I've been thinking about this alot lately. I get the convenience of spotify, but I feel the need as a music fan to support bands by purchasing physical items. Bands make sweet fuck all off spotify also. Your thoughts gentlemen?
I don't use it. I find that between YouTube and bandcamp I can listen to more or less anything I want to hear and from there I'll order a CD, LP or tape either from the band or label. To be honest, though, the idea of supporting the artist seldom comes into my mind when ordering records. I just like having physical copies. The amount of money a band makes from selling merch is so limited that it's practically negligible. If you think that buying a CD from a band is the only thing that will keep them from starving or packing it in, then I think you're underestimating just how much of a hobby making metal music is for 99.9% of bands unless they are touring all year round. All that said, it's better that some cash makes its way directly to the band, or more importantly perhaps, the labels, as they are the ones stumping up the cash to get records made. A world of entirely online music is not a world I want to inhabit.
The only reason I use Spotify is that it's the missus' account. Other than that, I wouldn't be tempted to sign up. It's very buggy, and the volume levels are very poor (esp important as I'm a bit hard of hearing these days). As mentioned, you can get most stuff off YouTube anyway.
Sex with a perfect ten or wanking into a worn sock, your thoughts gentlemen??
Quote from: Black Shepherd Carnage on April 24, 2020, 10:32:22 AM
Sex with a perfect ten or wanking into a worn sock, your thoughts gentlemen??
Depends who owns the sock... and if they're wearing it at the time. :laugh:
Now there's an idea for some album art!
"You should have seen the cover they wanted! It wasn't a glove, I'll tell you that!"
I absolutely love Spotify for the amount of music that is readily available and the offline option is great. Due to the nature of it though it has pushed me to buy far more than I had in years to counter the feeling of treating music in such a disposable manner.
I'd been using it for about a year, but a (bank-side) mistake with my card meant it lapsed. I didn't realise the mistake for a while and I haven't bothered to sign back up since.
I'm unsure why that is - maybe the iceberg of streaming is too real? There's what, 21 million songs on Spotify? I just didn't know where to dive in and defaulted to stuff I knew (like everyone here I'd listen to a lot of music anyway and probably spent most of my money growing up on music).
I do keep a decent sized memory card in my phone (currently 128Gb plus about 20Gb of overspill onto the phone's storage) and love playing music back that way. Got a great set of wireless headphones recently (Sony WH1000MX3) so usually have those on and I've a decent Bluetooth speaker that always gets turned on when I'm in the kitchen, shed, etc. Having all that music ready to go on the phone is great.
I'm using Bandcamp more and more but Spotify is still my default unfortunately. I'd love Bandcamp to have a queuing system or suchlike as I have headphones in all day, but stopping to change the record is hardly a chore, it's what we did for years after all. Bandcamp do some great artist initiatives and their blogs have exposed me to an insane amount of music over time.
Quote from: Eoin McLove on April 24, 2020, 09:50:00 AM
I don't use it. I find that between YouTube and bandcamp I can listen to more or less anything I want to hear and from there I'll order a CD, LP or tape either from the band or label. To be honest, though, the idea of supporting the artist seldom comes into my mind when ordering records. I just like having physical copies. The amount of money a band makes from selling merch is so limited that it's practically negligible. If you think that buying a CD from a band is the only thing that will keep them from starving or packing it in, then I think you're underestimating just how much of a hobby making metal music is for 99.9% of bands unless they are touring all year round. All that said, it's better that some cash makes its way directly to the band, or more importantly perhaps, the labels, as they are the ones stumping up the cash to get records made. A world of entirely online music is not a world I want to inhabit.
100% agree man. I don't have Spotify either. I'd much rather have a collection at the very least contribute to a band and label
I've been buying music for about 40 years so have a lot of it around the house. Everything is ripped, though, and I usually listen to that rather than the physical stuff. I don't see the point in paying spotify execs to listen to stuff I already own, simple as that. There is still stuff I bought over the years which I haven't listened to yet. I still buy, though, because I'm a creature of habit, I suppose, and it's what I have done all my life. I also like to think someone gets something back for the effort and expense of making music which makes my life a better place. I prefer physical but if I have to go digital, I go through bandcamp.
