The future of streaming: is trouble ahead?

I don’t stream, can’t find many music I own, and the ones they have, I own in higher resolution. I own more than 60k songs, 70% in hi-res and 30% CD quality. No interest in investing in a good streamer and good cables.

I had to try the streaming services just to see how they sounded
I’m old fashioned. I like owning the music I play
I like owning the films and TV series I watch
I’ve a massive bluray and 4k bluray collection. Quality is so much higher than streams.
I used to have my own music business and sell rare underground prog, psych and krautrock. Consequently in addition to collecting music since the 70s I’ve also acquired a large amount of music via my business. When I quit I kept much of the music.
I like quality. When travelling I have my music on my phone. I don’t stream via a service.
Amazon keep bugging me with free offers for their music service. They’ve offered 6 months
Why wouid I want a substandard source like amazon.
I’ve used spoty, tidal, qubit and not been impressed.
I’ve tried Netflix, prime and the same applies when it comes to quality.
Streaming services not only own the music but they own the people who subscribe.
I’m old fashioned and like to own myself.
Self empowerment is a wonderful thing.
If that makes me an anachronism then I’m proud to be so.

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I’ve noticed this too… your tv is probably already hooked up to some sort of sound system, its familiar, and you get nice album art/lyrics/whatever on the screen - lots of my friends seem to be doing this now. Perhaps this is why Harman/Samsung just bought Roon?

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And yet. Using the Deezer app on my TV using its remote doesn’t work well at all. It’s very cumbersome.

When it comes to sound quality. I’ve connected my Toshiba Android smart TV through optical to my Cambridge CXA81. So the Cambridge’s DAC runs the whole show. So sound wise it’s ok.

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I don’t agree at all. Let the market and competition do their work. Why would we as customers cry that we pay not enough? And as prices go up it would be fair to pay by use. Now I pay the same amount for a few hours streaming as someone else pays for hundreds of hours. But again I wait and see what company will has the best offer.

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Wholeheartedly support this subscription model. If it becomes reality, I would subscribe to multiple services at the same time. (I have Qobuz and Apple Music subs now.)

What’s your basis for calling him an idiot? And why? Is the use of quotes supposed to indicate irony? People can have different opinions and not be idiots. And what’s the financial angle here, enlighten me?

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Streaming is here to stay. However, the players will change, there will be more consolidation and/or the individual companies may decide to offer their own streaming platforms. And the prices will increase.

If we don’t support small, independent artists, then eventually streaming won’t matter for new music because none of them can earn a living. I have Qobuz but resist other streaming services because I feel like the money goes to the service and not the artists who aren’t named Swift.

My approach is to directly support the artists I discover via Bandcamp or their preferred site. I spend about $150 per month and feel a little better about supporting the living artists I truly appreciate.

If streaming supported small artists, I would stick with streaming only for most of my listening. But i don’t see that happening.

With all things streaming, including TV and movies, why can’t we just pay ala carte for what we want when we want it and be done with subscriptions? That would be a Christmas miracle!

Something like this exists with Qobuz purchases and music downloads generally. On Amazon or Apple, for instance, you can also buy single titles.

In either case this is in addition to the subscription business and I don’t see how it could be any different. If streaming services don’t break even with subscriptions, how would their economics work out if they had to maintain a streaming infrastructure for users who pay a few dollars once in a few months to purchase one title?

Couldn’t care less if the streaming companies go under - music existed before them and will after.
For me streaming is merely currently, the most convenient way of discovering new music, which I then buy.

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You buy everything you listen to? Every recommendation, or do you stream it to ensure you like it, then buy it?
I buy from Bandcamp but not every release I like, if I like something very much and is a frequent spinner in Qobuz, I buy it, from Bandcamp not Qobuz.

Buying merchandise at gigs also helps artists more probably as I expect the markups are significantly higher.

Someone mentioned a pay for what you stream model, will that be on a track by track basis, will CD quality cost less than Hi Res? What about track length, should it be priced per 30 seconds increments as I just bought an EP with 2 tracks, each over 20 min long?

If it’s priced out of some people’s reach they will just steal it and with VPNs widely used now, the chances of getting caught are minimal.
This is why I think it will be kept affordable to most people.
The players may change though.

I stream only from Apple classical to sample music I discover from other sources (magazines, BBC etc) and then buy it to add to my collection. I still buy CDs!

So here’s one person for whom streaming is a negligible part of my listening.

I’m a classical musician, but a fortunate that I have since well in my day job. I try to pay the artists the full value of their music by buying their music.

I dunno if he is, strictly speaking, an idiot or not (although generally he has no clue what he’s talking about) but like almost any YT “reviewer” it is basically OnlyFans for people you would not want to ever see naked. They will say whatever brings him freebies, swag, and ad money.

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I agree as well. It’s crazy that digital downloads cost essentially the same as CDs.

Of course when the world moved from vinyl to CDs, where CDs have always been cheaper to make and distribute, the industry charged more without giving more to artists.

Tidal will be the first to go. Spotify will be the only streaming service left. I told my opinion to this forum like 5 years ago Roon should have added Spotify like years ago already…
Hopefully common sense will prevail with the new owners and it will finally happen
Cheers

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Roon tried to get Spotify onboard but Spotify didn’t want to. From what I’ve been reading the reason is that Spotify doesn’t want to share its data. Probably also the reason that although nearly every device has Spotify support. It is always in the form of Spotify Connect. In which you will have to use Spotify’s own app.

I think a lot of people are jealous of John Darko.

Here’s a guy with an opinion on music & Hi-Fi, who is articulate and innovative enough to make money from airing his opinions.

Whether you ‘like’ his approach or not, I respect him for putting himself out there. There will always be ‘haters’ in this world. Just ignore them.

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He’s very honest as to what he makes from his affiliate advertising, he just ran an article on it. People have to make a living and his is by reviewing kit in a hobby he loves good on him. He also buys an awful lot of the stuff he reviews himself. You might not like his style, but to have a go at someone for making a living is poor show, he’s not robbing people or ripping people off. This whole culture of all reviewers are bad because of advertising is a load of all horse crap, spread by the likes of two reviewers who don’t even seem to listen to music on the systems they review. It’s all charts and waveforms, :sleeping::yawning_face:

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Agree.
In addition he gives a lot of stuff away to his patrons in giveaways.
He’s just offering an opinion and if it allows him to live a lifestyle that includes having homes in Berlin and Lisboa, good luck to him.

And to be fair, he doesn’t give all glowing reviews on stuff, he gives his opinion good or bad.

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