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I don't think Spotify should be celebrated. For a start, Spotify exists because the music companies basically lost against piracy, but it was their own fault. T

I don't think Spotify should be celebrated. For a start, Spotify exists because the music companies basically lost against piracy, but it was their own fault. That devalued recorded music to such an extent they had to change that business model. They collect a paltry amount from streaming (the artists get even less), but it's all they can get now. They've changed their model entirely. Bands are gone. Generic, marketable solo artists are in and money is made from concerts. Records are just marketing. Secondly, though, Spotify is just as bad if you are into proper records rather than concert marketing. Want to listen to Queen? Well, I hope you like the god awful remasters, because that's all that is available on Spotify. And whatever is available right now could change at any moment. It's not a music collection. The only way the record companies could have kept selling records is with vinyl. But they killed that to get more profits decades ago. Good luck convincing people music is worth sitting down for like people do with books, movies and games. Yeah, let me sit down and listen to Cardi B for the next 40 minutes, said no one. The youth just press play on a playlist and whatever comes out doesn't matter, it's all basically the same anyway.

guax 2y ago
I recently acquired a decent but affordable record player and was surprised to find new high quality pressings of some of my favorite classics (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc). Plus tons of new pop artists with vinyl. So a small resurgence is ongoing, hopefully it's stable enough to stay alive for long. They're expensive as hell but the ritual of putting something to play or changing discs when entertaining friends is refreshing in this streaming era.
marcus_holmes 2y ago
Spotify essentially solves music for me. I'm not a huge music fan. I like the stuff I grew up with, and very, very rarely something recorded in the last 10 years. I don't study music, rarely actually listen to the lyrics, don't care about the quality too much. It's always background to what I'm actually focusing on. And the less it distracts, the better. I used to have a few Gb of music, but deleted it all [0] because Spotify fills this niche now. I pirate books if they have DRM, video all the time. But not music, because (as TFA says) Spotify has basically solved that. [0] I'm sure I have it all on a backup somewhere. Just in case Spotify enshittifies further.
- a-french-anon 2y ago
  Well, for the kind of people using music as background, I'm indeed sure Spotify does the job perfectly well.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  > I used to have a few Gb of music, but deleted it all [0] because Spotify fills this niche now. And now instead of reading bits from your local storage you are increasing your carbon impact by streaming from somewhere else...with pretty much 0 actual value.
  - marcus_holmes 2y ago
    No, I have my playlists set to download in Spotify, so I play them locally too. And if you want to go there then consider the environmental impact of physical media. There's entire landfills full of vinyl records, cassettes and CDs. Streaming is the best environmental option out of all of them.
    - prmoustache 2y ago
      > No, I have my playlists set to download in Spotify, so I play them locally too. Fair enough. > And if you want to go there then consider the environmental impact of physical media. You can buy music without purchasing a physical media. In that case you download once. I have a number of records I purchased from Bleep and 7digital.
Topfi 2y ago
While Spotify was mentioned in the original post, it isn't the only game in town and there are alternatives like Deezer and Tidal, which offer higher-quality masters, more consistent libraries and ensure a better compensation for artists. > The only way the record companies could have kept selling records is with vinyl. But they killed that to get more profits decades ago. Maybe I don't understand something about your point, but why skip over CDs and direct sales of single tracks, as popularized by iTunes? Purely looking at potential profit from sales, I don't see a difference between vinyl and CDs, at least prior to the recent resurgence when vinyl got a premium due to the perceived exclusivity and quality. > Good luck convincing people music is worth sitting down for like people do with books, movies and games. Sitting down and listening to music is still greatly appreciated across all ages, at least from what I can tell. That seems somewhat reductive. > Yeah, let me sit down and listen to Cardi B for the next 40 minutes, said no one. That seems very reductive. > The youth just press play on a playlist and whatever comes out doesn't matter, it's all basically the same anyway. That seems extremely reductive. I do not know what you were listening to in your youth, but I'd be surprised if there weren't tracks, artists or even whole genres that people of your current age might have looked upon unfavorably in the past.
- m000 2y ago
  >> Yeah, let me sit down and listen to Cardi B for the next 40 minutes, said no one. > That seems very reductive. It seems, but it isn't. Music is produced for the YouTube/Spotify "formats" these days. Putting together an album that would be listened on a turntable or a cassette player, is a very different task than releasing a Spotify single. As an analogy, modern artists are more like weekly columnists on a magazine. Past artists were more like book writers. Both categories write, but their output is very much affected by the format they use. And a columnist is very likely to be bad as a book writer, and vice-versa for the book writer.
- globular-toast 2y ago
  > Maybe I don't understand something about your point, but why skip over CDs and direct sales of single tracks, as popularized by iTunes? The way I see it, there are three choices: 1. Sell a physical good and let the free market do its thing, 2. Sell a service and let the free market do its thing, 3. Attempt to create a non-free market using various combinations of technical and legal means (e.g. DRM, copyright etc.) Vinyl records were an example of (1). They couldn't practically be duplicated. But CDs could and the free market very quickly realised this. So CDs were the beginning of their journey down route (3) which they eventually lost. They have now settled on method (2) just like movies, games and everything else.
averageRoyalty 2y ago
> Want to listen to Queen? Well, I hope you like the god awful remasters, because that's all that is available on Spotify. A tangant, but has anyone noticed a number of albums on Spotify have been replaced with "deluxe" versions recently? I feel like every time I go to listen to an old favourite albums of mine, new tracks have been inserted which completely break the flow.
- globular-toast 2y ago
  Yes, I've noticed this too. Even worse, I've found some electronic albums that have been "reworked" by the artist so what you get is not at all what you wanted (assuming familiarity with the original).
exitb 2y ago
The one thing Spotify (and other streaming services) has going for it, is that it's fairly cheap compared to other means of acquiring music. You get what you pay for. It's fine if you want to test drive that Queen album before you buy a great vinyl master.

