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Streaming Is Stalling: Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

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Re: Streaming Is Stalling: Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

#101
post #86
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They absolutely can play popular music. They just don't want to pay for it. All popular YouTubers and streamers are businesses which is a part that is often forgotten. They are all acting like they are friends with their viewers but in reality they are businesses just like a car wash, restaurant, plumber, etc.

One underestimated part of the gig economy is that eventually everyone will be a business, and eventually they will be on the clock all the time. I guess that will be the end of music. Do Uber drivers have to pay a license to have the radio on in the car?

> Do Uber drivers have to pay a license to have the radio on in the car?

In the UK, yes, https://pplprs.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/PRS-for-Music-Tariff...

Re: Streaming Is Stalling: Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

#102
post #51

An aspect here is that a lot more people are primarily on social media services like YouTube and twitch. The people they follow cannot play popular music because of DMCA take downs. The result is that a natural avenue for discovery music is cut off. Consumers will not associate the experience of the thing they're enjoying with the music as has traditionally been the case with TV, movies, and bars. The setting has a l…

They absolutely can play popular music. They just don't want to pay for it. All popular YouTubers and streamers are businesses which is a part that is often forgotten. They are all acting like they are friends with their viewers but in reality they are businesses just like a car wash, restaurant, plumber, etc.

[deleted]

Re: Streaming Is Stalling: Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

#103
I don't use streaming services because I disagree with their insulting revenue for the artists.

Fortunately I've always been one to seek out more underground artists, and platforms like Bandcamp have been amazing. Not only do the artists get an order of magnitude more revenue, sellers can offer merchandise and physical media (vinyl, CD, cassette) too. These often include a digital copy.

Due to the closer connection between artists and fans I've received many signed/personalised records for the collection over the years. Artists can also gauge demand for future releases almost like crowdfunding.

To me Bandcamp has been the saviour of music in the streaming age.

Re: Streaming Is Stalling: Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

#104

Streaming music sucks. It might seem weird but I don't like it. The first music I ever 'owned' myself personally were songs I taped off the radio. After that I started pirating music the same way I would collect songs on the radio, after that I started buying CD's, today I buy songs and albums from artists and producers directly. Building playlists on a streaming service is not the same as building a music collection…

I completely agree with your poignant "getting to know an album" statement, but I fundamentally disagree with your general point of your issues with streaming; I think it's a boon to have such a wide selection of music at your fingertips. An asymptotically infinite, for practical purposes, amount of music. That being said, I really appreciate your perspective, and everything you said about physical media, the radio,…

> The younger generation has no concept of listening to a song you "don't like" 50 times, simply because you listened to the album you purchased 100 times.

I'm not below the age of 25 but this seems like a really archaic statement. This is basically equivalent to "Kids these days have no idea what it means to have to watch commercials and shows you didn't want to watch to get to that show you were really looking forward to."

Re: Streaming Is Stalling: Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

#105
>— if subscribers are added and consumption stays flat, rights holders just make more per stream. But a move toward podcasts could cost rights holders leverage in licensing negotiations.

Could someone else confirms that. Because that is not the way how I know it works. Has this been changed?

Re: Streaming Is Stalling: Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Not necessarily in order of importance) 1. Direct voluntary payments by their audience (one-off/recurring). 2. Live shows. 3. Payment by various entities to sing something. 4. Organizations (the state, corporations, philanthropic bodies) which sponsor artists to work on their art without having to also do the work of financing themselves. Still, it's quite possible that would fund less than are funded today. To that…

1. How is that different from begging?

You seem to be implying that transfer of funds can only fall into a few categories, e.g. robbery, sale and alms. Well, reality is more complex than that.

If two people are married but have separate bank accounts, and one of them asks their spouse to transfer some funds into his account because some joint expense will come out of it - is he "begging"?

When a member-funded NGO reminds its members to pay their annual dues - is it "begging" them?

You could claim the answer is "Yes", but then - the world has a whole lot of begging going on.

Re: Streaming Is Stalling: Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would artists be compensated if all art was public domain?

Just earlier this month I discovered some stunning new music. I paid its producer $10 for the album, $9 (minimum price) to gift it to a friend, and $9 to gift it to another friend. That day the artist earned $28, minus Bandcamp’s cut, from me alone. Even though that musician enables free listening via Bandcamp, he does not distribute his work under Creative Commons or a similar license, which radically reduces the ch…

You should read this: https://www.propublica.org/article/the-worlds-email-encrypti...

The person maintaining GnuPG went nearly broke because nobody donated to this widely used project. Only because corporations stepped up, GnuPG didn't go unmaintained.

This is a constant issue and hardly anybody can survive on private donations alone. Government grants and corporate donations keep the lights on.

Re: Streaming Is Stalling: Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

#108

Streaming music sucks. It might seem weird but I don't like it. The first music I ever 'owned' myself personally were songs I taped off the radio. After that I started pirating music the same way I would collect songs on the radio, after that I started buying CD's, today I buy songs and albums from artists and producers directly. Building playlists on a streaming service is not the same as building a music collection…

> Music discovery is easy, relying on a streaming service for discovery is lazy.

People are lazy. Automatic discovery works well enough so why bother unless music is something really important in your life?

Re: Streaming Is Stalling: Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

#109
I'm occasional listener. I share Spotify subscription with my friend from work. I listen like once a week. It is far less then when I was 20 years old (it was 20 years ago). Then I was listening like 4 hours or more a day (on the way to school and back using my Walkman, at home using my HiFi, radio and cd player and MP3 collection). Today it's more of luxury time, when I'm done running errands, taking care of child, cooking, cleaning, then I can sit down and relax and listen to the sounds of my past to travel to the careless times. Today we sat to eat morning breakfast, my 4yo daughter, partner and me. I turned on HiFi and connected Spotify with Chromecast to listen to Christmas playlist. During whole breakfast it disconnected rapidly like 10 times. I had enough... Really it is less then pleasurable than putting old CD into player and just forget. Technology ruins good moments, especially for someone like me, and that person likes everything perfect. And I just got annoyed,...

Re: Streaming Is Stalling: Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree with your poignant "getting to know an album" statement, but I fundamentally disagree with your general point of your issues with streaming; I think it's a boon to have such a wide selection of music at your fingertips. An asymptotically infinite, for practical purposes, amount of music. That being said, I really appreciate your perspective, and everything you said about physical media, the radio,…

> This really can't be emphasized enough. The younger generation has no concept of listening to a song you "don't like" 50 times, simply because you listened to the album you purchased 100 times. Not necessarily true. When Spotify reaches the end of one of my playlists, it automatically starts playing a radio of "recommended songs" based on the playlist. However, these recommended songs are usually the same, with onl…

You can turn this off in the settings, it's called Autoplay.
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