Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#51

Post by prostoalex » Mon, Apr 06, 2015, 3:09 AM UTC

jleyank wrote: post #46

Judging from the tenor of comments here, the typical user doesn't have to worry about bandwidth limits on their smart device, never drives where the connection's spotty, never flies and stays within one country. Or, I guess, just has a slug of money to pay whatever fees for internet connection arise. I tend to do a number of these things, so having music "in my hand" is advantageous. I also like to listen to both the…

Both Spotify Premium and Rdio Premium (and I'm sure others, but can only speak for the ones I've tried) offer "offline mode" for whatever your device can hold.

The music will then play even in airplane mode, the only gotcha is that you'll have to come online every 30 days or so for them to re-verify that you're still paying for the service.

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#52

Post by diminoten » Mon, Apr 06, 2015, 3:49 AM UTC

mynegation wrote: post #43

diminoten wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotify is not as good as Google Music. Why does everyone forget Google Music? And you can't leave Google Music to boot -- not without leaving YouTube too!

No, Spotify is better than Google Music, at least for me. When I went to Spotify's mobile site they did not require cc number before I even seen anything, Google music did. Spotify gave me tens of not hundreds pre-canned playlists, Google Music iOS app presented me the blank slate and nothing else. If you think Google music is better, it would be interesting why you think it is.

Google Music has radio stations, as many (if not more) "precanned" playlists as Spotify, it's a higher quality music (as another user mentioned, double the bitrate), it has more music (if it's on YouTube, it's on Google Music), it's Google so the UX is solid (and if it's not, you know it's continually getting worked on), and not to mention the integration it has with Android -- as a Google product, it gets first-class treatment by its devs (Google would never release a sub-par Android app for one of its top tier offerings).

I have $7/month to spend, and I want the best I can possibly get for that $7. Google Music is that product.

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#53

Post by zaidf » Mon, Apr 06, 2015, 4:19 AM UTC

aikah wrote: post #41

themoonbus wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that this excuses Spotify, but artists got the short end of the stick in the traditional system too.

that's not true , compared to Spotify, that's a total lie. Artists don't get a 10% cut each time a song is played on Spotify. The only people getting rich with Spotify is Spotify and the label that grants the content rights. The artists do get almost nothing.

Spotify pays the labels who pay the artists. So shouldn't the artists work on negotiating better agreements with labels? That might compel labels to negotiate a better agreement with Spotify assuming that is possible. If any party overplays its card, it could all come tumbling down:

- if artists demand too much payment from labels, labels won't sign them

- if labels demand too much from spotify, spotify won't sign them

- if spotify doesn't sign enough labels or pays too much to them, it will die either due to not enough music or not enough revenue to find growth.

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#54

Post by michaelpinto » Mon, Apr 06, 2015, 5:15 AM UTC

api wrote: post #48

michaelpinto wrote: post #9

Something to keep in mind is that music "ownership" may be a generational thing. My parents were members of the silent generation (born in the 30s) and they owned very few physical records. And it's not to say they didn't love music, they did -- but the way they enjoyed music was listening to the radio. So if you had a love of opera and classical music you'd listen to WQXR 24/7 (here in NYC) which isn't too different…

Might be true, but I can't help but be nostalgic for it. I get the sense that for millennials and younger music is just another kind of light entertainment, take it or leave it. Music for many gen-Xers including myself was practically religion. You loved it so much you built a chunk of your identity around it. You were moved by it. I guess I can't really be sure, but I don't get the feeling people care about music li…

I agree, but let me submit this you:

The music that spoke to me was what you would call "college radio" in the mid-80s and "alternative" in the late 80s and early 90s. But if you think about it that was a small niche market and not the mainstream until Nirvana broke through circa 1991. And even then that was a short lived revolution which gave way to the Spice Girls and Britney Spears.

But before you get too nostalgic the realty of that era is that most of the music that people listened to was light weight pop music. That was really the era of "adult easy listening" and hair metal bands, and yet we think of the music that holds up like say REM or something that pushed the limits.

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#55

Post by Grue3 » Mon, Apr 06, 2015, 1:35 PM UTC

alyx wrote: post #5

Personally, I have not bought music since streaming services started covering 90% of the music I listen to.

What do you do with the remaining 10%?

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#56

Post by robwilliams » Mon, Apr 06, 2015, 3:41 PM UTC

api wrote: post #48

michaelpinto wrote: post #9

Something to keep in mind is that music "ownership" may be a generational thing. My parents were members of the silent generation (born in the 30s) and they owned very few physical records. And it's not to say they didn't love music, they did -- but the way they enjoyed music was listening to the radio. So if you had a love of opera and classical music you'd listen to WQXR 24/7 (here in NYC) which isn't too different…

Might be true, but I can't help but be nostalgic for it. I get the sense that for millennials and younger music is just another kind of light entertainment, take it or leave it. Music for many gen-Xers including myself was practically religion. You loved it so much you built a chunk of your identity around it. You were moved by it. I guess I can't really be sure, but I don't get the feeling people care about music li…

Assuming that this isn't a troll "le wrong generation" post...

> I guess I can't really be sure, but I don't get the feeling people care about music like that anymore.

People in high schools still define themselves around the bands they listen to, don't be so sure to write off the younger generation as apathetic towards music.

> At the worst I wonder if the golden age of music as a popular art form is behind us. How many people follow sculpture or painting? There's plenty of work being done, but only aficionados of those forms follow it.

Music has been around as long if not longer than sculpture and painting. Art and music are still very popular, even if they're constantly changing.

As for your other comments about music today being "spineless and trite," we're currently in a second golden age of hip-hop and I'm sure fans of other genres will also tell you their music is alive and well.

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#57

Post by click170 » Mon, Apr 06, 2015, 6:31 PM UTC

a3n wrote: post #40

click170 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still get asked to sign in when I view that link, but that's besides the point: I wish paywall'd articles weren't accepted here. Maybe there is a place for paywalls in this world, I just don't think we should be posting links to them here.

Ironic comment, considering what the article is about. If you don't like paywalled sites, just don't go there. What have you really missed? There are plenty other articles elsewhere. (Big Music/WSJ) vs (streaming/any other article on any other subject on the internet). Same thing.

IMO posting paywalled sites to a news aggregator detracts from the experience of using the aggregator for anyone who doesn't subscribe to that paywalled site.

Its established that a low percentage of people are convinced into signing up by a paywall. There for, posting paywalled articles to a news aggregator detracts from the experience of everyone who chooses not to subscribe to that particular site because it robs us of front page real estate that could be held by other non paywalled but interesting stories.

Consider a news aggregator where every link went to a paywalled site, so many disparate sites that you couldn't afford to subscribe to all of them. Would you find the aggregator more or less valuable than one that had freely available information.

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#58

Post by emilioolivares » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 7:12 AM UTC

michaelpinto wrote: post #9

Something to keep in mind is that music "ownership" may be a generational thing. My parents were members of the silent generation (born in the 30s) and they owned very few physical records. And it's not to say they didn't love music, they did -- but the way they enjoyed music was listening to the radio. So if you had a love of opera and classical music you'd listen to WQXR 24/7 (here in NYC) which isn't too different…

Excellent comment. I completely agree, music has just ceased to be relevant as the voice of the younger generation. Youtube, social media, video games, and the internet have all replaced music as an outlet for teenagers to vent and express their dreams, frustrations and desires. Listening to rap or rock is just not a way to be a teenage rebel these days.

The internet has also fragmented the public, mega-artists are dead. One hit manufactured wonders rule the airwaves and musicians now cater to a small but loyal group of fans that follow them in the depths of internet and social media.

All hail the internet ;).