick, currently not using a streaming service, whilst waiting for my 3rd ND555…then will decide. Probably will stick with a quick listen on Spotify, and buy if i like. But as for the younger generation, not so sure. There is still some hope, my youngest daughter quickly nicked the Muso when the main hifi turned up.
I’m pretty much in the same boat as Nigel. 454 albums on the Core, a few hundred or so LPs?
Now I try new stuff on Tidal and that has revolutionised trying new stuff, and the forum is a great reference. If I like it, a his res download would be my first choice, otherwise a CD and rip to the Core.
I’m very keen to support artists in the age of streaming, so if I really like it, I want to buy the hi-res or CD and support them.
The Kevster has raised a valid point in which we all have a vested interest. These seem to be the latest royalties per hit and they are shocking - you gotta ask yourself why would any one bother being in the music business - unless you’re Ed Sheeran (Ummm!).
@Mike_S - Assuming the artist has their own label, as opposed to being signed to a major… Band royalties for sale of a CD are about 300 times higher than for a Spotify Stream, and about three or four times that for an iTunes download.
If you were signed to a major label like Sony BMG, Warners or UMG, you could expect to get about 1/500th or 1/600th of the amount you’d get from a CD for streaming and about one-sixth for an iTunes download.
I have never bought from Badcamp before but I will try to from now on if they have the album I am after available. It is things like this where the consumer can do their little bit for artists.
Us old gits who are still buying many CDs at least are giving back something to the artists we enjoy so much. But it is of concern where the industry is headed and if new talent might be put off if they simply don’t get sufficient income to pay the bills.
BTW, I am very happy how this thread has morphed, as this is certainly a more important topic.
I like most here prefer to pay for my music and own it, I don’t have account with any of the streaming companies and think that they’re just as bad as the record companies. I’m more than happy to keep supporting the artist. The other problems the older I get more likely the album I buy, the artist is dead. Just hope that my support still ends up in the right place.
I have approx 3700 LPs and a couple of hundred CDs. I still buy new vinyl. It’s definitely my preferred format.
I have a Muso and Spotify so I do listen to a little bit on streaming but when I want to listen properly it’s vinyl.
interesting thread - and I recognize myself in a lot of contributions so far. Funny how similar we are on the one hand and yet how different we can be on the other…
I keep telling myself, surely you have enough music now – but find myself buying more – but I have to admit my most treasured recordings are on vinyl – probably because it brings up memories of where I started with all this hifi malarkey… how many albums do I have now, gosh, I don’t know actually…
When digital streaming got to the same level of sound quality as CDs I got rid of 90% of my CDs keeping only those that where exceptionally rare or had sentimental value. I kept all of my vinyl but still ended up with just over half my previous collection culled.
It felt good at the time as at least half of the CDs that went had either never been played or played only once.
Now of course with a Tidal I get to review any new music before I buy it but I still love buying music and don’t think I could ever own enough.
To be honest I am not sure how many albums and I have, I do know there are many that I have listened to only once or twice and others that got played many times and then ignored. Now that I am retired, I am slowly working through listening to them all again, albeit in a slightly haphazd way. Have discovered some unremembered gems and some that I wondered why I used to like it so much.
As for how many is enough, for me the answer would be that if I can always find something I want to listen to then that is enough. At the moment this is the case so I have enough. Next week though, the urge to buy something would mean that until I get a new purchase I won’t have enough. Such are the perils of enjoying music and find music that is new to you.
It is refreshing for me to see that some have made the move to kull some of their un-listened to collection. I sometimes regret selling my collection of 70s and 80s vinyl but when I think back it was keeping me in the past and somehow stopping me moving forward to discover other artists and genres. (Still regret selling my Willie Bobo record though!)
One can get stuck in a rut and become slowly bored with a collection. So, for me, it is important to recognise those albums that have ‘passed their sell by date’ and replace them with new and exciting artists. Of course some of these so-called ‘new’ artists have been making great music for donkeys years, but for whatever reason have passed me by. But hang on to those old favourites. They feed the soul and remind us of the good times. That is gold dust!
I joined TIDAL a few years back and have bought more “New” CD’s from the river and other sites then the previous decade. I have also bought plenty of used CD’s from the two stores in my neighborhood which easily have thousands of CD’s and Vinyl in their inventory. Obviously the artists are getting taking a hit with the use of NAS devises where folks can rip there CD’s and sell off there inventory. Not ethical or legal to copy copywriter material and then sell the master copy but there is a market out there just like boot leg copies of music and movies.
The only answer is integrity practiced by each individual in honoring copyrighted material. If you are selling off the original you should delete the backups. Goes for music, books, software, etc… It isn’t only the musicians who have suffered financially in this digital world where we live. A lot of folks are willing to turn a blind eye if they getting a good deal at the expense of others…
