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Sturmer's avatar

When you mention owning music, I assume you're referring to having offline access that isn't tied to any third-party service, right? It's important to clarify that consumers never truly own the music; ownership rights remain with the author or the recording company.

Disclaimer: Music collectors may not agree with my views, but on this issue, I stand with environmentalists.

Regarding music collections, particularly digital ones, I believe that physical media like CDs are not the best option. Producing CDs, along with their packaging and distribution, consumes resources and generates CO2, from manufacturing to delivery to stores or end-users. Thus, I advocate for digital distribution as the primary method. For those who still prefer physical collections, perhaps a higher tax could be implemented to offset the environmental impact of handling these items.

In terms of storage and access, I use a very compact 4TB external drive, which I can connect to my TV or other media players. This allows me to use playlists and voice-assisted search to easily access and organize my music. It's a space-saving solution, replacing walls of shelves filled with thousands of CDs with a device that fits in my pocket.

Makster's avatar

I never really considered the environmental impact of my consumerism but I have gradually come to the understanding that vinyls are really not good for the environment which presents are large downside to the uptick in vinyl interest

But your external drive is an interesting concept of media preservation

Sturmer's avatar

IMO Vinyl is a different league, my original thoughts were about digital stuff

Thomas's avatar

As time's gone on, I've grown increasingly frustrated with streaming services and how it impacts my listening. I do still think they're great, but while they have 99% of what I want to listen to, that remaining 1% really stings (Joanna Newsom's entire discography, Pixies at the BBC, etc). There's also the issue of songs and albums having multiple versions. For instance, The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips has a very different tracklisting in the UK to the US, and Spotify has the US version.

There's also the issue of having to rely on a combination of your memory and algorithmic recommendations to determine what to listen to. With physical media, you can browse your library, but that doesn't work as well with steaming services

I think getting a record player, and now having a CD player again, has felt good. I still have Spotify for when I'm driving, working, or just want quick and easy access to new music, but having some music that I own and can peruse has a lot of value, too.

Roo's avatar

You've just blown my mind there @thomas. I adore The Milk-Eyed Mender but I've just realised I haven't heard it for 5+ years because it's not on Spotify 🤯. Better go and dig out the LP for the afternoon 🎶

You're totally right. We think of it as being completely all-encompassing but, if you're an artist who refuses (for very good reason) to join the streamers, you effectively exist in another economy to the rest of the industry.

Roo's avatar

This is a big question but I think the real issue is with the artists and the streamers, rather than the listener. Ownership is a problematic concept in many ways, especially with digital media. If you owned all your favourite films on VHS in 1995, that would be borderline useless today. You 'own' it (or rather a licence for a personal copy of it) but there's no real benefit to that ownership once obsolescence is accounted for.

I tend to buy vinyl records or MP3s from Bandcamp for artists I feel need the support - whether they be new acts, or true indie outfits without record deals. But this isn't really sustainable for all artists or listening habits in 2024 and I still do 99%+ of my listening through streaming, including for those artists.

I think streaming and on-demand services are the correct response to the market and consumer needs. The problem comes when the two inevitable conclusions of this market play out...

  1. The consumer wants everything on one service

  2. The artists require competition to set fair and competitive prices

The first point effectively creates a monopoly. The second point requires there to be no monopoly. The only way these two things can avoid being wholly contradictory is if...

  1. The consumer chooses to pay over the odds for their single-service and that service provider passes those profits on to the artist based on a moral duty, rather than an economic requirement (a.k.a. the TIDAL model), or

  2. An external body acts on the market (e.g. a musicians union or a government regulator) to ensure a minimum payment level for licensing

Personally, I can't see either happening in our current economic system but that's not necessarily a bad thing. People will create great art no matter what and those that do it solely for economic return generally produce less authentic stuff. Eventually it will self-correct and innovative, authentic voices will prevail. We just have to exist in the hinterland until then.

David Bowie famously said that he chose to be a musician because he realised it was musicians who were becoming superstars. In another time he would have chosen acting or painting. So, while we wait for the music industry to find an equilibrium, perhaps we will find unique voices will appear in other media. If talent is a zero-sum game then music's loss may be film making's gain

Makster's avatar

great insightful response- just what I was looking for when it comes to making this post

DerRoteKonige's avatar

It took me a long time to really want to let go of those older formats. There was just something about having the album inserts and all the artwork that made them special. Not to mention how impressive a wall of tapes or CDs looked.

With that in mind, however, once the concept of digital music was introduced to me properly, it really didn't take me long to transition. There was the convenience of it all; not needing literal binders all over the place. Then there was the pricing of physical copies versus digital (lest we not forget the golden age of digital piracy). It was really nice knowing my whole library could get wiped out and I'd have it back tomorrow at no additional cost.

Bonus: Solo musicians really benefitted from the transition. Not only did it dramatically drop their overhead but it made the concept of tapes and CDs from certain artists much more valuable as they became an uncommon commodity.

There is a dark side to this all unfortunately and those in the video game world know this all too well. Digital copies can and have been removed from peoples' online libraries. Most games being released today state quite clearly in their EUA that you don't actually own the game and they can pull it from you at any time. This is a dangerous precedent at best that, if followed by the music industry, could be disastrous.

On an unrelated note, in my opinion, I don't think we'll have to worry about the 'music industry' as a monster for too much longer.

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