Effect of lossless streaming on purchasing and listening habbits

Streaming should be used mainly for discovery I think. If you find something you like then buy it as they can remove it from the streaming library without notice.

This has already happened with a number of bookmarked tracks I had 'saved' to various playlists

Bit annoying but a good lesson. I think I'll stick with Spotify for now and see how my listening habits develop. 

By way of context I've been streaming for about 16 months, initially with Qobuz, but I added Beats in the summer and received a free Deezer Premium subscription in October when I bought a Sonos Connect. Yesterday, I upgraded the Deezer subscription to it's Elite CD quality service. I've stopped my Qobuz subscription. I also tested Spotify for a month when I got a Mu-so.

With the exception of a couple of days when Qobuz was having some technical issues I've found all the services to be very reliable both in terms of availability and performance. I have a relatively fat pipe to the internet at home and work which probably helps.

I last bought my last CD in 2012, switching exclusively to downloads. I continued to buy just as much music. I've mostly used streaming for discovery and try before you buy. Since adding Beats; it's recently improved but for a long time I found Qobuz's catalog too small, I have found myself buying less and less. I can't for example remember the last time I made an impulse purchase.

I've had a universally positive experience with streaming so ask me in 12 months time and it's possible my purchases might be further reduced and limited to really special recordings I feel I need to own.

@Penarth Blues 

I haven't had your experience of tracks going missing. I wonder if it's because as the service with the most customers, Spotify is at the forefront of angry artists etc. I hope streaming music can avoid becoming like Netflix where the catalog chops and changes so often.

Oh yes.
I remember a formal time (for me) when I had a limited number of LP (and tapes) and I was happy to listen often only these, sometimes at distance of months or a year and anyway I had pleased into discovering of details lost in the memories or not evident at previous listening.
I must admit this is common for classic music and at that (young) life I was much less busy in other activities than today.
Now, also I'm buying or listening much more music, in gender and in execution, and I have lost completely the past approach. I miss that time.
No one oblige me to have again only a small playlist despite the offer is so wide... I get the feeling I'm "forced" to evolve into a more consumer scenario.
Is not bad, is different, I am getting older, my dears...

There's the psychological 'ownership' issue that those of us who grew up with vinyl are conditioned by and who will find it difficult, if not impossible, to abandon.  The younger generation will develop in a completely different world with completely different expectations as you say SJB.

So you culd speculate that as our generation disapears, so too will the CD medium, to be replaced by a totally streamed music market.

But that's what the experts said about vinyl, wasn't it ?

So I guess we can look forward to a world for our grandkids, of a mix of streaming, CDs and vinyl. 

And who knows, maybe cylinders will make a comeback?

The key problem for me with downloads and streaming sites is the lack of provenance as to the original master from which the file are produced. With LP and cd, there is usually at least some indication as to the origin. I have downloaded several files during the past couple of years from various sites and can't say I am completely bowled over by the sound quality in most cases. However, I have had similar experiences with vinyl also so now try to be more thorough in establishing the source of the music I buy. I think it will be some time before I entrust my expectations to downloads based on such variable experiences.

As someone who grew up with vinyl in my teens and twenties that I abandoned for the 'convenience' of CD I now find myself streaming lossless exclusively -sometimes NAS library, if I want a specific mastering, but mostly Qobuz/Deezer.

The joy of a vast library controlled from an ipad is a revelation.

I still listen to whole albums though - that's the bit in my psyche I can't deviate from.

G

I have seen so far that even the move to getting the music from a NAS drive has totally changed the way I am listening and having an overall experience. 

The he first topic is the ownership issue. I do own a lot of the music and use streaming just as a way to explore new music better. But at the same point the topic of owning music has had a reduced emotional aspect. In the past you had this exiting aspect of music coming into the house by own exploration in a cd shop or by waiting for the mail to arrive. This happiness and search aspect has completely gone, as there is no emotion to clicking on some music listening it and pushing the buy button for download. I have lost here something and see that it leads to even a kind of feeling that the music doesn't have value anymore and you need to even constrain yourself to not become a collector as pushing the button becomes so easy.

with regard to the listening experience. It has transformed it for me. Having everything at your fingertips means that you are much more outside the selective favorite albums. So I very much like that aspect of the streaming. Again a downside as well, you need to discipline yourself to not skip from favorite to favorite number. and I think I am still pretty good at listening at complete albums.

Then finally the streaming from a service. I use that mainly at work and use it as a means of exploring new music. At work it has moved me from listening to multiple ipods with known music to listening to Spotify with only to me unknown music. I might at one point again switch back to listening to a device (assuming I will switch to a high res mobile player for work). As I dislike the aspect of constantly being on the move to something new. 

So so as a conclusion for me is that overall I get more and more the feeling that I would like to contain myself to my existing huge collection and explore and play that collection more. As I am now too much in skipping from new to new. And for some music never get to the great feeeling of appreciation through multiple plays.

I'm surprised at the lack of apparent general existential angst  that I am feeling towards lossless streaming among you all.

I'm currently listening to Natalie Prass on TIDAL, it's sounding good but will certainly  need a few listenings. In Spotify days I'd be buying this. Now I have the option to give the extended listenings through TIDAL and not buy the CD. ...... and I don't know quite how I feel about this. Unease, certainly, apprehension also towards the changes this may bring about to my 40 year habit, hear on radio/streaming service, buy on LP/CD. I come across albums I'd forgotten I've owned and rediscovered them all over again, this most certainly would seem to get lost in the streaming paradigm.

And then there's the effect my son sees among his mates where all listening is done on Spotify and he blames this for most modern music (that they listen to) all sounding so similar as because the album isn't purchased which kind of forces you into a few listenings if for no other reason that to realise some value for the purchase, if the music doesn't immediately appeal the next button is pressed. The more this happens to them (and us) the poorer we may all be in musical terms.

