Spotify vs physical music

[Necro Red]

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?

[Eoin McLove]

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.

[John Kimble]

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.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Sex with a perfect ten or wanking into a worn sock, your thoughts gentlemen??

[Wiseblood]

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. 

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

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!"

[open face surgery]

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.

[Ducky]

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.

[kiehozero]

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.

[Necro Red]

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

[Juggz]

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.

[Emphyrio]

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.

[Carnage]

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.

[Scáthach]

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 😁

[Grim Reality]

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)