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There was a post on here that I responded to and can't find now. The purpose was a gentleman talking about how music today is generic crap because of streaming.

There was a post on here that I responded to and can't find now. The purpose was a gentleman talking about how music today is generic crap because of streaming. I disagreed with everything he said (he claims music is bland now because of streaming and just sort of ignores that for all of history most art produced is terrible) except the attraction of physical media. When you had to go through a process to be able to listen to media and you were stuck with it once you bought it, it was a real experience. The art, the feel, the smell of the record shop, hell you had to talk to actual people if you wanted to find new music that you would like. Everything was part of the experience. And that is lost with streaming music.

s1artibartfast 2y ago
Can't speak for the industry at large, but streaming ruined music for me. I think it has to do with how different brains are wired. Organization on song within album within artist within genre helped me remember and relate to it. I felt like I was in conversation with the artists. On the other hand, streaming is snippets without context, like a book composed of the most popular paragraphs from 1000s of authors. I guess for me, being able engage with my personal library or playlists was irreplaceable.
- Loughla 2y ago
  >I felt like I was in conversation with the artists. I work with college kids. They don't understand the absolute obsession a lot of old people have with The Dark Side of the Moon. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why. It's like the perfect album. And that's what finally dawned on me. It's the perfect album. The songs are really good individually, but the album is a masterpiece when played how it was originally meant to be played. The pauses and the transitions and the background noise of the player all brilliantly factor into the album. And the 20 year olds I interact with mostly listen to individual songs instead of albums. It's such a subtle difference that most people don't even recognize it.
  - Larrikin 2y ago
    Personally I would argue a good DJ set is possibly a better version of albums of the past. The really good ones mostly play their own music, but aren't limited to their own output. Its a completely coherent experience with an intentional mood that completely flows together without any disjointed pauses. I don't think anyone actually misses skits or hidden songs, just that good albums sometimes had them. But I've given up on ever convincing people that think perfect was in the past. Usually I'm told there isn't any difference between an iPod on random or a Spotify playlist. I personally never want to say the best music was at some arbitrary moment in the past when I liked it and hope my taste continue to evolve even as I get further away from the source.
  - westmeal 2y ago
    I'm almost 30 but as a stoner back in high school I loved Floyd so much. Their albums were meant to be played back to back as a single unit. Great band. Animals is up there with dark side for me.
  - fipar 2y ago
    You may enjoy this story: My daughter is 18. She first listened to The Great Gig in The Sky on some joke/funny video involving Mario (I mean one of the Super Mario Bros). She looked what the song was, started listening to the album, and is now a huge Pink Floyd fan. As for DSOTM, she has it on CD and Vinyl, though she mostly listens to their music on Deezer. Learned to play the bass riff to Money too, so it seems some people still enjoy the full album listening experience and also digging deep (freak-territory deep) into the ones they really like. I should add that neither my wife nor I (we both have mostly distinct taste in music, though with some overlap) forced anything on her or her brother (who is 10 and a big RHCP fan, in particular of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and professes to hate Pink Floyd, though I don’t know how much of that is just to annoy his sister), and while my wife is more of a song listener (and on streaming, a playlist listener, with she creating the lists) I’m an album listener myself. Even when I got to CDs (from tape, we couldn’t afford a turntable when I was young so I got to vinyl after I got my grandma’s collection) I rarely skipped a track unless I really felt it as filler.
- jon_richards 2y ago
