Future of music-distribution and HiFi

[matt49]

Guess I'm an old fogey but unlike some old fogeys I am happy to embrace change providing that change gives me improvements. I don't really have any romantic attachment to physical media, but I like the fact that when I buy a CD I've got it forever, not until some streaming service like Spotify removes it from from my territory's catalogue without warning.

A couple of months ago I took out a subscription to Qobuz Classical. On the plus side, it has a good catalogue, and the SQ is CD quality: it sounds perfect. You can save music to a local device, and making a 'favourites' list is dead easy.

On the minus side, the search function is laughably poor. I had a burst of enthusiasm in the first couple of weeks, but once that passed, I found that I was hardly using it. I'll give it a couple more weeks and see if I get back into it; if not, it'll be cancelled.

 

[Deleted member 108165]

I haven't read the replies, so just commenting on what I feel.

Streaming is all very well and convenient. It has it's place, and I'm not criticising anyone for using streaming services - I use one myself as part of finding new music. Whether physical media will completely disappear remains to be seen though. Whilst there will be always be streaming services around nowadays and in the future, it'll be interesting to see what happens when one of these services goes bust. This might change the view of some. I've got quite a lot of artists/albums/tracks saved on Napster (with a view to buying the reelevant software at some point) and if I lost that tomorrow, it would take me an age to find/rediscover it all again, and I dare say that there's a few artists in my list that I'd forget were there, maybe never to be heard by me again. I like physical ownership - once I've paid for it, it's mine and I can do with it what I want, and barring theft/fire, I will always own it. One or two albums won't suddenly disappear without me knowing, and I'll have everything I want to play, not 'a selction of'. Plus, I won't be paying for the privilege of being able to play it on a monthly basis.

Anyone putting their faith on one single streaming service is trusting them to be around for as long as they are in order to enjoy their "prized" collection. I've tried a couple, but they just don't have what I want to listen to, and even if they do, some tracks are only available to stream if I buy it from them - sorry, but I already own it.

Can't add anything to this as you have totally encapsulated my thoughs entirely. Thank you David*good*

Long live physical media, may it reign supreme for the rest of my expected lifetime.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Thanks Doug.

 

[jjbomber]

This solution could be an amp with streaming clients built in, or an amp without built-in clients equipped with Bluetooth and Airplay to interface directly with your mobile device. Maybe even have the whole lot built into a pair of digital active loudspeakers,

So the future is .... the radiogram. Or the wireless-gram.

One other thing is that less money is being made on albums and more is being made on live gigs. It is difficult to illegally download tickets. Hopefully we will get more bands touring, though festivals seem to have kidnapped actual tours.

 

[chebby]

I am dependent on BBC Audio CDs to rip for a lot of my most listened to content. Alternatives are Audible.com downloads from Amazon (useless, ultra low bit rate versions that go as low as 16k and cost as much as twice the price of the CD!)

Audible and Amazon are firmly of the mind that drama, documentary, comedy etc. don't require good quality transfers but they absolutely need to fleece the customer! (The teenaged intern at Amazon in charge of such matters probably takes the view that 'spoken word' content is for the blind and thus it doesn't matter how low the bit rate is or how much you charge them!)

I wish BBC Physical Audio (BBC and Random House) would take audio downloads in-house rather than farm them out to the incompetents at Audible/Amazon. I'd be happy with same 320k they use for music (and the same prices) but that will never happen.

 

[DCC]

I haven't been waiting around for the floor to drop...firstly we're in the golden era, easily available lossless content and now all the gear one could want to play digital hifi. So for me it was a no brainer to spend the last year and a half downloading (& yep the skull & crossbones route) nearly 1000 cds/albums/recordings all in lossless form. That takes care of most anything I'll play...the music I grew up with and the real sh-t which was mostly recorded before I was born, thank you Blue Note. I download some new product also but there's really too much to sift thru. Therfore it really doesn't worry me what comes down the pike, I'll keep downloading and saving (till I can no longer) and joyfully playing my files until the coming revolution is no longer a revolution and then maybe, maybe I'll stream. Anyway I prefer to stay as unhooked as is reasonable, I don't have cable (I yee matey, who needs it), I don't smoke cigs, and I sure as shooting don't vape...don't get me started....