For the most part, I assumed I was being high tech. I know people that still get CDs. I have a friend who's introduction to digital music was getting a car with an internal hard drive. He would rent CDs from the library and rip them right into his car... leaving him with a good selection of music that will go away whenever he ditches that particular car! So sharing my music between the computer, the iPod, and my phone was still rather cutting edge... at least I thought so until I listened to a podcast from Wired magazine.
It seems that the new 'it' thing in music is streaming services. Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Prime, and of course the new gorilla in the line up... Apple Music. Here's what I 'knew' about these services before the podcast:
- You could use them for free. You would have limited selections to start from and there would occasionally be commercials. You could skip a song or two, but eventually you'd be prevented from skipping.
- On the Free tier you could select a particular song to start from, but it wouldn't play that actual song.
- If you paid for the service, you could get more skips, you would get no (or at least less) commercials. You could also be more specific or general in your streaming... say you want chill 70's singer-song-writer guitar heavy songs.
- And.... that's about all I knew.
I had used Pandora a bit on the computer, but it was before it got huge on mobile devices. I thought it was ok... but there always seemed to be streaming issues and I couldn't get the music selection just right. At work I use iHeartRadio, but to be clear while this streams music, it's not a streaming music service like the others. iHeartRadio is the streaming service of Clear Channel (the bohemouth that owns 3 of every 4 terrestrial radio stations). They mainly stream those channels, and while there is an account you can get to select songs or genres, you get no paid services. And I more or less hate it. I'd use something else if I could get any other service to stream through the state's firewall.
The podcast opened my eyes. The two techy nerdy guys went on and on and on about how Spotify was in particular changing the way we consume and pay for music. I guess spotify goes for $10 a month. For that you get immediate access to any and all of their music. You can cue up any song you want and listen to it as if it were on your device. You can create playlists and cue those up. You can even 'download' songs that you can play when you don't have an internet connection.
Umm... wow.
Other services have similar features. Google Play lets you UPLOAD your current songs so that those are available in the cloud. You can even combine 'your' songs with all the other ones owned by Google Play.
I guess my problem is that my taste in music is wide and narrow at the very same time. I like alternative... but I only have two or three of the alternative songs currently on the top 50 list. I dislike country, but have about a dozen country songs that I love. I ADORE Green Day, but I still only have 19 of their songs. They have about 16 albums. So with that in mind, I highly doubt that any music service is going to be easy to use. I'd have to make up a playlist that includes all of my current music and then hope that their algorithm would provide me with similar music... all without boring me to tears as I skip from song to song to song to song to song to song. Hell.. I skip songs like that now and I LOVE my music collection.
I also don't know how I'd feel about paying for all of the music on these services but only having access to them while I continue to pay. If I don't spend another red cent, I still have my 2100+ songs.
I can see the value for someone if they are on average buying a new album every month or so... but I don't. My average is about one or two songs per month. Even at iTunes prices that's $2.60 per month. So $10 without the permanent purchase is a little outlandish.
But at the same time... am I getting behind? Is this a trend that will define music in the ages to come? Moving to iTunes and an iPod was certainly a seismic shift in the music world. Remember record stores? Well they're gone mainly because Apple is now the leading music seller in the world. Apple obviously thinks highly of this trend as they put out Apple Music.
I don't know... it's something to keep my eye on.
Since my last music post I sadly haven't gotten much new music. Until this morning, I only had one 'new' song. And I got that from flipping between several movies and catching some of Invincible:
Jim Croce "I Got A Name"
I'm... less than impressed. It fit the moment in the movie, but my life isn't that movie.
This morning I got two other songs. One is a song that I've heard around. It was fairly popular awhile back and it kind of stuck in my head... so why not buy it?
Mark Ronson "Uptown Funk"
I don't think this will ever be one of my all time faves, but it does have a beat and it's something that I can nod my head too. The other new song was the newwest release from Postmodern Jukebox:
Postmodern Jukebox "Oops!... I did it again"
Yup... they took on Britney. And sadly I also have the original version. Again, this will never go down as one of my favorites (or even one of my favorite PMJ songs!), but it is kind of catchy, and I like the singer's take on it.
I wonder if Postmodern Jukebox is on spotify?
Uptown Funk is an awesome song. They got the Morris Day and the Time feel down perfectly.
ReplyDeleteYou could always just torrent your music like most people do. "Want all 16 albums by G.D.?" "One click and VOOSH!" LOL
The one problem with Spotify is that as of right now, they are horrible with regards to royalties to artist for their music. From what I had read, they give even less to the artists than Pandora. Here's an article in Spin about it:
http://www.spin.com/2013/06/pandora-david-lowery-cracker-low-royalties-debate-streaming/
As a summary, "Lowery said Pandora paid him $16.89 for more than one million plays of “Low” during the last three months of 2012. (He only owns 40 percent of the song, but the implied $42.23 that Pandora would’ve paid all songwriters still seems fairly paltry; Lowery also gets a performance royalty, which he says is “higher but also quite lame.”) By comparison, Lowery indicates that nearly 19,000 plays of “Low” on U.S. terrestrial radio netted him close to $1,400, while a mere 179 plays on Sirius XM satellite radio yielded about $182."
Taylor Swift had specifically went after Spotify a few months ago and pulled all her songs. She said she did it because she wanted to highlight how little money the average artist makes, and as a mega-star she can help them more by bringing up the inequities in the system.