  > Organization on song within album within artist within genre helped me remember and relate to it. I felt like I was in conversation with the artists. The podcast No Dogs in Space brought this back for me. They discuss the stories of different artists, playing clips of their songs and explaining which got them their first gigs or record deals, when band members joined or left, other artists and music styles of the time, etc. I've always been terrible with names, so I could never follow along with pop culture songs, albums, or artists. For the first time in my life I can overhear a song and identify it, the artist's influences, and related songs. I'm no longer a complete outsider in conversations about music. Maybe once upon a time radio provided a lot of that--before it was taken over by standardized programming and advertisements.
  - spigottoday 2y ago
    You might want to try non commercial listener supported wbgo.org if you like jazz and blues, for example. There are others. This is a local station, so as a bonus, there is no surveillance when I listen over the air.
- Dylan16807 2y ago
  If you're not able to properly seek out and play full albums within the context of the artist then that's the particular service you're using sucking. For all of YouTube's flaws it enables that experience just fine.
  - s1artibartfast 2y ago
    Yeah, I think that is part of the problem. I can find an album on YouTube if I think of the right one, but my brain doesnt work that. I don't have mental lists or spot recall. Maybe if I maintained a excell sheet of artists or albums I like, I could brows that, and then play them, but meh.
- brabel 2y ago
  > Organization on song within album within artist within genre helped me remember and relate to it. I prefer to listen to full albums, but that I can do easily on Apple Music (Spotify is the same I think). And I can ask the player to play albums in a certain order. Is that what you're talking about? I don't see how "streeaming" made this impossible, it's just much easier actually.
- pwthornton 2y ago
  I’m not a Spotify user but this is largely still how I relate to music on Apple Music and Apple Classical. Yes there are playlists and stations but there always were before streaming too.
jonhohle 2y ago
I’m a big NIN fan and they have had great physical releases since the beginning - remix albums, singles, eps, vinyl, CD, SACD, DVD-A, blu-ray, etc., etc. each release has a halo, sigil, or null identifier designating its order. Now there are releases that are digital only. It’s really odd. A huge part of the experience was the packaging and visual artwork and now that’s mostly gone.
- mk_stjames 2y ago
  ... one of my favorite NIN bits of a recent release though was what you got mailed for 'Not The Actual Events' if you chose it- The album was digital only, which I too was disappointed at. But if you chose to, they mailed something. When you got it, it was this black envelope with a very serious warning that if you opened it, it was going to cause a mess, and they had no liability whatsoever for said mess. When you opened it, it was some album artwork prints, on cardstock... covered in fine black powder. Just, carbon black powder. With a hefty amount just in the envelope. Similar to laserjet printer toner. If you handled the stuff, it got all over your hands. Everywhere. You got physically dirty from the album. It truly was a mess. I thought it was awesome.
  - aspenmayer 2y ago
    The only time I saw NIN live, Trent Reznor nearly destroyed his keyboard while putting on the most amazing musical performance. Sweat, dust, dirt, and glitter were everywhere, and probably bits of equipment as well.
    - mk_stjames 2y ago
      Throughout the 90's it was said that during tours they would send someone in each city to various pawn shops and bought up Yamaha DX7's- you could easily find a DX7 in thrift stores for $100 or less in those days, the FM sound was out of fashion and Yamaha built so many of them you could find them cheap. They just used them as MIDI keyboards, with all the actual sounds coming from rack gear off stage. And then nearly every night, Trent would destroy one on stage by the end of the night. Which is actually pretty hard to do if you know anything about Yamaha DX7's.
netsharc 2y ago
Somebody wrote that in the 1800s you'd probably hear a particular orchestral piece once in your life (and if you're a peasant probably never), having made arrangements to see a performance when they happen to be playing near you.

