Spotify is pretty great.

[elfro89]

Jay, totally understand where you are coming from I think what I have noticed is a shift from album emphasis to songs, people don't like whole albums so they only buy the songs they like from it. I hear people say things like, 'I've never found an album that I've liked all the way through.' I can understand this as many many years ago I was the same, but the way I listened to music has totally changed since then, I would say about 70% of my Cd's I like all the way through, the rest I like most of the way through; not because the songs are bad it's cause they don't flow like an album should.

Which brings me onto how I listen to music, I listen to albums, I like to choose an album and listen to it from start to finish, in the process you can get totally lost to it by getting into the mind of the creator and putting your own imagination into it, by the end it makes you feel like you've gained something special, it could be an image, emotion, something profoundly intellectual or something your not sure about, it could be all of those together. It's this experience that no-one could ever hope to get from listening to single songs and is why I hate any compilation because it jumps all over the place with no real flow. Before, people were forced to buy albums otherwise they couldn't get the songs they like, now they can pick and choose. What I didn't like about spotify was having all these albums with the song orders completely wrong or with demo versions instead of the proper mix, that irritated me greatly. The benefits of spotify do far outweigh the negatives, but pretty much everything on spotify I can find for free elsewhere on other programs. Your only really paying for a user interface that grants you access to music, that is all. I refuse when I've got access to this music for free on the web anyway, albeit not via a shiny user interface.

 

[Kaoskadosk]

Basically it's yet another way to f%ck the artist over while looking like you're "innovating". Pisses me off.

This may sound like asshattery (if that's even a word) but some artists left because of how small their share actually was.

Spotify started out as a way to combat piracy and to help artists make a living. Well, as an artist you get maybe a few dollars a month or so at most, if even that. Some guy to like 50 cents. Wohoo. You get paid per amount of listens to your songs and it's a very, very low amount. Spotify themselves earn quite a hefty amount of money on this which imho is hypocracy. Artists are still practically giving their music away for free while the company f*cks them in the ass. Fair? Not really. It's a decent way to get your music out there, but so is youtube, myspace and torrents aswell.

Personally I like Devin Townsends take on the whole thing and I must say I agree with him. If you don't buy the album, go to a show, buy a T-shirt! If you like a band, support them. I myself am sitting on a very tight budget and I can't throw out money on CDs which I can barely get a hold of anyway. I Like Trains' albums aren't even sold in Sweden which means I have to import them, which means shipping + VATs. It just doesn't work. Instead I spread the word, try to raise their popularity and try to support the band as much as I can. By using Spotify I would support the market, the big companies, not the artists.

I like musicians, not greedy record labels.

 

[Cagey]

I don't buy RIAA-encumbered goods. I'll buy an independently-produced CD if a band offers them at a show, then usually just give them away. I don't want the CD as much as I want to support the artists, which the RIAA and the rest of the gatekeepers and rent-seekers simply don't do. At least if I buy a band's private-label CD, I know they get all the money, instead of the 2% or 3% the corporate-types allow to trickle down. I always figure if the band sat down at my table and had a drink on me, it would cost more than the CD anyway, so the money's not wasted like it would be if it went to the rapists, terrorists and thieves.

 

[reinhold]

Has anyone here tried turntable?  It's basically a chatroom with five DJ's in it and they all take turns putting music on.  If you just wanna listen to music with friends and share what you like it's a great casual listening and social experience.  Sure, you don't get the choice of what to listen to all the time, but I've rarely found songs I hate if I go into a room of like minded people.

 

[stubhead]

I do boilerplate writing for lawyers involved in really boring deeds and wills and trusts and stuff. Believe me, most people have little-to-no interest in learning the language and what certain terms represent in a strict legal context.

we need lawyers because the law is written in a manner that the normal citizen cannot comprehend or interpret, laws need to be writtin at the same level that the govt pays for education, right now that's the 12th grade, you wanna make laws written in a fancy lingo, you need to educate the common man to that level.

