4 ms·

I don't want to own most of the music that I listen to. If I wanted to buy all the stuff that's in my spotify "liked songs" playlist - it would cost me thousand

by zirgs 3y ago

I don't want to own most of the music that I listen to. If I wanted to buy all the stuff that's in my spotify "liked songs" playlist - it would cost me thousands of euros. Until relatively recently you could only buy whole albums not single songs. I don't want to buy the whole album if it only contains 1 or 2 songs that I actually like.

masklinn 3y ago
> Until relatively recently you could only buy whole albums not single songs. Uh? Singles have always been a thing, and most if not all digital platforms allow buying by the track. You’d need a very specific artist demand to avoid this unbundling.
- tourmalinetaco 3y ago
  In fact, singles were the original way to buy music. 78rpm records could only hold up to 5min or so of audio after all.
- zirgs 3y ago
  Not all songs are released as singles, and it's silly to buy a CD with only one song in it. So people just sailed the high seas.
capableweb 3y ago
Maybe my "liked" playlist is not too big in Spotify, but if I paid $4 for each song, that'd be ~$2400, not at all unreasonable considering that's songs collected since 2015 (so 75 songs per year or ~$300 per year). Of course, it's OK not to want to own the music you listen to. Personally, after 8 years of trying to use Spotify (and lately YouTube Music), the amount of graveyard playlists I now "posses" made it so I basically had to revert to buying music again as I want to be able to listen to the playlists I create years in the future too. Quick look (~20% of my total playlists), around 10% of my playlists contain more than half songs that are no longer available. That's just unacceptable in my personal case.
- iggldiggl 3y ago
  Another problem I've stumbled across is that with a number of live albums by a certain well-known artist, the recording company managed to mangle the uploads by cutting out the between-tracks-transitions. (Which means that a) there are sometimes noticeable cuts between tracks and b) you're missing out on the full concert atmosphere and some stage banter). On the CDs those bits had been mastered as part of the pre-gap (i.e. the bit between tracks where a CD player will show a negative time counting upwards), so it almost feels as if they simply ripped their own discs for digital distribution and managed to accidentally configure the ripping program to discard the pre-gap material instead of appending/prepending it to the adjacent track. Unfortunately that means that all official music services are affected, both for streaming and downloading, and buying the CD version is the only way of getting a proper version (buying the CD is also the only way of getting the liner notes – unless you're lucky and somebody uploaded them to Discogs or so – though that is a separate problem).
- zirgs 3y ago
  $2400 is like 25 years of Spotify subscription. I sure as hell can listen to way more that 600 songs during that time. With no ads. Available on any device. And with discovery service included. I don't even listen to most stuff that I listened to 10-20 years ago.
  - capableweb 3y ago
    Sure, the costs are different, but so is availability. As someone who listened to music for a good while and still listen to songs I first heard 30 years ago, I rather pay more and know it's 100% available anytime I want to hear in the future, than worrying about it ever disappearing from my library because some Spotify<>Label deal expired.
darrenf 3y ago
> Until relatively recently you could only buy whole albums not single songs. What is "relatively recently" here? The iTunes store had a per-song price since, like, 2003 or so. And I'm pretty sure I recall Amazon selling mp3s individually since at least 2005 - I listen to grindcore, and I was amused at the per-song offering when Nasum's Grind Finale came out with 152 tracks. At £0.79 a track... no sale.

by zirgs 3y ago

masklinn 3y ago

> Until relatively recently you could only buy whole albums not single songs. Uh? Singles have always been a thing, and most if not all digital platforms allow buying by the track. You’d need a very specific artist demand to avoid this unbundling.

tourmalinetaco 3y ago
In fact, singles were the original way to buy music. 78rpm records could only hold up to 5min or so of audio after all.
zirgs 3y ago
Not all songs are released as singles, and it's silly to buy a CD with only one song in it. So people just sailed the high seas.

capableweb 3y ago

Maybe my "liked" playlist is not too big in Spotify, but if I paid $4 for each song, that'd be ~$2400, not at all unreasonable considering that's songs collected since 2015 (so 75 songs per year or ~$300 per year). Of course, it's OK not to want to own the music you listen to. Personally, after 8 years of trying to use Spotify (and lately YouTube Music), the amount of graveyard playlists I now "posses" made it so I basically had to revert to buying music again as I want to be able to listen to the playlists I create years in the future too. Quick look (~20% of my total playlists), around 10% of my playlists contain more than half songs that are no longer available. That's just unacceptable in my personal case.

iggldiggl 3y ago
Another problem I've stumbled across is that with a number of live albums by a certain well-known artist, the recording company managed to mangle the uploads by cutting out the between-tracks-transitions. (Which means that a) there are sometimes noticeable cuts between tracks and b) you're missing out on the full concert atmosphere and some stage banter). On the CDs those bits had been mastered as part of the pre-gap (i.e. the bit between tracks where a CD player will show a negative time counting upwards), so it almost feels as if they simply ripped their own discs for digital distribution and managed to accidentally configure the ripping program to discard the pre-gap material instead of appending/prepending it to the adjacent track. Unfortunately that means that all official music services are affected, both for streaming and downloading, and buying the CD version is the only way of getting a proper version (buying the CD is also the only way of getting the liner notes – unless you're lucky and somebody uploaded them to Discogs or so – though that is a separate problem).
zirgs 3y ago
$2400 is like 25 years of Spotify subscription. I sure as hell can listen to way more that 600 songs during that time. With no ads. Available on any device. And with discovery service included. I don't even listen to most stuff that I listened to 10-20 years ago.
- capableweb 3y ago
  Sure, the costs are different, but so is availability. As someone who listened to music for a good while and still listen to songs I first heard 30 years ago, I rather pay more and know it's 100% available anytime I want to hear in the future, than worrying about it ever disappearing from my library because some Spotify<>Label deal expired.

darrenf 3y ago

> Until relatively recently you could only buy whole albums not single songs. What is "relatively recently" here? The iTunes store had a per-song price since, like, 2003 or so. And I'm pretty sure I recall Amazon selling mp3s individually since at least 2005 - I listen to grindcore, and I was amused at the per-song offering when Nasum's Grind Finale came out with 152 tracks. At £0.79 a track... no sale.