s1artibartfast 2y ago

Can't speak for the industry at large, but streaming ruined music for me. I think it has to do with how different brains are wired. Organization on song within album within artist within genre helped me remember and relate to it. I felt like I was in conversation with the artists. On the other hand, streaming is snippets without context, like a book composed of the most popular paragraphs from 1000s of authors. I guess for me, being able engage with my personal library or playlists was irreplaceable.

Loughla 2y ago
>I felt like I was in conversation with the artists. I work with college kids. They don't understand the absolute obsession a lot of old people have with The Dark Side of the Moon. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why. It's like the perfect album. And that's what finally dawned on me. It's the perfect album. The songs are really good individually, but the album is a masterpiece when played how it was originally meant to be played. The pauses and the transitions and the background noise of the player all brilliantly factor into the album. And the 20 year olds I interact with mostly listen to individual songs instead of albums. It's such a subtle difference that most people don't even recognize it.
- Larrikin 2y ago
  Personally I would argue a good DJ set is possibly a better version of albums of the past. The really good ones mostly play their own music, but aren't limited to their own output. Its a completely coherent experience with an intentional mood that completely flows together without any disjointed pauses. I don't think anyone actually misses skits or hidden songs, just that good albums sometimes had them. But I've given up on ever convincing people that think perfect was in the past. Usually I'm told there isn't any difference between an iPod on random or a Spotify playlist. I personally never want to say the best music was at some arbitrary moment in the past when I liked it and hope my taste continue to evolve even as I get further away from the source.
- westmeal 2y ago
  I'm almost 30 but as a stoner back in high school I loved Floyd so much. Their albums were meant to be played back to back as a single unit. Great band. Animals is up there with dark side for me.
- fipar 2y ago
  You may enjoy this story: My daughter is 18. She first listened to The Great Gig in The Sky on some joke/funny video involving Mario (I mean one of the Super Mario Bros). She looked what the song was, started listening to the album, and is now a huge Pink Floyd fan. As for DSOTM, she has it on CD and Vinyl, though she mostly listens to their music on Deezer. Learned to play the bass riff to Money too, so it seems some people still enjoy the full album listening experience and also digging deep (freak-territory deep) into the ones they really like. I should add that neither my wife nor I (we both have mostly distinct taste in music, though with some overlap) forced anything on her or her brother (who is 10 and a big RHCP fan, in particular of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and professes to hate Pink Floyd, though I don’t know how much of that is just to annoy his sister), and while my wife is more of a song listener (and on streaming, a playlist listener, with she creating the lists) I’m an album listener myself. Even when I got to CDs (from tape, we couldn’t afford a turntable when I was young so I got to vinyl after I got my grandma’s collection) I rarely skipped a track unless I really felt it as filler.
jon_richards 2y ago
> Organization on song within album within artist within genre helped me remember and relate to it. I felt like I was in conversation with the artists. The podcast No Dogs in Space brought this back for me. They discuss the stories of different artists, playing clips of their songs and explaining which got them their first gigs or record deals, when band members joined or left, other artists and music styles of the time, etc. I've always been terrible with names, so I could never follow along with pop culture songs, albums, or artists. For the first time in my life I can overhear a song and identify it, the artist's influences, and related songs. I'm no longer a complete outsider in conversations about music. Maybe once upon a time radio provided a lot of that--before it was taken over by standardized programming and advertisements.
- spigottoday 2y ago
  You might want to try non commercial listener supported wbgo.org if you like jazz and blues, for example. There are others. This is a local station, so as a bonus, there is no surveillance when I listen over the air.
Dylan16807 2y ago
If you're not able to properly seek out and play full albums within the context of the artist then that's the particular service you're using sucking. For all of YouTube's flaws it enables that experience just fine.
- s1artibartfast 2y ago
  Yeah, I think that is part of the problem. I can find an album on YouTube if I think of the right one, but my brain doesnt work that. I don't have mental lists or spot recall. Maybe if I maintained a excell sheet of artists or albums I like, I could brows that, and then play them, but meh.
brabel 2y ago
> Organization on song within album within artist within genre helped me remember and relate to it. I prefer to listen to full albums, but that I can do easily on Apple Music (Spotify is the same I think). And I can ask the player to play albums in a certain order. Is that what you're talking about? I don't see how "streeaming" made this impossible, it's just much easier actually.
pwthornton 2y ago
I’m not a Spotify user but this is largely still how I relate to music on Apple Music and Apple Classical. Yes there are playlists and stations but there always were before streaming too.

jonhohle 2y ago

I’m a big NIN fan and they have had great physical releases since the beginning - remix albums, singles, eps, vinyl, CD, SACD, DVD-A, blu-ray, etc., etc. each release has a halo, sigil, or null identifier designating its order. Now there are releases that are digital only. It’s really odd. A huge part of the experience was the packaging and visual artwork and now that’s mostly gone.

mk_stjames 2y ago
... one of my favorite NIN bits of a recent release though was what you got mailed for 'Not The Actual Events' if you chose it- The album was digital only, which I too was disappointed at. But if you chose to, they mailed something. When you got it, it was this black envelope with a very serious warning that if you opened it, it was going to cause a mess, and they had no liability whatsoever for said mess. When you opened it, it was some album artwork prints, on cardstock... covered in fine black powder. Just, carbon black powder. With a hefty amount just in the envelope. Similar to laserjet printer toner. If you handled the stuff, it got all over your hands. Everywhere. You got physically dirty from the album. It truly was a mess. I thought it was awesome.
- aspenmayer 2y ago
  The only time I saw NIN live, Trent Reznor nearly destroyed his keyboard while putting on the most amazing musical performance. Sweat, dust, dirt, and glitter were everywhere, and probably bits of equipment as well.
  - mk_stjames 2y ago
    Throughout the 90's it was said that during tours they would send someone in each city to various pawn shops and bought up Yamaha DX7's- you could easily find a DX7 in thrift stores for $100 or less in those days, the FM sound was out of fashion and Yamaha built so many of them you could find them cheap. They just used them as MIDI keyboards, with all the actual sounds coming from rack gear off stage. And then nearly every night, Trent would destroy one on stage by the end of the night. Which is actually pretty hard to do if you know anything about Yamaha DX7's.

netsharc 2y ago

Somebody wrote that in the 1800s you'd probably hear a particular orchestral piece once in your life (and if you're a peasant probably never), having made arrangements to see a performance when they happen to be playing near you.