guax 2y ago

I recently acquired a decent but affordable record player and was surprised to find new high quality pressings of some of my favorite classics (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc). Plus tons of new pop artists with vinyl. So a small resurgence is ongoing, hopefully it's stable enough to stay alive for long. They're expensive as hell but the ritual of putting something to play or changing discs when entertaining friends is refreshing in this streaming era.

marcus_holmes 2y ago

Spotify essentially solves music for me. I'm not a huge music fan. I like the stuff I grew up with, and very, very rarely something recorded in the last 10 years. I don't study music, rarely actually listen to the lyrics, don't care about the quality too much. It's always background to what I'm actually focusing on. And the less it distracts, the better. I used to have a few Gb of music, but deleted it all [0] because Spotify fills this niche now. I pirate books if they have DRM, video all the time. But not music, because (as TFA says) Spotify has basically solved that. [0] I'm sure I have it all on a backup somewhere. Just in case Spotify enshittifies further.

a-french-anon 2y ago
Well, for the kind of people using music as background, I'm indeed sure Spotify does the job perfectly well.
prmoustache 2y ago
> I used to have a few Gb of music, but deleted it all [0] because Spotify fills this niche now. And now instead of reading bits from your local storage you are increasing your carbon impact by streaming from somewhere else...with pretty much 0 actual value.
- marcus_holmes 2y ago
  No, I have my playlists set to download in Spotify, so I play them locally too. And if you want to go there then consider the environmental impact of physical media. There's entire landfills full of vinyl records, cassettes and CDs. Streaming is the best environmental option out of all of them.
  - prmoustache 2y ago
    > No, I have my playlists set to download in Spotify, so I play them locally too. Fair enough. > And if you want to go there then consider the environmental impact of physical media. You can buy music without purchasing a physical media. In that case you download once. I have a number of records I purchased from Bleep and 7digital.

Topfi 2y ago

While Spotify was mentioned in the original post, it isn't the only game in town and there are alternatives like Deezer and Tidal, which offer higher-quality masters, more consistent libraries and ensure a better compensation for artists. > The only way the record companies could have kept selling records is with vinyl. But they killed that to get more profits decades ago. Maybe I don't understand something about your point, but why skip over CDs and direct sales of single tracks, as popularized by iTunes? Purely looking at potential profit from sales, I don't see a difference between vinyl and CDs, at least prior to the recent resurgence when vinyl got a premium due to the perceived exclusivity and quality. > Good luck convincing people music is worth sitting down for like people do with books, movies and games. Sitting down and listening to music is still greatly appreciated across all ages, at least from what I can tell. That seems somewhat reductive. > Yeah, let me sit down and listen to Cardi B for the next 40 minutes, said no one. That seems very reductive. > The youth just press play on a playlist and whatever comes out doesn't matter, it's all basically the same anyway. That seems extremely reductive. I do not know what you were listening to in your youth, but I'd be surprised if there weren't tracks, artists or even whole genres that people of your current age might have looked upon unfavorably in the past.

m000 2y ago
>> Yeah, let me sit down and listen to Cardi B for the next 40 minutes, said no one. > That seems very reductive. It seems, but it isn't. Music is produced for the YouTube/Spotify "formats" these days. Putting together an album that would be listened on a turntable or a cassette player, is a very different task than releasing a Spotify single. As an analogy, modern artists are more like weekly columnists on a magazine. Past artists were more like book writers. Both categories write, but their output is very much affected by the format they use. And a columnist is very likely to be bad as a book writer, and vice-versa for the book writer.
globular-toast 2y ago
> Maybe I don't understand something about your point, but why skip over CDs and direct sales of single tracks, as popularized by iTunes? The way I see it, there are three choices: 1. Sell a physical good and let the free market do its thing, 2. Sell a service and let the free market do its thing, 3. Attempt to create a non-free market using various combinations of technical and legal means (e.g. DRM, copyright etc.) Vinyl records were an example of (1). They couldn't practically be duplicated. But CDs could and the free market very quickly realised this. So CDs were the beginning of their journey down route (3) which they eventually lost. They have now settled on method (2) just like movies, games and everything else.

averageRoyalty 2y ago

> Want to listen to Queen? Well, I hope you like the god awful remasters, because that's all that is available on Spotify. A tangant, but has anyone noticed a number of albums on Spotify have been replaced with "deluxe" versions recently? I feel like every time I go to listen to an old favourite albums of mine, new tracks have been inserted which completely break the flow.

globular-toast 2y ago
Yes, I've noticed this too. Even worse, I've found some electronic albums that have been "reworked" by the artist so what you get is not at all what you wanted (assuming familiarity with the original).

exitb 2y ago

The one thing Spotify (and other streaming services) has going for it, is that it's fairly cheap compared to other means of acquiring music. You get what you pay for. It's fine if you want to test drive that Queen album before you buy a great vinyl master.