So while I agree with this, it's way, way too late - the educational system in this country has no interest in or ABILITY to teach math classes that tell people how to do their taxes (or keep the books for a small business), history classes that teach anything other than the "United States as the World's Friendly Protector", civics classes that get underneath the "wisdom of the two-party system" and teach about the corrosive impact of corporate money. Anyone smart enough to be a really good teacher is smart enough to get a much better job, and the most dedicated and well-meaning ones get burnt-out really quickly by a steady procession of total moron children, ones who believe that they are "special" and "precious" and have no need to learn anything at all. And people just WANT to be coddled and told this happyspeak. The average American watches TV five hours a day, and now they sit in front of their TV, waiting for IT to tell them what's wrong? Umm, YOU ARE what's wrong, turn off the fudging TV and find out who your state and local representatives ARE and what bills they're voting on... but it's not going to work that way, is it?

 

[anorakDan]

Spotify?

Isn't that something Linda McCartney blurts out in "Uncle Albert?"

 

[jay4321]

As far as music, I try not to overly concern myself with the business end of it. How the parties involved divvy up the small proceeds in any given distribution model is for the artist/labels/retailers to work out. Certainly I'd like to see the artists get a nicer share--and over the long term I imagine these newer models potentially cut a couple middlemen out--but at the end of the day I'm really just looking for a nice selection of good quality music that I can get to conveniently. I won't steal or distribute my mp3s and stay with legal services, but beyond that I don't make any promises. Times are tougher than they were a couple years ago, you know? My days of going to the local indie CD shop and walking out with 4 or 5 CDs (and $60 poorer) are long gone. [Ha remember back when you actually had to special order some rarer stuff? I remember three weeks waiting for a CD of Johnny Winter And.] 

Now if artists started moving away from the big labels to get a bigger cut of the pie, you wouldn't hear me complain either. It seems like there are alternatives today to selling your soul to a horrible record deal if the priority is getting your music out there. Rebecca Black and that painful song getting 170 million YouTube views in a couple months demonstrates that.

 

[jay4321]

Spotify?

Isn't that something Linda McCartney blurts out in "Uncle Albert?"

Don't know if I ever heard this song before, but I found it on Spotify, along with some covers and a karaoke version. Hated it but I think I heard what you're talking about at 3:03 in lol. But thanks for reminding me to add a couple Wings songs to my library.

 

[partialdoctor]

Has anyone here tried turntable?  It's basically a chatroom with five DJ's in it and they all take turns putting music on.  If you just wanna listen to music with friends and share what you like it's a great casual listening and social experience.  Sure, you don't get the choice of what to listen to all the time, but I've rarely found songs I hate if I go into a room of like minded people.

I just put my name in the site, but havent gotten an invite yet. Its sounds awesome.

 

[hannaugh]

Honestly, the reason for me to go to things like Rhapsody and Spotify is so I can check out music to see if I like it.  Then I go out and buy the album because I collect albums.  I like having the whole thing with the art.  But if I can't find the bands I like (let's face it, Best Buy doesn't always have Frightened Rabbit, and they've run all the good places out of business around here.  The closest place is either in LA or Long Beach!), and it is hard to get, I will sometimes download it.  If I plan on going to the band's show while they are in town, I will usually buy their stuff directly from them, but I can listen to it on Rhapsody while I wait.  Actually, what I am most likely to download are rarites like B-sides and EPs.  But it is really nice that I have that option, and it is nice that I can go online and listen to a new album the day it comes out to see if it is any good without having to pay extra.  

The other thing that is kind of cool about the whole system is that if you have friends who are in on it, you can have playlist wars.  That's always fun.  

 

[pabloman]

While I agree that musicians deserve a larger cut of their royalties, ultimately they are the ones that signed the deals. While it is nobel to boycott the corporate labels it is also an extremely futile act. We can not control the linneage of products we injest. Your clothes, guitars, and computers are all made in sweatshops, yet we lap it up because of value. I know that you have to start somewhere and every little bit helps and all the other addages we can throw at this, who suffers more the factory workers or the dumb musicians that signed those deals? Besides these artist don't care about the money, Its all about the music.

 

[anorakDan]

Spotify?

Isn't that something Linda McCartney blurts out in "Uncle Albert?"

Don't know if I ever heard this song before, but I found it on Spotify, along with some covers and a karaoke version. Hated it but I think I heard what you're talking about at 3:03 in lol. But thanks for reminding me to add a couple Wings songs to my library.

You're welcome! lol Glad I could help!