But this convenience and flexibility is destroying the living of artists we love. Those pennies you now spend compared to pounds a few years ago don’t go very far.
I do not see the connection between the two. Nothing stops you from supporting the artists you love financially despite from having the possibility to access their music on streaming services.
Would rather say in the old days you would feel like spending a significant amount of bucks on a CD while mostly record companies and others were earning by that, not necessarily the artist. Today you can use bandcamp or others services to support your favorite artist at a higher margin than ever.
Personally I can say that streaming services and roon have boosted the amount of money I spend on music like nothing before. As I discover more artists and recordings, it makes me paying for downloads, physical media and concert tickets tenfold compared to the days of just local streaming.
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I feel bad for those who have lost some measure of enjoyment of their music experience. For me, Roon and streaming have enhanced my listening time in multiple ways. I have a local library of physical media. All my CDs have been ripped to FLAC, but I have only digitized a handful of my 650 vinyl. Recently my vintage turntable required repairs and it was so great to not lose the ability to listen to favorites via my integration of Tidal in Roon.
Sharing music with friends has always been something I love doing and Roon and streaming has made that so much easier than back in the days of physical media only.
The internet has also increased my ability to support artists I love. Knowing I can buy at sites like Bandcamp (I always purchase on Bandcamp Fridays!) or artist’s web sites puts, I believe, more of my money in their pockets.
I’m not sure why I don’t find having a large local music collection plus streaming blunts any feeling of a special experience when I decide to take time to listen. I’m 72, but I still remember, as a kid with no money, when my musical choices were restricted to radio. I am still exhilarated by the discovery of new music or rediscovery of old music I have not listened to for decades to be as special as it ever was.
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You’re one of the few though. Most of those that stream no longer buy music or even own it any more. We are a small minority on here and I bet the number who still buy compared to just use streaming are low. The two can exist together I never said they couldn’t. But we are the exception not the norm.
My niece makes music for a living, not that it is much of a living, but she knows all too well how little she gets from streaming and it’s only loyal fans that buy her stuff. She has to mix other people’s work to get by.
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I have 5102 albums, all local. I don’t even need streaming services to discover new music. Between On the CD Front / Pause and Play (the music site) and a couple of other web sites, including the Roon music forums, I get exposed to what I need, then I use the iTunes Music Store to sample, which is good enough for me. Then I buy what I like. Simple. But I am very picky about what I add to my collection these days, as I have most of what I want already.
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This is an interesting discussion! I have faced similar situations before when I began working in the radio business in the late 70’s. Wow, was there a lot of free music that the record companies would give you to listen to! At one point I was moving around 14 peach crates of albums! I really enjoy not having to store media the way we used to have to! But having access to all of this music is great for me, I like to dive deep into who influenced the artist or what was the artist trying to say with this work etc. I find it fascinating. So “Too much music?” I say not enough time! LOL
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I have lost my fear to make more and more use of Roon Radio. This avoids me putting more and more music in my library.
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I’d like to believe that streaming and Bandcamp increase the chance of my discovering an artist like your niece compared to what it was like 50 years ago. But it certainly is true that even with a greater chance of discovery, it is insanely hard for musicians to make a living solely via their art.
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It all helps just not as much as we would like to think it does. It’s always been tough but you could rely on sales to give you a steady stream however small. These days not so much.
Yes I also find this is the case, but every now and then I find Another one that stays with me
Around 2018, I began using Roon exclusively for my CD rips and TIDAL in native apps or Bluesound.
80% of my listening is orchestral music and metadata for classical is STILL a fiasco. So, I rely heavily on custom tags in Roon and I mean heavily. When Roon eventually eliminates this feature, I will be lost.
I use streaming services like Apple Music and Qobuz purely for discovering new artists and albums. However, my Roon library consists exclusively of purchased albums. For me, it doesn’t matter whether they’re ripped CDs or downloads—I value both equally. All the albums in my library have meticulously edited metadata, thanks to Metadatics and Yate.
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I no longer add releases from streaming services to my library, and (currently) use TIDAL solely for discovery, adding new (to me) releases to a playlist. If I enjoy an album, I’ll purchase and add to my collection.
All releases are tagged to my liking, and use the Discogs release ID with Roon tags (ROONALBUMTAG etc.) carrying additional information. Should the Roon database go awry, I can recreate my library in Roon quickly.
Why do you think this is likely?
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Had a similar impression when roon 1.8 was launched finding the classical browsing features mostly unusable with a combination of vast local library plus Tidal.
In the last 2 years I have rearranged and tagged everything according to roon´s standards and my own liking sorting out a lot of albums (mainly boxsets) unfavorable for correct tagging or posing too much effort. On top ditching Tidal eventually moving to Qobuz.
Have to say I have changed my mind on roon´s metadata handling for Classical. If you really make sure roon gets no garbage input, and are willing to correct some tags for albums causing problems manually, it works fine in >95% of cases and browsing options like composition lists, recording lists and discographies are a delight.
Typical roots of problems are wrong tags for primary artists or performers (like ´Mozart (1756-1791)´ as a composer´s name or multiple performers´ names within one tag), misleading WORK/PART tags, wrong information on ´complete recordings´ and credits wrongly assigned for multi-album sets. If you strictly avoid this in your local library and be willing to through out boxsets, you are most likely to have a very good browsing experience.
There are some of the aforementioned problems coming with streamed content and roon´s own metadata, but with Qobuz this is on a level toleratable.
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I predict user generated tags will eventually be gone because so few use them. Just an uninformed guess.
Maybe a lot of users DO make and assign their own tags so I could be wrong.
I don’t use a lot of tags, but the ones I do use are crucial to me. For example, I use a separate database (Collectorz) to catalog my library in case Roon ever goes away I can replicate my collection. Using a tag I can track which albums I’ve entered into Collectorz and which need to be entered. I’ve also ripped some of my vinyl collection which I’ve tagged in Roon. It would be very disappointing if Roon eliminated tags.
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Yes.
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Many use tags. Many don’t understand how powerful tags are, or, they would be using them.
I’m not sure if Roon saves the tags in the files themselves. Tagging them in JRiver makes sure that happens. So not only Roon can benefit from the tags, but other programs as well.
@Rugby Tags are so powerful to me that I would frustratingly pay a fee if they ever become an add-on capability.