How many folk now use streaming and have sold all their other audio equipment?

[Mikeandvan]

I do find some current music amazing but it's not generally mainstream or in the iTunes top ten.

I wouldn't know where to start, stopped listening to new music around 2000. But there haven't been any big shifts in popular music since the 90s.

[Sherwood]

It can be argued that such a restriction is a virtue, though. If we had unlimited access to absolutely anything we wanted would that improve the quality of our lives, would it make us better people, happier people? I suspect it would have the opposite effect.

This is to make the incorrect assumption that financial barriers are the sole or even major determinant of consumption. The fact that a streaming service has 50 quadrillion tracks does not mean that I will change my listening behaviour. These services have effectively replaced a financial budget by a time budget. I am no more likely to listen to Wagner now that I can do so without financial penalty, because I can't stand the music, and I am not willing to use my scarce listening time on such music.

Rather than diminish my musical enjoyment, streaming services allow me to find more of the type of music I like through features such as "related artists". They also help me avoid buying cds because I like one track I heard on the radio. As such they are an invaluable filtering service that help me focus on music that better matches my tastes and preferences.

Geoff

[mikmas]

I would suggest that either your musical preferences and searches are very limited. Many of the artists and new music that I listen to will never make it to vinyl, and some probably never make it to cd.

I am not suggesting that anyone should adopt streaming technology or sign up to streaming services. However, I reject arguments that streaming has not come of age or is technically complicated or just for techies.

As to vinyl, I still have my vinyl hardware and a very large record collection and they still sound very good. However, despite the resurgence of vinyl, I do not see that it has a long term future. Clearly, some of the current popularity is from oldies (like myself) nostalgic for the physical experience of vinyl. Ultimately, economic and broader social forces will determine the future of vinyl. As good as vinyl can be, it costs many times more to get a good sound from vinyl than it does from digital. Also, we have to acknowledge that the 2 times 20 minute album format was shaped by the technical limitations of the time. Artists can now release (and sell) a single track or their complete repertoire without any obvious constraint. Additionally, I cannot see a return of vinyl stores to the high street. You only need to see how cds have diminished in terms of store floorspace in the likes of HMV, to see how physical media are on a downward decline.

Streaming is not for everyone: neither is Vox Cosmica Hildegarde von Bingen. However, it is pointless to dismiss subjective preferences as not valid.

Geoff

+1

[mikmas]

... - why does it upset people so much if they like something different, especially if it's digital?

You forget that vinyl has quasi-religious status, fetishised by a cult of devotees ... digital is by definition a form of blasphemy and will incur the wrath ....

[User211]

make sure you download the beta hifi one for pc and click the hifi stream at bottom.

Will do.

BTW the Quobuz and TIDAL USB output was different for the same tracks, for whatever reason.

I should have redirected the output to the laptop's soundcard, captured the soundcard's buffer and analysed them in a wave editor. That would've been easier and more informative. Couldn't be arsed at the end of the day.

[montesquieu]

You forget that vinyl has quasi-religious status, fetishised by a cult of devotees ... digital is by definition a form of blasphemy and will incur the wrath ....

Nah. It just sounds better.

[jandl100]

I think I have tried most maybe all streaming services.
Classical music is all I really care about, anything else can take its chances.
As such, Spotify wins easily for the breadth of its catalogue and its metadata/indexing which allows you to find the music. It's far from a perfect search tool, but a bit of lateral thinking in search terms generally gets me there in the end.

Happily, I am sufficiently hard of hearing that I don't notice any shortfall in sound quality.

[Sherwood]

There's a lot of merit in this argument but you could equally argue that one of the reasons music no longer has the hold it has over young people that it used to have is precisely that it's a commodified, low-value experience.

Precisely some of the 'hipster' ethic (ok this is a fashion that may fade as others before it have) is to put some striving - financially and physically - back in the consumption of music, which adds to the pleasure.

Are you seriously suggesting that music has only recently become a commercially driven commodity. Look at the historical marketing of recorded music; the widespread practice of Payola; the appalling exploitation of artists and their property rights; and, the manipulation employed by the record labels to artificially boost a record in the album charts. Music is a commodity, and we make subjective choices about how we spend our limited economic resources, no tleast the use of our time.

The reason that tastes are changing is that music has competition from other leisure activities that it did not face in the past. Additionally, technology gives us greater choice over what music we listen to, and where and when. Whilst I feel sorry for many younger folk who have never heard hi quality music reproduction I am not arrogant enough to suggest that their choices about leisure time pursuits are wrong.

Geoff

[Primalsea]

Happily, I am sufficiently hard of hearing that I don't notice any shortfall in sound quality.

Audiophile hearing aids. BOOM! A new hifi product for the market. I have all the good ideas me.

[mikmas]

Nah. It just sounds better.

Sure - "Once Upon A Time....."
(other fairy stories are also available)