I would happily pay more for Qobuz, et al. if I knew the extra was going to the artists.
Perhaps, but the artists need to be proactive too.
It would be nice to see industry wide transparency and a little generosity from the big stars, such that payments were perhaps skewed in favour of those with much lower sales - this would support up and coming acts and probably not cost that much if sales were low - yes we could argue that the larger numbers of less popular artists might take a significant chunk overall, but a bit like footballers many big stars seem to get unfair financial breaks. That said, is it not true these days that ‘merchandise’ and concerts are the major sources of income for artists?
Yes, it’s not available in may country’s that Tidal is 
Is it? What’s your source for this? Does that include jazz and classical musicians too. I would like to know the source and understand how that’s supposed to make streaming fair. The way I see it, if I play something by artists on Qobuz, they should get paid for entertaining me. To assume they’ll make it up on a concert tour or with merchandise seems kinda disingenuous to me. I would happily pay – say $50/month, the price of a couple records – if the extra $35 went to the artists.
Still too much for me to switch entirely. I managed two weeks without Tidal the one week there was too.many missing and still they are not available. It does depend on your music tastes. I find Tidal is better for smaller indie releases, but Qobuz also covers quite a lot Tidal misses. It’s an odd mix but now Qobuz is cheaper not so hard on the wallet as it was.
True it’s pigs ear of a service. It offers the best coverage and the the most albums but it does not embrace the simplest things like bit perfect playback.
He’s right most artists these days make more from touring and merchandising on these tours than any sales or streaming. It’s the opposite of what it once was. Ticket prices are extortionate these days especially for the larger acts. Do you think the Stones would still be touring if this wasn’t the case. They need to maintain the extravagant life they are now accustomed to. Most bands there days don’t stop touritn. Look at Ed Sheeran he toured for God knows how long, for the love of it? Doubt it.
I think I’ve had to use Tidal a couple of times in the last 4/5 months to fill the gaps, I could easily buy the albums that aren’t available and still be in profit, need to cancel Tidal.
Mike it just arrived on the US shores not long ago, I had put off looking at switching but with the price reduction to 14.99 a month I will be making switch after a trial period which I will sign up for tomorrow.
They most likely are rolling out world wide once they have infrastructure and legal agreements in place.
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No mention of this today at the Bristol hifi show?!?! Visited the qobuz stand, very odd.
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The young lady on the Qobuz stand did inform me of the new pricing structure when I said my free trial was ending next week and what options are available.
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Decided to give it a go - simple to sign up and browsing via Roon is a breeze.
Hmm I must have asked the wrong question!
No particular source, just recall seeing it mentioned a few times here and there, for example:
Performing Music Live
Live events are quickly shaping up to be the most lucrative space for musicians in the digital-music era, and for good reason: As listeners become inundated with cheap access to music provided by streaming services, dedicated music fans crave more intimate experiences with their favorite artists. That’s why tours are getting grander and music festivals are drawing ridiculous crowds even if their lineups are all the same. It’s also why concert and ticket companies like Live Nation are growing like crazy.
While album sales dwindle and streams may only pay out fractions of a cent at a time, live shows — be it tours, festivals or one-off concerts — are commanding some of the highest ticket prices ever.
I did this before I decided to go cold turkey. Thought I had caught all the ones missing. There was more that I had missed and then more in one week that I am comfortable in a month so its still a no brainer for me at the moment. As I said it’s really down to your own musical preference and for some it won’t miss much.
Qobuz website now says 50 million tracks as not that long ago used to quote 40 million.
I think this all applies mostly to popular music. That’s not what I listen to. I listen to jazz and classical. Jazz musicians are not raking in the money on live performances. I saw Chick Corea last year at a local jazz venue that seats maybe 100 people. He did two sets a night for a week. Someone was subsidizing his travel, lodging, earnings, etc for that through grants, etc. And this is a living legend of jazz. The only merchandise Chick had for sale was a small stack of his latest CDs.
So while I accept that large popular acts can sustain themselves on concerts and merchandize, I don’t buy that’s it’s true for the musicians I listen to.
I also go the St. Louis Symphony. The musicians there are not making their money on concerts and merchandise. They make a salary, and supplement their income through teaching, doing chamber concerts, plus royalties on recordings.
This may well be true, however if the big artists need concerts/‘merchandise’ to do ‘well’, surely the streaming must disproportionately affect new bands/more niche genres if they’re all given such a pittance per track streamed?
I’m not saying any of this is right, or necessarily wrong, but apart from a select few the music companies have always held the strings and profited at the expense of the artists.
Perhaps donating directly to an artist would be best if you feel strongly about it as any extras paid to a streaming company are going to be split amongst all interested parties.
Correct. The way things are structured nowadays effectively means a bigger slice of the pie goes to those who are already the biggest, and those in niche genres etc just have to accept that the money isn’t there at their end of things in the same way it was in the past. Live earnings have shot up for top acts, but IME not so much for smaller artists.
It’s just the way things are, though. Artists, at least most of them, can’t do anything about it, they can just play their music. The best way to support niche artists is still to buy their stuff and go to their shows - even if their fees haven’t shot up, well attended and successful shows still help you work your way up, beget more shows and so on.
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That’s interesting , in the UK and Europe jazz musicians of that stature play large concert halls and ticket prices are high. But I guess that’s been the case for a long time, in the 50’s when Miles etc were playing Greenwich village clubs, European gigs were concert halls , they were treated like royalty over here. Hopefully they also made some money?
Chris