At least here in Sweden we pay a radio and TV license that for one of many uses is to pay the fee for every play of music through STIM https://www.stim.se/. STIM is is also used for play in stores, hotels etc.
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Where is the Music "iTunes" store?
- Thread starter machenryr
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Do you mean you pay a licence fee to play music within a business, or do you mean you need to pay it if you just listen to the radio at home?
$130 a year. $1300 for ten years. Assuming they wont raise prices. That’s a lot of albums. In Sweden an album is about $10. So 130 albums. I don’t know about you but the amount of music I listen to 95% of the time is composed of .. maybe 30 albums, and that’s with a good margin.
Suddenly those $12 a month doesn’t sound like such a good deal.
It’s not remotely a fair situation. From what I’ve read even major artists have to get into brand deals, merchandise, etc. to make the living they want.
Same in the UK - the PRS (Performing Rights Society). It’s on a licence basis rather than per play.
The thing is, the best music has already been made during the 60s - 00s.
Surely every once in a while a new artist emerge with a really good album. Even a few of them. I would estimate there is about 1-2 albums every year that can be deemed really, really good. Worth listening to for the rest of your life. Or let’s say 2-3 songs/tracks from different artists per year, if you will.
But the vast, vast majority is absolute *****. You wouldn’t miss them if they disappeared. And this is what you are paying for with streaming. You are wasting your time listening to absolute ****. And paying for it.
Surely every once in a while a new artist emerge with a really good album. Even a few of them. I would estimate there is about 1-2 albums every year that can be deemed really, really good. Worth listening to for the rest of your life. Or let’s say 2-3 songs/tracks from different artists per year, if you will.
But the vast, vast majority is absolute *****. You wouldn’t miss them if they disappeared. And this is what you are paying for with streaming. You are wasting your time listening to absolute ****. And paying for it.
I’m not old, I’m 29, and I did Apple Music for 10 years and after that I had enough and went back to CDs, which are what I was doing (plus iTunes purchases) for the 10 years prior to subscribe to AM. It would be one thing if you could have streaming without random albums or single songs disappearing at any given moment, as well as a way to subscribe without Apple completely taking over your library. But that is not the case, and so Apple Music is a massive headache to me and not worth paying for. I’ll spend a fortune doing it, but I am working on collecting all the CDs I want.
I prefer CDs over iTunes, I only buy iTunes if the CD doesn’t exist.
I prefer CDs over iTunes, I only buy iTunes if the CD doesn’t exist.
I'm not talking about the technology of streaming. I'm talking about the unethical practice of bending the artists over a barrel to virtually steal their music for massive profits. The younger artists agree to it because they don't know any better. The older artist agree to it because they just want to get their music out there. Streaming is a little different from radio in that the subscriber is the public. In radio the subscriber is the station. BMI/ASCAP bill and keep track of the plays of the artists. And the purchasing of the hard tangibles like records and CD were profit generated through radio and advertising and went to the label who split it with the artist. Artist often getting 12%, more or less. But that mere 12% is a FORTUNE compared to streaming profits.
I think it’s correct to state it’s outdated because the majority of users have moved on from those previous formats to the current format. However, one could argue that a certain group of younger people in their 20s or even younger are fascinated with vinyl records and even cassette tapes so they are an alternative for that crowd. I still feel like that puts it into a category like classic cars where it’s still old, but some people still like it.
I mean the format as in it randomly plays songs, not necessarily of your selection. At least in the USA you can pay for satellite radio, but FM radio is free.
It’s true that you could buy approximately one album per month and so if you counted over a 10 year period you have a collection of music. However, in 10 years, most of that music will be not current so it just depends on what you want to listen to.
In my opinion, one reason why streaming is more popular is because you turn it on and don’t have to select a list of songs and a playlist and all that mess. It’s like listening to the radio without advertisements.
At least for me, I find that difficult to do with Apple Music but I know other people have no problems with the music selection. Perhaps I messed up the algorithm with some of my weird music choices.
The reason I choose streaming over buying particular albums is because I find it hard for me to commit to just certain songs. With streaming, I can listen to anything I want at that moment.
I forgot about that but yes, you are right.
What's funny and a bit ironic to me is that the people who profess to love music and their artists have no problem ripping them off. I'd gladly show my appreciation to X, Y or Z but buying their music. A $5, $10 subscription to whatever streaming service isn't going to help them. And you'd be surprised how many of those bands and singers are struggling. There's no real paradigm for success any more for young bands. Getting likes and plays doesn't really translate into big money in your bank account.
Personally, if I dropped streaming I would have to go back SiriusXM or other radio stations. I like to be able to discover new music over many different genres. I can’t do that if I have to pay for every track I want to listen to.
I have a significant collection of CDs and purchased digital downsides from before streaming, but reality is that all this has become much easier to access via the steaming services. It’s unfortunate that artists aren’t being compensated as they should, but that’s a problem that is way above me.
I have a significant collection of CDs and purchased digital downsides from before streaming, but reality is that all this has become much easier to access via the steaming services. It’s unfortunate that artists aren’t being compensated as they should, but that’s a problem that is way above me.
I get it. I believe in supporting the artists. I do listen to some new music, and old music I missed in the car where I have SiriusXM. But I also have a ton of music fans and fellow musicians who keep me abreast of new music. I use the preview function. Normally if I hear something I like where preview or Sirius or at someone's house or in a movie/show, I will get the whole album.
I figured that if I listened to the albums I previously purchased via CD or iTunes on Apple Music (rather than the purchased/ripped files) the artists would continue to get a small cut. I realize it’s not much (less than I expected), but I figured it’s better than nothing at all. (Or maybe not… I don’t really know.)
