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Would you be as enthusiastic about the audio hobby if streaming disappeared?

grillebilly said:
There's also a lot of music that has never been put on physical media. So if you don't stream it, you'll never hear it.
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That is a good point you've made there. It seems like every format that has come along has left in it's wake a good amount of material that didn't make it to the following formats and it now looks like streaming is proving to be no exception. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to bode as well for the long term durability of that music since no physical "relic" will be left behind as it has with music on the various physical formats. Much of it could end up being "vaporware" that evaporates without a trace of it's existence to future generations. I don't know if any of this music that you speak of is of the type that would personally appeal to me - maybe, maybe not. Still, even if I don't ever get exposed to it, I already have a pretty full plate of other new stuff that I'm hearing in other ways.
 
grillebilly said:
I've got a lot of albums that they made less than 500 of. Some CD's, too.
There's also a lot of music that has never been put on physical media. So if you don't stream it, you'll never hear it.
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I bet there is lots of music many of us would enjoy but due to obscurity will never hear, that includes covers, makes suggestions and sharing an enjoyable thing to do.
 
spicer said:
I bet there is lots of music many of us would enjoy but due to obscurity will never hear, that includes covers, makes suggestions and sharing an enjoyable thing to do.
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I have discovered a lot of artists from playlists here on AK. I find others who share my musical tastes, then follow their posts. Letting others do my homework in a way.
I guess AK is to be considered a streaming platform in such cases.
 
grillebilly said:
There's also a lot of music that has never been put on physical media. So if you don't stream it, you'll never hear it.
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This is becoming increasingly the case in 2022. I have grabbed copies of several LPs over the last 3-4 months that are available only via WEB, and not @ any "hard" medium whatsoever. Electronica, Folk, Prog, Metal, and a bunch of other genres are included thus far and I expect this segment will only grow as we move forward.
 
grillebilly said:
I have discovered a lot of artists from playlists here on AK. I find others who share my musical tastes, then follow their posts. Letting others do my homework in a way.
I guess AK is to be considered a streaming platform in such cases.
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Seconded, and a great (for me) example is the thread we have (Music Forums) re: New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) that member @Delmarva started in December 2018, which is still running strong, and through which I have read about and sought and heard a whole lotta material I'd otherwise might'a missed, a prime examples being Diamond Head, Angel Witch, Vardis, Venom, and maybe most of all RAVEN, whose excellent "live" album Live At The Inferno (1984). The same thread gave me data about the record labels, e.g., Neat, High Roller ... @ which to do "deep dives" into their catalogues for thentofore unknown to me treasures, as well as following the posts of informed members in addition to @Delmarva, e.g., @heavyrock, @Torontoblue, @Zoot Allures and many others.

Here's the link to the NWOBHM thread:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/the-new-wave-of-british-heavy-metal.848685/
 
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intro6 said:
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to bode as well for the long term durability of that music since no physical "relic" will be left behind as it has with music on the various physical formats. Much of it could end up being "vaporware" that evaporates without a trace of it's existence to future generations. I don't know if any of this music that you speak of is of the type that would personally appeal to me - maybe, maybe not. Still, even if I don't ever get exposed to it, I already have a pretty full plate of other new stuff that I'm hearing in other ways.
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I can think of a **** ton of analog masters that were lost forever when they were converted to smoke not so long ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Universal_Studios_fire

So, it doesn't appear any format is necessarily a "forever" proposition. But it's easier to make a lossless back-up in digital than analog. I'm not saying a digital master is better than an analog master, but every subsequent copy in analog is compromised to some degree...and that's not necessarily the case with digital. Just because a streaming service loses a copy of a file...for whatever reason...that doesn't mean it's gone forever. It'll still be a potential revenue generator for someone, so you can likely count on it being available somewhere.

And regarding the doomsday scenarios...there's nothing in any streaming service's terms and conditions that says you have to unload all your physical media and/or are prohibited from acquiring physical media if using the service. Once again, it's not an all or nothing proposition...yet I continue to see positions taken against streaming that make it seem that way.
 
RunOutGroove said:
A few times I've been part of a painting or some other kind of labor type crew and more often than not someone will have a radio tuned to a classic rock station blaring... and I HATE THAT! I grew up on that music and a lot of the bands I still like, but I never understood the appeal of hearing the same tracks, even by artists that I like, over and over... and over again. .
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And here's The Who with "Won't Get Fooled Again". Again and again and again.

It wouldn't be so bad if they played some deeper cuts from these bands, but they never do.
 
I see two outcomes, not mutually exclusive.

1) Physical media sees an even larger resurgence in popularity (I would probably branch out from vinyl to CD as well as a secondary source)

2) Everybody pirates again.
 
