bye bye Spotify..
Posted by: engjoo on 18 January 2015
After 2 months with Spotify, I have decided to end my subscription.
Nothing wrong with Naim's implementation, just felt that it is hard to justify $10USD per month on a recurring basis for music I cannot keep.
Just saying...
If people prefer to rent listening time that's fine. What's not fine is that this could be pushed as the default model for access to music, which would be the record labels' Utopia. No one would own a copy of anything and to listen to anything you have to pay. Again, no one who doesn't fancy that should have a problem if other people wish to adopt this model. I have no problems with it whatsoever.
Where it becomes less rooted in reality and tends to farcical is when it gets touted as something new and essential. Some of us have been flicking through and sampling from music collections much vaster than our own since the 1950s. We also use the internet to research and access new music. And we don't pay a third party to spoon feed it to us. Fine if you want to but unnecessary. And not new as a concept. The implementation is more clever - but it always is.
For many people it is already the default model to access music, although I think there will always be a place for ownership. I don't think services like spotify spoon feed their subscribers and would suggest that the sheer volume of tracks available is so daunting that many see it as an obstacle (the tyranny of choice). Spotify doesn't tell me what to listen to but it does offer me a convenient way of listening to new music that I have read about. In that regard it isn't a new concept but as you say, the implementation is very clever.
As for the record company utopia concept, I guess the alternative is continuously evolving formats, new versions, remastering etc. to encourage people to buy their favourite music again and again. How many on this forum genuinely believe that .wav files and streamers are going to be the audiophile format of choice in 10 or 20 years time?
once high-bandwidth always-on ubiquitous wifi arrives download of software, audio and video will cease to exist
I disagree, albeit download or physicals will become niche. There will always be limited editions, special editions, self publish etc. these will live on in people's private collections long after they have vanished from the cloud assuming they were ever in the cloud.. I kind of feel this has already started to happen. There is more to music than big labels.
Simon
I was without Spotify Premium, on my steaming devices, for most of last week as the media server plug-in had stopped working. Managed to get it sorted out by Friday evening. Nice to have it back. 
Dave
PS I did have a brief look at Deezer but it's not Spotify.
I disagree, albeit download or physicals will become niche. There will always be limited editions, special editions, self publish etc. these will live on in people's private collections long after they have vanished from the cloud assuming they were ever in the cloud.. I kind of feel this has already started to happen. There is more to music than big labels.
Simon
Couldn't agree more: my musical taste has generally been skewed away from mainstream (on the non-classical side), such that I struggle to find things I like on, for example , Spotify. And at least for anyone accustomed to having a piece of music to play as often as desired having made a single payment, having to effectively rent to enable hearing is anathema.
I'm not sure that is morally defensible with regard to the artists who made the music, but that's what I'm used to. An analogy is painted art: you can buy a picture and stick it on a wall to see every day, for a one-off payment, which is quite different from paying daily to see. Maybe its a matter of price, reliability and extensiveness: if the cost of the online approach is small enough, and proportional, and available withou fail or interruption every time you want to listen, and ALL music is available, guaranteed, in perpetuity then maybe it's not so bad.
I think spotify premium is excellent value for money. I don't do streaming as my main source. I have a Muso and it's brilliant for that. I don't need high quality lossless format.
If I want to listen seriously I choose vinyl. For a second system like the Muso it's great. I fully understand that people who use streaming as their main/only source need a better quality source.
A better quality source than an NDS playing back 24/96? Well, I suppose there's always room for a bit more improvement.