Music streaming is FREE! (Yes, really)

Why do you think that people older than 65 won‘t stream music?

I think one can name many objections towards streaming, like being tied to the collection/version/quality of the provider.
But whatever you think about that, the statement is close to true, streaming is extremely cheap if you are a regular music consumer.
In fact, streaming is way too cheap and the artists are getting not close to what they used to for their work from music sales and streams combined. So I would expect, once everybody is really locked in, that streaming will get more expensive...

My audio system is primarily used for HT (90%) and distributed music thru ceiling speakers. Therefore I recently dropped Spotify w/no ads and replaced it with Pandora w/no ads. Saves me about $70 per year and serves me well.

How is the vertical phone display projected to perfect landscape mode on the TV? Is it a Roon app thing?

And some recordings just disappear and the functions of the services are way too limited compared to using foobar or your other favorite player.

No wonder music is dying...buy cds or vinyl! WANKERS!

I buy analogue. I then rip via Bandcamp or CD's to my Seagate external harddrive and then use Plex to stream. The problem with streaming is the pay which artitst get. I'd much rather buy an actual physical copy.

The bleeding hearts who wan t streaming to cost more “for the artist” will only end up further fattening the wallets of the streaming execs and record labels, because capitalism.

Artists don’t get paid more for only one reason: because they play and sing regardless. The system isn’t broken; better or worse, it’s working exactly as intended.

advantage of music streaming allows me to search my favorite albums/songs from huge music library data... from there, shorlisted the favorite good recording either purchase digital copies or physical CD then ripped and saved in external hard disk playing through ROON via network media player.

None sense. Your library is gone at the time your subscription is cancelled. Your physical music discs will not disappear. Also streaming services can remove access to certain songs but they can do the same to the songs on your physical discs. I love internet. But I fkin’ hate music streamers!

No wonder there are so many bad albums and bad artists these days. Good artists can't make any money if everyone is looking to cheap-out by paying for streaming rather than buying the music. The music industry is no place for artists to make money, except for a few very popular (and mostly not very good) artists. Streaming is ruining music. Not only would the good artists of the past not make it in this market, but artists now need to compete to get listeners to listen to their songs long enough to make a fraction of a cent. That means compromising their music to make every song's intro sound so good that you want to listen for at least 40 seconds.

Streaming is the worst thing to happen to music, but unfortunately, we are stuck with that and cheapskate listeners who think they are actually getting a deal. Admittedly, you are for the older music that has withstood the test of time, but new good music is very limited and is no longer mainstream.

Now let's also consider the musician whenever we mention the word ,"free".😊

There is so much broken in the music industry and so little goes to artists. Most get very little from streams, touring or physical sales. While i happily would pay more if it went directly to the artists I don't see how taking more money off us punters in the current set up would make much of a difference to what the artists got. Structural change is needed.

💯

Spotify is actually "free" if you can live with the adverts

The streaming service may have a billion albums. But that doesn’t mean you can divide the cost by billion. It’s only fair you divide the cost by the albums you may listen to and the future albums in the genres of music you will listen to.

Thank God I did a bit of work for Apple in the build up to the release of Apple Music... the work was actually for Beats but as you know Apple bought Beats and rolled it into the release version of Apple Music.... Apple gifted me free subscription for Apple Music :)

Well, that was stupid. Cash flow from my bank account is still the same after watching this video... So, not effectively free.

Still buy CDs, I will maybe stream a radio and if I hear something I like will buy the cd. It just feels like you actually purchase something rather than digital that just gets lost on a hard disk somewhere and forgotten. I can visibly see all my cds in my lounge.

Artists need better financial compensation or there will be a lot less of them. Creative people need to eat too !

John... PLEASE consider the cost of your internet service provider (per month) that is absolutely necessary to stream anything. All streaming services are an add-on to this foundational cost.

My only complaint from streaming is that the artists get paid absolutely nothing for the art they produce. It’s a great deal for us as the consumer, but it’s that great deal which has decimated the music industry

Excellent Video that John ,,,, when it's put into perspective it all makes sense ,,, cheers 🍻

Very enjoyable take, and accurate insight. Thanks John!