From an artistic point of view, I think spotify, in particular, is just taking the piss. The last stuff I put out has made about €300 on bandcamp. So far, spotify, youtube, apple music and amazon have paid just over $22 combined for a quite healthy number of streams. In a few more years I might just recoup the money spent getting publishing together to licence to those platforms in the first place. It's not just basement level spas like me, though. I remember when Blacky published a Voivod cheque for $1600 for 6 months of royalties for streaming. Why would you fucking bother? I appreciate I'm behind the times but spotify can get fucked, quite frankly. They're worse than the old music business model ever was and I choose not to be a part of it. Just fucking download and be done with it, at least you're not funding the thing which is fucking every artist with no alternative.
I'd be of a similar mind. I've spent the last while ripping stuff too for the MP3 player in the car (cuntin yoke has no CD player). I don't like subscriptions of any sort, I'd prefer to buy the odd CD, even possibly after downloading it to see if it's worth the purchase, or ordering a t-shirt from the band.
Quote from: Emphyrio on April 24, 2020, 12:46:34 PM
I'd be of a similar mind. I've spent the last while ripping stuff too for the MP3 player... I'd prefer to buy the odd CD, even possibly after downloading it to see if it's worth the purchase, or ordering a t-shirt from the band.
This. Using Bandcamp a bit more these days, usually to check it out and if I like it, I'll buy it (with a T-shirt, if available). Never used Spotify, I have a 160 gb iPod (recent upgrade from an 80 gb) and have that with me when I'm out and about. Still buy CDs, though I'm more discerning than I would have been in the past, I have a lot of crap to get rid of.
Physical all the way. Never used Spotify because I've heard numerous times, and as Juggz has outlined above, they pay a pittance to the artist. If I cant get a physical copy I'll pay for a bandcamp download. I'm a bit of an inadvertent luddite though. My phone still has buttons 😁
I use Spotify in the kitchen as it's too far from my hifi setup. Mainly non metal listening. It regularly stops playing after 2 songs though. A major pain in the ass. I've googled it up and it's some shitty bug with no proper fix. But I have checked out a fair bit of music on it overall to a positive effect.
Other than that I listen to physical format on my hifi (tape, CD, vinyl). I dabble occasionally in YouTube as there is a much better selection of underground metal on it but I rarely listen through earphones and can't connect my phone to my hifi and I don't own a computer so that avenue is more or less out for me, though I would use it more if I could play my phone through a speaker. What do I need, a Bluetooth speaker? (whatever the fuck that is)
Was very much a physical man,and totally sceptical about things like Spotify when it first became popular.
But i took the soup,stopped buying cds and am 100% Spotify with years now.
The main reason,kids came along,my album collection was taking up a huge amount of space,i had about 2k cds,so i just stopped buying physical music with a good few years now.I have to say i do love Spotify for sheer convenience.
I use my phone and a really good Boom bluetooth speaker,its about the size of a large can of beer ,and the sound is great!.
Quote from: Grim Reality on April 24, 2020, 01:33:19 PM
I use Spotify in the kitchen as it's too far from my hifi setup. Mainly non metal listening. It regularly stops playing after 2 songs though. A major pain in the ass. I've googled it up and it's some shitty bug with no proper fix. But I have checked out a fair bit of music on it overall to a positive effect.
Other than that I listen to physical format on my hifi (tape, CD, vinyl). I dabble occasionally in YouTube as there is a much better selection of underground metal on it but I rarely listen through earphones and can't connect my phone to my hifi and I don't own a computer so that avenue is more or less out for me, though I would use it more if I could play my phone through a speaker. What do I need, a Bluetooth speaker? (whatever the fuck that is)
I have this Bluetooth speaker 3 years now. I use it almost daily and pump the shit out of it. Great battery too....
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluetooth-Waterproof-Speakerphone-Shockproof-Splashproof/dp/B01EWUHISK
Ask me this question 2 years ago and I would have said physical all the way. Now its still physical but streaming is brilliant for on the move and firing up that random track that you thought of. It helps with the buying process and weeds out the shite
I wouldn't be into it at all. If something seems interesting to me, the way I go about it these days is to try it out on YouTube or Bandcamp, then if I really like it after a few goes I'll try get a CD of it and stop listening to it until the CD arrives. Sometimes I can't get the physical copy for a decent price and then I grab a torrent and burn my own CD.
