4 ms·

> Copyright holders will never be able to compete with piracy. Music has proven that idea wrong. I'm part of a few private music trackers that came after oink

> Copyright holders will never be able to compete with piracy. Music has proven that idea wrong. I'm part of a few private music trackers that came after oink and what.cd. They're much smaller today than they used to. Legal music streaming has made them all but obsolete for everyone but enthusiasts. They're maybe serving 200k people worldwide, if you include the language-specific ones from China, Korea etc. Spotify alone has 172 million premium subscribers. Movies are similar.

matheusmoreira 5y ago
Yeah, if you like popular music which is what the average person consumes. If I look up some less popular artist or even a soundtrack on spotify chances are it won't be there. About a year ago I tried it, found exactly one of the about 30 works I searched for. All the stuff that gets played on the radio is there, of course. It was an immensely disappointing experience. Why pay for this crap since I'll still have to resort to youtube or something to get what I want? What I meant by competition is they won't be able to offer higher quality and availability. They will never achieve the ideal I proposed: everything humanity has ever created at the highest possible quality. They are of course masters at being just good enough for the average consumer. Honestly that bar is pretty low. I will never forgive them for shutting what.cd down. I consider that a crime against humanity itself that vastly outweighs whatever little profits they thought they were losing.
baybal2 5y ago
> Legal music streaming has made them all but obsolete for everyone but enthusiasts. Sitting in a cafe Abu Dhabi now, a shop on the opposite side of the street has "$10 for 1000 MP3 Hitz" I don't know who streams, when you can just download MP3s.
- vladvasiliu 5y ago
  I do (Spotify). It's much, much more convenient, and quality is good enough. Of course, I'm a bit concerned with the tracks "unavailable in my region" or "no longer available at all", but convenience trumps it. As others have said, when I really like an album or something, I'll usually buy it, ideally lossless download, but a CD will do in a pinch.
- luckylion 5y ago
  It's mostly three things according to my friends who use streaming services: 1) discovery: Spotify is great at giving you more of what you like, without you needing to manage your library 2) ease of access: No need to carry around a hard drive to have everything available 3) giant catalogue: to buy MP3s at that price and have a similar breadth and depth as Spotify (or rather: what you'd use of Spotify), you'd pay a lot more. If you just want some tunes and are happy with what's very popular, you could also stream for free from Youtube.

matheusmoreira 5y ago

Yeah, if you like popular music which is what the average person consumes. If I look up some less popular artist or even a soundtrack on spotify chances are it won't be there. About a year ago I tried it, found exactly one of the about 30 works I searched for. All the stuff that gets played on the radio is there, of course. It was an immensely disappointing experience. Why pay for this crap since I'll still have to resort to youtube or something to get what I want? What I meant by competition is they won't be able to offer higher quality and availability. They will never achieve the ideal I proposed: everything humanity has ever created at the highest possible quality. They are of course masters at being just good enough for the average consumer. Honestly that bar is pretty low. I will never forgive them for shutting what.cd down. I consider that a crime against humanity itself that vastly outweighs whatever little profits they thought they were losing.

baybal2 5y ago

> Legal music streaming has made them all but obsolete for everyone but enthusiasts. Sitting in a cafe Abu Dhabi now, a shop on the opposite side of the street has "$10 for 1000 MP3 Hitz" I don't know who streams, when you can just download MP3s.

vladvasiliu 5y ago
I do (Spotify). It's much, much more convenient, and quality is good enough. Of course, I'm a bit concerned with the tracks "unavailable in my region" or "no longer available at all", but convenience trumps it. As others have said, when I really like an album or something, I'll usually buy it, ideally lossless download, but a CD will do in a pinch.
luckylion 5y ago
It's mostly three things according to my friends who use streaming services: 1) discovery: Spotify is great at giving you more of what you like, without you needing to manage your library 2) ease of access: No need to carry around a hard drive to have everything available 3) giant catalogue: to buy MP3s at that price and have a similar breadth and depth as Spotify (or rather: what you'd use of Spotify), you'd pay a lot more. If you just want some tunes and are happy with what's very popular, you could also stream for free from Youtube.