Artists do get paid from streaming services. Tidal does not pay as much as the others, but the artists have the right not to have their content offered on that platform.

In my country Tidal is almost free. But unfortunately i already spent a lot of money in vinyls, later CDs, SACDs and other physical formats that appeared in between. but when I’m streaming I start to skip from one album/band to another. An LP is still a different way of listening to the music. Also you can see, read and even smell. Like in the 70/80s. And I am not talking about sound quality, or any physical or technological point.

But your cost per month is not $15 as you are subscribed to 4 x $15 services. The question then is ……Why ?

I'm still buying digital copies on iTunes because it is convenient and reliable. I stopped using streaming because even though it allows you to discover new artists and songs that might sound good, it still lacks emotional attachment. Most of the time, my streaming experiences are wasted on songs that might sound good but don't really matter to me in the end. So, I prefer to buy what matters and listen to what matters instead.

P.S. In the case of iTunes, the songs you buy in an album don't disappear when there are changes in licensing. You will still be able to re-download them.

I miss the old days of kaza and Napster never paying anyone to stream music.

I listen to a lot of Mandopop and Spotify still has the most extensive library.

You still didn't put that in the title and even though I agree with your point, I still consider this clickbait

It is broken because artists expect to become millionaires or billionaires.

I buy all / only CD music. Like you if I find or get turned on to a group or singer I go out of my way to get every album.of thire collection / catalog.

I agree to some degree, sole artists make the money with content, merchandise, tv, radio etc. The cost of a music ticket now is astronomical. It’s the smaller artists I feel sorry for. The bigger ones don’t look to be doing too bad.

I do feel/think your content is relevant. In this topic thought, you might be judging everyone through your eyes. Most streaming users will gravitate to the same music consistently. So they will be payingbfor listening to the same music again and again. You do agree that is the case whan you mention people buying gear to listen to a few albums. So in that regards you maybe generalizing or getting to conclusions based on your listening prefenrences/job

no no, the extra money will not go to artists, the money will just enrich the labels.

You're assuming that the price of streaming continues at the current pricing, or that it continues at all. In actuality, people are always trying to figure out how to make more money. If streaming is actually free, then they will figure out how to make it cost more than owning. Your logic only makes sense for the status quo.

John, can you please share your current 1000 essential albums. Thank you

Darko! I always liked your music-first audiophile attitude! If you haven't done this already, i think a second channel where you talk about music would be a fun watch! 🙂

30 bucks for a record, holy s**t, it must of been a while.. last few I bought would be 5-10

Spotify raising prices won't automatically lead to revenue increase.. Will most likely lead to fewer subscribers

You can leave your cd to your grandkids, you cant leave them your Spotify account as an inheritance 😅

However the grandkids will probably look at you weirdly saying “yes yes, granpa, cd collectuon, of course, let’s put you back to bed”

I think in this day and age we should look at physical records more of a “leaving tips and showing support” for the selected artists

Spot on!

Is there a premium version of this channel where you don’t get troll-apologism statements every three minutes?

Your calculation missed a very important extra cost involved with streaming music. Not only you have the expense of monthly service subscription, you also have to include the monthly internet service cost ( cannot stream anything without it)
While ripping CDs not always cost money. I cannot account for how much music has been shared free among friends in the last 3 decades.

A couple of things more, you didn’t take into consideration, the fact that the current pricing won’t be the same 3 decades from now!
Here in Florida, If on the move, you don’t always have connectivity, specially on a boat only a couple of miles from shore.
With streaming you’ll be a slave for life to both Internet & streaming.

I buy music digitally and physically! I stream and download from iTunes and Apple Music

John, what are those glasses of yours? I need them in my life 😎👌

Spotify sucks because I choose a song from my playlist have to listen to a few ads and then I chooses a random song from the playlist not the one I selected to play before the ads were kick started by clicking a song I wanted. If I'm made to pay for music then I'll go back to owning the music back on the platform I used before to buy songs like apples iTunes. I was able to record cd's and share them with my niece and sister then too and play them forever without ads and even offline.