Yep as he also uses music I am more familiar with rather than the audiophile staples what he says about how it conveys the music makes more sense.
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The current streaming platform model has been a worrying situation since I got back into audio 3 years ago. The streaming platforms have never been profitable and the artists are not making any money. Common sense tells us that this situation and the present streaming models are not sustainable. Why? No incentives for anyone.
A new model has to be employed where EVERYONE in the music chain can benefit. Try this on: The music streaming platforms are incredibly wonderful for music and artist DISCOVERY. What if the platform only allowed a limited play of an album, EP or single, say, one-time full access play and there after each tune can be played up to 20 seconds. Moreover, in all cases where an artist and or an album, EP, or single appears on the screen, there is an ARTIST PORTAL link. The PORTAL link takes the subscriber to an artist site WITHIN THE STREAMING DOMAIN SITE. Once there, the subscriber/listener can purchase the physical product of their choice, a cd, vinyl LP, tape, download…whatever. Even artist merchandise. Once inside the PORTAL link, the artist is the decision maker on fulfillment. The artist chooses with the streaming platform who gets to fulfill the order. It could be Bob’s Record Shop on Main Street in the artist’s hometown, Amazon, the record company, or whoever the artist wants and sets up with the streaming platform. The Streaming Platform takes a cut of the actual physical purchase – music, merch everything.
So what if the subscriber/listener doesn’t want physical media ever again? No problem. The Streaming Platform offers a LIFETIME ACCESS to an album, EP or Single for a discounted price, say $7. The artist still gets the majority cut, the platform, record company etc. get minority cuts. This is not a download because access is not separated from the platform. Want to buy the physical product in the future because you think the platform is providing bad quality or you think they’re going to go out of business in the near future, or you just don’t like their platform, image anymore? No problem. Click the link and you are back in the ARTIST PORTAL again. Another $5 bucks gets you that album in a download, add shipping and you can have a cd and of course, vinyl will cost you more but you have already got a slight discount because you purchased a lifetime access.
Bottomline: Someone, Somewhere, has to Sell Something. The box of air model has never worked and it never will. There must be incentive and equity across any marketplace. Show this to Darko.
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Not directly, no, and I personally do not mind him doing whatever it is that he’s doing, as long as he does not hold people up in dark alleys or deals drugs or something… But quite a few of his recommendations are pure snake oil (be it due to commercial interests or ignorance) and that might well be interpreted as “robbing people” or at last leading them on to spend money on things they absolutely do not need.
I have about 500 CDs. But I haven’t purchased one for about 5 years. I currently do all of my listening through streaming services (Tidal, Qobuz). I do this for a number of reasons, primarily convenience, but also economic. There was a time when I spent a couple of hundred dollars or more per month on CDs. Now I spend about $33 per month plus my roon subscription and I can listen to any music anywhere in my home at CD quality or better. I can also listen away from home albeit, at the lower resolution afforded by Bluetooth, as I don’t use wired earbuds. I don’t even have a CD transport these days.
Is pricing too cheap? Are artists being underpaid? I don’t know. Many recording artists are earning millions. A few are even billionaires. Up and coming artists get exposure they would not get under more costly models.
If subscriptions were $50 or $60 per month rather than $12 to $20 per month would I still subscribe? Certainly, though I might consider cutting down to one service.
It may not be the case for the majority of people on this thread, sine we all pay extra for the convenience of ROON, but $50 or more per month could put streaming out of reach of many music fans.
I am a fan of John Darko, but I am not completely convinced he is right about this
I can guess what will happen if what you suggest is implemented, some people will just torrent it and then no one gets a penny.
No way on earth will people pay 7USD for every album they want to listen to more than once, not any more, younger generations in particular are used to the wealth of choice.
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Can you give some examples please?
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No he can’t. Because he’s too busy comparing John to Onlyfans. I think he’s getting Snake-Oil confused with Baby-Oil 
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Yes, they do get exposure, I have discovered many artists via streaming services I have gone on to buy music from, see live and buy merchandise.
Going back to the 80’s, pre internet, pre cd, my music collection, all vinyl or cassette was miniscule. Music discovery was via borrowing tapes from friends or browsing the vinyls in record stores on the weekend.
At the time there was a campaign to stop home taping just as there was the campaign to stop torrenting, now I think they know they can’t do anything.
What did lesser known artists do in the 80’s in order to get exposure? Tour I think, sell tapes at gigs, I somehow think it was harder for artists then than now.
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Umm, “Cables and power products by AudioQuest” in every video?
Indeed, OnlyFans performers are more honest about why they are there 
When I was 10 years old I received my first cassette recorder radio player for Xmas and soon after I saved for a broken down old record player, calling it a turntable would be an insult to turntables but after that I bought a record about once a fortnight from pocket money earned doing chores. That represents about $182 a year spent on music ($7 x 26), remember records at $7? When CDs came out I was buying a couple a week, now being employed and I paid about $2500 a year. Now 50 yrs later I can get everything I want to listen to for $200 a year.
