We now know her new album will launch on 30th July (Billie Eilish 'Happier Than Ever' Album Release Date, Track List And All The Details... - Capital). It’s unlikely to launch in low-res, is it? So, probably all go on the same day with a bit of a fanfare. Maybe the album will be exclusive to Spotify? (Ps. I’m not a huge Billie Eilish fan - that’s what my daughters are for - but have been thinking about this).
From the perspective of a streaming service, artist renumeration is actually more straightforward than you might think. The leader of Qobuz stated that they have higher payouts because they have fewer users at the same monthly membership price.
Artist remuneration is actually a very complex topic and depends on the contract the artist has with the label or distributor that supplies titles to streaming services. There are a series of related essays on it at this website if you’re interested in understanding it. This is one essay, others are linked by looking around the website: https://soundcharts.com/blog/music-royalties
Spotify will most probably launch on the 31st of December at 23:59 using Baker Island’s timezone?
We have four weeks to go now and still … nothing. How do you announce in Feb? Deezer should have also announced "we will include hi-res audio “in the coming months”.
Why the hell did spotify announce this way bck in February when they knew they weren’t gonna launch it soon,I mean were now in December and still non the wiser
Which is 18 days. It must be pandemonium in the corridors there. I wonder if we will see an announcement postponing the launch. I am starting to think this is a big elephant to chew.
I think Spotify is going to pass on lossless. Apple came in and stole their lunch money so I think they are having second thoughts as it costs more to them to stream lossless.
I suspect ‘support burden’ and ‘reputation management’ also got flagged up in testing.
While it’s all well and good streaming lossless on a home network with decent WiFi. Given Spotify’s huge (and to some extent non-technical) user base they really need to ensure that it just works, out-of-the box, for the majority (if not all) of their users when using a mobile connection.
My guess is they are still looking at getting some kind of system that (reliably) delivers the correct stream based on your bandwidth working perfectly before rolling anything out.
The damage from releasing a new tier that people were then unable to stream would be far worse in terms of reputation damage than any growth in user base due to that new tier. Even if less than 1% of users experienced minor issues that still a huge number in Spotify terms.
I even think it is possible that Spotify will not introduce lossless at all. Anyone who remembers the lyrics knows the game. It’s competition with Apple Music and there they also work with feints and maneuvers that are only meant to challenge others.
Apple and Amazon caught this Spotify ball very early and now face the difficulty Jamie described. Not all gold shines as strongly as advertised. What are these 3D formats, really, and how does that work mobile via Bluetooth?
If neither the technology, nor the catalogs for it are ready, one can only make free demo gifts and hope that after 3, 6, 9 12 or even 18 months (yes as long as free offers could be stacked) customers remain loyal.
Spotify watches from the sidelines with lower costs, yet has the largest customer growth of paying customers next to Google. In our little niche, we wonder why not everyone wants to be an audiophile. How long have Qobuz and Tidal been on the lossless track?What strategy are these companies driving. Qobuz consistently goes quality and niche, Tidal is now trying to pick up the masses with €10 and new Sony formats. Roon shows flexibility, also plays MP3, OGG and not only Flac. Can really play Hi-Res on the cable and knows the need to support special devices “Roon-Ready” for it.
When 90% of customers walk around with simple and inexpensive cell phones and not audiophile hardware lacks the mobile technology for undisturbed music enjoyment at the highest level.
Over 50% stream lossy with a bitrate of 160 kbps maximum with OGG-Vorbis and are very satisfied, no longer needing a token 320 kbps. Listening tests (blind test) are offered and again 90% say I can’t hear the difference to lossless and flac anymore. This is the discussion level of the mass markets. There people ask if it makes a difference to stream only 160 instead of 320 and 50% say 320 is not worth the money.
Here in the niche, people are looking for the subtle difference to Hi-Res products, but that alone won’t find an audience of millions. Roon has a lot more ideas that brought us together here. For me, what Apple and Amazon are doing is not fish and not meat and, as the pricing there shows, also has no added value for the artists. Here, only many months of free streaming and then not paid for more quality. The Apple management justifies this even with the over 90% not audible advantage.
If we only lack the ears for it, it is not bad, but the mind should tell us, there are different markets that are to be served. We have different requirements here than the mass of all music listeners.
Spotify will consider which markets and action strategy really bring additional and paying customers. The spoken word market now seems to be mapped as a priority with new investments at Spotify.
Here, clever sales and marketing strategists are probably on the move again at Spotify, who deliberately steered Amazon and Apple in the wrong direction for the mass market in February.
Here, clever sales and marketing strategists are probably on the move again at Spotify, who deliberately steered Amazon and Apple in the wrong direction for the mass market in February.
It seems pretty unlikely Spotify’s marketing department is that clever. I think, more likely, it’s that Apple and Amazon forced the price of lossless/Hi-Res down to $9.99 which threw a wrench into Spotify’s plans.
This view also has good logic, but when I see what MOG-Beats-Apple Music has done with the former 800,000,000 iTunes customers, I’m afraid one no longer learns what over 1,000,000,000 users of Apple hardware want in terms of music and TV. Today, there are other market leaders everywhere, where once there was almost an Apple monopoly under Steve Jobs.