<I've just moved on to Matthew E White, will Natalie get a look in again ? >

SJB

The famous jazz trumpeter Clark Terry died recently so this morning I've been checking out some of his albums. Looked him up on AllMusic.com, listened to some recommendations on Spotify, downloaded an album from Qobuz, added a couple more albums to my "South American river" Wish List. Streaming is the window to the world for music fans. Spotify is fine for now. I still want a hard copy of the music so I can store it on whichever platform I choose, e.g. NAS, portable player, or memory stick for car. In a years time it's anyones quess who the major streaming players will be. Have we ever had it so good? Spoilt for choice.

Dave

I've just cancelled my Tidal subscription, I'm not ready for this brave new world just yet. I'll stick to Spotify to assess and continue to buy. 

Will Jeremy and I be the only dinosaurs left?

SJB

Nope. I've got over the barrier of buying downloads that have no resale value, comforted that they can be had at a discount. I refuse to pay stupid amounts for Hi-Res though - I was going to buy Naim's new Craig Armstrong until I saw it was over £16!

However, I baulk at renting music from a streaming service, there are sufficient other ways to try before I buy to render that aspect redundant for me. 

I've tried the three month Spotify subscription and it's convenient for sure, but I'll happily suffer the adverts following its lapse shortly. Perhaps I'll change my mind in future, but I suspect not - I don't want my musical life dictated by the availability of Broadband or a suppliers access to the music I listen to (there is life after Crime Of The Century )

P.S. The two people I know closely who've adopted the streaming life for some while now are still big fans (one does buy opera on CD) though both admit they have lost that tendency to let things grow on them. If it doesn't grab them, they move on to the next. They feel no sense of ownership and therefore the commitment to stick with something and give it a chance. It's a habit they've grown into through streaming.

Is it legal?

Dave

Spotify with adverts, for example, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, or official YouTube. 

I sometimes use Grooveshark too, though that's a grey area.

A very high percentage of my purchasing is done through Bandcamp at the moment (and it often delights by slipping in 24 bit recordings unadvertised).

If that's the alternative(s) think I'll stick with Spotify Premium. £9.99/mth. seems even better value than I thought.

Dave

I'll never buy another CD or download unless every single lossless streaming company packs up - loving the new paradigm!

Deezer Elite on Sonos Connect has changed my buying habits.  My CD purchases are now limited to labels like ECM that are not (yet?) carried by the service.  But I am deferring most purchases as there is just so much available music to explore. Still, I remain a bit paranoid, and am keeping a list of albums that I will purchase if and when the need arises (e.g., if the service disappeared, or if we moved to a rural location with no broadband internet access, etc.).

Also, now that I have placed an external reclocker between the Sonos Connect and my NDS's BNC input, the sound quality is superb (review coming soon for those who are interested).

My only problem is having more music than time. I was a classic rock/folk/blues listener for may years, and then about ten years ago, I discovered my father's music - jazz and swing. Thought this expansion in taste would see me out, but then along came electronic. Could have stopped right there, but...

Along comes Music Vault, a treasure trove of live concert recordings and videos. And then, as if that wasn't enough, now there's this bloody Bandcamp, a whole new world of unexplored albums! I do love how Bandcamp has lowered the barrier to entry for new artists. So many talented artists, great tunes, and surprisingly beautiful cover work! Last night, I got lost in sampling for a couple of hours (iPad streaming via Bluetooth). Almost all were artists I had ever heard of before, so I started building a list of albums to purchase and download.

Bottom line is I love being able to access the huge CD quality library from Deezer Elite, but it has not stopped me from surfing the lower resolution worlds of Music Vault and Bandcamp.  Must admit that trips to the local music stores (or to Amazon and eBay) are starting to feel like an addiction, or at least a guilty pleasure.  How much more variety in our music do any of us really need?

Hook

There's something to me about still owning the music... I'd much rather pay for a CD quality download and be able to have it on whatever platform I choose e.g. my iPod for when I'm out and about/on holiday abroad. I feel like with streaming, the streaming service still has the power to just 'turn everything off' as you would, and with it, deny access to your music.

I am partial to enjoying the occasional single on mainstream radio, however the frustration I have is finding somewhere to buy a CD quality download. Most of the time I end up having to buy albums for one or two tracks I like as the best quality seems to be 320kb/s if you want to download singles.

Felt sorry for you until this point.

Having had to buy *most* albums in my lifetime for 1 or 2 tracks except for a few rare cases like The Beatles, Lez Zepplin, Pink Floyd...the list goes on, but unfortunately not long enough for anyone.  What I love most is an artist who had TWO good songs, but you can't find an album with BOTH on it.

I've bought several albums (and movies) times over due to scratches, eaten tape, format changes, etc.  Besides if they made us all 100% happy with perfect quality, indestructible music, implanted in our skin, with 100% accurate meta-data...how would they make money over and over like they do now? They use good bands like a Water Mill to scoop and scoop and scoop.

Haha, my apologies sir ... I'm sure I've got it all to come! Perhaps being able to find the occasional single to download in high quality has made me ignorant to the fact that once upon a time, downloads weren't available at all!

I've done gone and got Tidal again.

I'm rationalising that at one stage my music was on cassette tapes from Top 20 shows on radio. Then it was vinyl, then pre-recorded cassette (yes!), then vinyl again, then CD. 

For €20 a month, less than 15% of my UPC subscription, I can now see no reason to deprive myself of another access route to music. €200 per year, I could subscribe until I'm 90 and still not have spent the price of a new 555PS. 

Having said that I've been listening to Big Jon Atkinson on Tidal and have gone and ordered a copy from the States, so obviously I'll be using a dual approach. 

Interesting times. 

SJB