I now own a bunch of music and I store it all on a NAS carefully backed up to an offline NAS, eventually the model will collapse because artists certainly aren’t making much out of these streaming services and none of the companies appear particularly profitable.
I believe it’s unsustainable. I doubt Apple will win this war, too few devices can connect to it properly.
P.S my costs are Australian dollars, we were long robbed here for hard media.
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Showing Audioquest cables is not snake oil, they are a sponsor of his channel, they are introduced as a sponsor in the introduction of many videos, as are Marantz & Roon.
At best it is saying “if you need a cable get an Audioquest one”. They do cables in many different price catagories.
I would rather that than see him suddenly break away and start talking about mens underware or “Betterhelp” or “NordVPN” I am sick of those promotions in videos, I still get them as a YouTube subscriber which ticks me off a bit.
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That’s the genius of Roon. If record companies/labels force streaming companies to go belly up or get too expensive, we all go back pirating. Roon still has customers.
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And a record of all the tracks/albums you’ve possibly pirated, lol.
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That’s a pretty glaring conflict of interests. Tells volumes about his understanding of anything audio, too.
It’s not a conflict of interest at all, not if he uses the products, which he does. He does actually need to use cables in his setups, should he be hiding them with masking tape?
Should he remove logos from his clothes too?
I have no idea what you mean with the 2nd sentence that makes no sense to me at all.
I’ll make this my last response to you, I was trying to understand your rationale but I’m no better off.
Happy holidays.
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So, as I was saying, his opinion on anything audio is worth about as much as Taylor Swift’s on the design of thermonuclear fusion chambers.
No necessarily, but he definitely should not be marketing them in notes to every podcast. That’s what it is, he’s pushing AQ cables.
It means exactly what it says – someone using AQ cables (and pushing them onto his viewers) really has no business giving any kind of advice about anything audio. Not to say that there are no other rather glaring examples of not having a clue (or being willing to say whatever brings in more dough), but this one is pretty obvious and plastered all over his site.
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Zero way to trace.
The arguments about the distribution of the payments have been debated in the HIFI-communities around the world for some time now and I sense - as John does - that changes will be there in the near future.
The European TV-Channel ARTE even has a good documentary on YouTube about the origins of digital music and streaming called “How streaming ate up music”. The video is in german, but you can activate the automatic translation of subtitles in the settings. It clearly states the dilemma for the lesser known artists, earning almost nothing versus the superstars “earning it all” including which percentages go to the different parties like artist, record label, etc.
I feel for the lesser known artists and love discovering new music and bands (on of my best finds of the last years was seeing singer & songwriter John Smith as an opener at a concert). I would not be comfortable with a streaming offer à la Netflix, where artists, albums or even single songs will be taken out of the streaming service after a certain time or even forever. I sometimes see it in Qobuz, where certain songs in playlists are not offered anymore, which I find rather annoying.
If this will be the future I would quit and return to CDs or buying files (and to a lesser degree vinyl): If I like an album on Qobuz and I think it’s a heck of an album, I not only stream it, but buy it in High-Res (when on offer).
I’m a “buy for keep guy” who likes his CDs & vinyls and prefers streaming for the comfort and the ability to discover new music. I would rather pay more for a diversity of services or keeping the status quo.
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That is where Roon filled the void for me. I had my complete library ripped and was using different media players curating my library with tags and album art and then I came across Roon.
Aside from the user experience in Roon which was on another level, it was the playback fidelity of my collection. Then there was a added benefit for me and it was multi-room. Never looked back.
Integrated streaming is just a cherry on top and I hope the future will be relevant.
–MD
I am like many here. I own well over a thousand discs, but the majority of my listening is either streaming my music from NAS or using Qobuz.
Regarding streaming services, they are almost criminally cheap. If they never existed and Incas told I could stream the entire Blue Note catalog in lossless (44/16) format for $19.99/ month I would gladly have paid. The idea that nearly every recording from every label would be available for that price would have been incomprehensible.
I have had three internet storage services tell me previously that services will no longer be offered and I expect as such from Qobuz some day.
I still store all my music in a CD rack and all is backed up times 3 on hard drives.
Someday these services may not be available.
Big artists like Sting, Springsteen, and Neil Young have sold their music to private investment funds.
I continue to buy music via Qobuz and a few CD’s a year. Physical media has value and streaming media will change at some point.
All I am saying is continue to support artists you like and buy physical media. Also, hang on to your CD’s. Rip them and put them on several hard drives and store them and keep the discs if you like. They are a tangible connection to our past
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