I totally agree with your statement….. 😁
Every Xmas, TV ads aplenty for best of the 80’s, 90’s etc.
There is no best of the 2010’s….🥴
The majority of current TV ads (in UK) are plastered with tracks from 80’s/90’s dance tracks.
I prefer to have ‘MY COLLECTION’ of music/films/tv etc, not a rented subscription.
I have been offered the 3 month subscription to Music many times, whenever I buy a new Apple product, but am just not interested.
I do have a vast collection of white label/dj pre-release/promo 12” dance music vinyl from the late 80’s, early 90’s which is pretty much non-existent in any digital format, which I am currently recording into iTunes (on my cMP).
Good luck finding these tracks on streaming services.
I have Apple Music. My subscription ended on June 12, yet I still somehow have access. I'm waiting to resubscribe just to see how long the "grace period" lasts.
I do buy music too, as I have a flash mod iPod 4th gen monochrome. A few others too, but the 4th gen is what I use most.
I actually bought two used CDs recently. One was a third the price of buying on iTunes, and another was not available on a streaming platform.
I do buy music too, as I have a flash mod iPod 4th gen monochrome. A few others too, but the 4th gen is what I use most.
I actually bought two used CDs recently. One was a third the price of buying on iTunes, and another was not available on a streaming platform.
Appl
That said, I didn't need to check a box in the Music app's settings. It was already on by default for me.
Under the guise of "putting your music front and center," Apple has made it a pain to get to the iTunes Music Store. To get there I need to click the store category on the left panel of the Music app window. Then I need to click the search bar on the top left, and then click the iTunes store tab on the top right. Then I go back to the search bar in the top left and search for the artist/song I'm looking for. So unintuitive and clunky.
That said, I didn't need to check a box in the Music app's settings. It was already on by default for me.
I liked used CDs for this reason. But what gets me is that when I buy a used CD, not one penny goes to the artist who made that music. So I'm torn.
The ways that streaming has changed the music industry is really sad. And the pandemic put the kibosh on tours for a while, another kick while musicians were down. At least live music has made a big comeback, and a lot of artists used their pandemic down time to create some amazing work and to reach out to fans in new ways.
So I try to support the artists by buying their work where they license it digitally, and their merch too.
EDIT: changed "sell" to "license"
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I think nothing at all would be honest. It's an insult. Its like leaving a great waiter in an expensive restaurant 25 cents. It's an insult.
I noticed that too. It's also bad on Linux, Rhythmbox does not make it easy either. There are apps that specialize in ripping CDs though. It's not a surprise though given that CD/DVD drives are no longer standard on PCs and certainly not on Macs.
The last CD I ripped was done on a 2010 Mac Pro running Mohave. It all still worked back then. I'm beginning to think Mohave is Peak MacOS. Nothing seems to have improved since then.
Hmm. Are you on a Mac or Windows? On my Mac, I just insert a CD into the Superdrive (which is obviously plugged into the Mac) and Apple Music imports it with no issues.
I could be way off here, but assuming that number of 1 million plays for an artist to make $4,000 (mentioned earlier in the thread) is close to correct, it seems like kind of a fair number, based on the subscription cost of streaming. I'm not saying that streaming is a fair deal or whatever, but going by the numbers, $4,000 for 1,000,000 streams works out to 4/10th of 1 cent per play.
Assuming that the average song lasts 3 minutes, you can listen to 20 songs/hour. If you do that 8 hours a day, 30 days a month, that works out to 4,800 streams over the course of a month, or $19.20 in fees that the streaming services are paying out to artists, which is more than the cost of most of the streaming services.
I don't know what the real numbers are, but I listen for probably close to 8 hours a day at work (though not really on the weekends) and I don't consider myself 'into' music at all.
The markup may not be as high on this as many assume, but perhaps it's just the vast quantity of artists that are making money overall, means a smaller amount per artist. I'm sure there are some people, somewhere in the chain, making a lot of money off of streaming, but it sounds like, overall, it's just a very low margin business. Possibly $10/month (or whatever) is just too low of a price to support the industry at its current size.
Assuming that the average song lasts 3 minutes, you can listen to 20 songs/hour. If you do that 8 hours a day, 30 days a month, that works out to 4,800 streams over the course of a month, or $19.20 in fees that the streaming services are paying out to artists, which is more than the cost of most of the streaming services.
I don't know what the real numbers are, but I listen for probably close to 8 hours a day at work (though not really on the weekends) and I don't consider myself 'into' music at all.
The markup may not be as high on this as many assume, but perhaps it's just the vast quantity of artists that are making money overall, means a smaller amount per artist. I'm sure there are some people, somewhere in the chain, making a lot of money off of streaming, but it sounds like, overall, it's just a very low margin business. Possibly $10/month (or whatever) is just too low of a price to support the industry at its current size.
Personally, I'm not a fan of streaming, but I am a fan of physical media. I buy physical CDs and rip them in iTunes (aiff) and then archive the cd into a box.
I have masses of tapes/Vinyl/CD’s/iTunes purchases.
It’s an ongoing process (which I started a few years ago) getting all into my cMP iTunes library.
All my CD’s are done, but vinyl obviously takes a lot longer being a realtime recording.
And while where at it, VHS/Laserdisc/DVD/HDDVD/Blu-ray/iTunes purchases…..
(after Blu-ray I gave up with continuously evolving formats, mostly buy DVD’s if not available on iTunes)
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