Mr Owl said:
And here's The Who with "Won't Get Fooled Again". Again and again and again.

It wouldn't be so bad if they played some deeper cuts from these bands, but they never do.
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Seems like commercial radio has no grounds to complain about their diminishing market share. If they were more willing to take input from folks who are really passionate about music and program more stuff that might actually keep people who care interested, rather than giving the people what they think they might want, they might be doing a lot better. There's numerous instances of the suits making the absolute wrong calls in the music biz. There's so many albums for example that almost didn't get made because the companies felt like they were too edgy and wouldn't sell, but then ended up selling lots of units. I really feel that the whole desperate, "blockbuster or bust" attitude of record companies, radio and the like not only hurts consumers by having less choices but hurts their bottom line as well...
 
To answer the original question, Streaming is ridiculously awesome, and it's enhanced an already great hobby. I embraced it right away (heck I was downloading on Napster when it came out. Sorry Lars - I was one of those guys. I do have all your stuff on Vinyl).

I'm 56 and while I may not do a deep dive on every new thing that comes along, I hope I never get to the point where I proudly shun stuff like this either.

I honestly can't see anyone into music not liking streaming to at least augment your physical collection. I don't own every single album by every band I like (I'd go broke). Forget about "new" music for a second - did you all buy the super deluxe re-release of your favorite band's iconic album with all the outtakes and other versions? No? It's all a click away on Spotify.

Seriously, for you guys who shun it, is it the tech? Because it doesn't have to be hard. I have a technophobe friend who's 65, but he can use a PC, and I showed him spotify and how to find stuff / make playlists / etc.. He only plays it through his (fairly decent) computer speakers, but he's continually amazed that he has essentially a lifetime's worth of music at his fingertips for $10/month.
 
Listening to a Bill Frisell album, Further East/Further West, a digital only release and a follow up to his splendid live recording East/West, probably my favorite of the 25 CD's I have with him playing.
Since I have a plethora of his stuff the world wouldn't end without me ever hearing it, but sure happy I did.
 
tomlinmgt said:
Just because a streaming service loses a copy of a file...for whatever reason...that doesn't mean it's gone forever. It'll still be a potential revenue generator for someone, so you can likely count on it being available somewhere.
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Heading into the future, it's really hard to tell whether that will be true or not. I personally think that there will be a good amount of the not very successful music that you won't be able to count on being available somewhere at some point in the future, if it was only made available for streaming. As time goes on there will be an ever increasing inflow of new music to the streaming services and at some point they will feel like they have to purge some of the older, less popular stuff for cost reasons in an increasingly consolidating industry, music which may not be considered a potential revenue generator for anyone at that point. In a somewhat related note, I read an article a while back telling how since Netflix doesn't carry most of the older movies, there had been formed an alternative movie streaming service for at least some of those movies. But then that streaming service went under, leaving their subscribers with absolutely no other streaming alternative according to the article, instead forcing them to go back to the original alternative: physical videos. I see a parallel to the music streaming industry developing sometime in the future.
 
tomlinmgt said:
Once again, it's not an all or nothing proposition...yet I continue to see positions taken against streaming that make it seem that way.
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Again, I'm not against streaming, and I'm fine with people streaming, not streaming or being somewhere in the happy middle. This is something I've stated previously. I'm just bringing up some potential issues related to streaming.
 
I've enjoyed streaming for a few years now it has really opened up alot of new music for me and my cd player hasn't been played but yesterday I played a couple of cd and it sounded much better than the same song played on Amazon HD .Streaming is great and I totally enjoy it but cd is still a great sounding format as well in that if streaming disappeared I would still enjoy my system heck I might get back into vinyl
 
jek57 said:
I've enjoyed streaming for a few years now it has really opened up alot of new music for me and my cd player hasn't been played but yesterday I played a couple of cd and it sounded much better than the same song played on Amazon HD .Streaming is great and I totally enjoy it but cd is still a great sounding format as well in that if streaming disappeared I would still enjoy my system heck I might get back into vinyl
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Depends on what you're streaming with and the capabilities of that equipment. Bluetooth or wifi streamer? What's the source of the stream? What settings? Etc.
 
intro6 said:
Again, I'm not against streaming, and I'm fine with people streaming, not streaming or being somewhere in the happy middle. This is something I've stated previously. I'm just bringing up some potential issues related to streaming.
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I think you bring up some very thought provoking observations...and all of it entirely plausible. But hasn't losing music to obscurity been going on for decades now? It's sort of Darwinian...there's soooooo much music that has been made and recorded since the incarnation of the technology. Some of the less popular stuff is just going to fade away, by and large, regardless of what format it's available in.
 
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