I just like the concept of ownership. I had a free trial of spotify once and I thought it was great downloading the stuff for offline listening. Then the trial ran out and I couldn't have it anymore and I also couldn't burn it to a disc so fuck that shit.
The Iceberg thing applies as well. I prefer to limit the possibilities a bit so rather than listening to rakes of things once via streaming I have a collection of albums there and I get to sort of live with them and really get to know them and I love the physical buzz of taking out the disc and looking at the inlay etc. I tend to listen to full albums more like this as well rather than a song here or there and immediately thinking of the next thing I'm going to put on. I do rip my albums to my walkman for when I'm out or at work, but that is only 8 gigs so there is a limit on that as well. I gave a good few years not buying CDs and I found it took a bit from the love for music the way it was so cheapened. It isn't really the support the artist thing for me, I just find the buzz is better with physical.
I will add that a fair amount of my spotify listens are non metal.
I havent bought a physical release in about 20 years. If I like a band I'll buy a t shirt.
Last time I pirated something it was a home dubbed cassette in the nineties :laugh:
I have most of my CDs ripped to my phone so that does me on the go. I had Spotify a few years ago and found it a bit overwhelming. When you have your choice of everything it can be tough to pick anything. I use Band camp a fair bit and most bands have a track on YouTube if I don't know them.
I use both, listening to spotify is just so easy and I have all the old records on it now and in the car it works seemlessly with Android Auto. Plus I use it when out running or exercising, which is difficult with the LPs :laugh: . It doesn't take away from the pleasure I get when spinning up LPs. Like Bandcamp, Spotify helps find new bands but if I find a good album on either then I have to get the vinyl.
Spotify has its uses which I use sometimes but I still use and buy physical music .
You cant beat reading the lyrics and looking at the art work while listening.
I'd love to still buy/listen to records but i just don't have the space. A sonos and an Ipod just makes more sense. I use a mix of bandcamp / spotify / old cd rips and i buy merch at shows.
If i ever buy a place i'll get back into buying records.
.
the really funny aspect is that cds will start to be appealing again; great sound quality, similar to vinyl but more manageable than records, just enough tactility but you don't need an extension on your gaff to put your music in.
what Im waiting for isn't the next partially satisfying medium, but rather the next format for the audio itself- what kind of remastering technology will we use to make 20th century music stay relevant. Will all music be released in 24bit at the very minimum? Just using that as an example.
Quote from: Blackout on April 29, 2020, 04:25:59 PM
I love spotify so much and I would never have discovered half the newest music I listen to these days without it. It's a very slick app. I'd never heard of Bandcamp until I read this thread though. Would it have the same reach as spotify?
It wouldn't exactly but it's a much nicer concept all round.
I'm a recent convert to Bandcamp but it's great way to get a bit more cash directly to the bands themselves, from what I gather. I'd always try to grab a T-shirt along with a CD, if available.
Tomorrow, 1st of May, Bandcamp are waiving their fees so bands will get 100% of whatever you pay (excluding tax, of course). Can't argue with that. Under normal circumstances, bands get about 75% of whatever you pay in Bandcamp.
They're doing it again on the 1st of June and July.
Don't get Spotify... or why bands like to use it.
If I buy digital or merch, it's usually on bandcamp.
Avoided streaming/digital services for a long time before caving 4-5 years ago and dipping into iTunes and Bandcamp. Used to download the Bandcamp purchases and then add to iTunes, so as to have music all in once place.
Bounced from that to purely using Apple Music and then found that Spotify was a much cleaner application with a surprising amount of obscure output accessible across a range of genres. Also, have discovered so much new music over the last year or so thanks to the playlists it creates based on your listening.
That said, it does happen often that Bandcamp will have certain releases that are unavailable on Spotify, so both apps see almost the same level of usage.
There's a handful of bands (often those more obscure or 'problematic' acts) I'll always support 'physically' - either via direct record purchases or a few quid for a digital download - but I no longer have the space or interest in more vinyl/CDs/tapes collecting dust.