What am I missing?
When discussing streaming we often hear the quality achieved by streaming compared to "cd quality". "Cd quality" seems often to be the standard by which streaming is favorably compared while cds have at the same widely fallen into disfavor as a medium. If "cd quality" continues to be a quality standard by which we judge streaming services -which it appears to be- why exactly do we hold cds in such disfavor? More sophisticated dacs can always be employed with cd transports as they are with streaming. I understand the convenience and storage issues with cds but I also understand that with streaming you will never own the music which you do with cds. This becomes even more unclear to me when considering the resurgence of vinyl and the storage and convenience issues involved with this medium. I don't believe the music industry ever wanted us to own the music we listen to but rather preferred we only rent and pay for that music each time.
This really isn't about what's better. It's about 'experience'. This is why LPs are still around. This is why my mixed tapes, CDs,tubes and reel-to-reel are still around. People want the experience. If it's streaming...great. If it's ownership...also great. Streaming popularity will drop the price of LPs and CDs and that's a good thing too. Some people actually like ownership. This will happen to real estate. Why own a single property when you can subscribe to many more. To each her own.
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@clearthinker said: "No. Not more than ever. in the 50s 60s 70s everyone had a vinyl player and vinyl. But certainly the most since CDs got embedded in the late 80s." Of course you are correct. In absolute numbers the vinyl market today is niche. I guess my point was the potential customer seems to have far more options in the variety of tables, arms and cartridges than I remember from the '60s and '70s and in that sense, we have it good (albeit at a price). Thanks for the comment. Bill
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@sandthemall"Why own a single property when you can subscribe to many more."Because here in Europe time-share was the most widespread property scam ever, that's why. Did you suffer the same scams in the US? |
The idea you can "timeshare" 1,000,000 albums for the price of one is enticing. Assuming 1n hour/album and no eating, sleeping, working-type distractions, it should take a bit over 114 years to listen through all of them. Of course, by the time you've finished your first pass, over 90% of those likely are no longer available. You could just start over, knowing you'd rarely be subjected to the same music twice. Personally, I have a lot of albums that are worth more than that to me. I suspect a lot of them are not available streaming (local artists often self-produce). Increasingly, these are crowd-funded through ArtistShare, GoFundMe, etc. |
CD quality is not “the standard” by which we judge streaming, and CDs are less and less held in disfavor as both recording and CD player/DAC technology have continued to improve. IMO, CD quality is more used to denote that the streamed music is at CD resolution (or better) and not a lowly compressed format like MP3. And with streaming you have the ability to buy any track or album by downloading it and thus own it if you wish. Also, what I pay for Qobuz each month is about the same price as buying one new CD or a couple used ones, and for that I have access to tons of music I’d never otherwise have heard, which is the most exciting thing to anyone who loves experiencing new music and doesn’t wanna just spin the same stuff over and over. Also, a lot of streamed music, and especially new music, is available in hi-res, which you can’t get at all with standard CDs. Last, my streamed music now sounds as good or better than spinning discs, and since 90% of all my CDs are available to stream I rarely play a CD anymore. In fact, the more I enjoy all the benefits afforded by streaming, getting off my butt to find and load a single CD just seems more and more limiting and ridiculous. Just my thoughts/experience FWIW. |
