Regarding Illegal Downloading, Fair Pay for Artists, and Customer Satisfaction.

[Azure]

How much music can you actually sync with Rdio at once?

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by kermitology

Sure. What is supposed to be difficult about this?

Just playing devil's advocate as I don't think cloud based music subscription services are the way to go. It might make sense for some people but not for everyone. Personally, I like the option of listening to whatever I want, whenever I want regardless of internet connection or whether or not the musician(s) are part of a provider's playlist.

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by Azure

How much music can you actually sync with Rdio at once?

The only limit is how much room you have on your phone (or tablet).

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by coaster

Bad day? My system is fairly high end but the difference between the formats in sound is massive. It sounds like you have never compared mp3 to wave using the same source music on the same system. Or maybe you just have a tin ear.

Not really, but this argument seems to get trotted out over and over that people shouldn't have to pay for a non-lossless format which "sounds like crap".

I know there is a difference and I know that the difference isn't insignificant if you have the system to play it, but the reality is the vast majority of people are playing music off of their ipod which is either docked in a sound dock or running off of the 3.5mm jack into another 3.5mm jack or RCAs.

In these examples I suspect the difference is minimal if not non-existent.

And your comment was that it sounds like crap. It doesn't "sound like crap" it just happens to sound worse than a lossless format.

[coaster]

My comment was that it "sounds like crap on a decent stereo system" which comparatively it does.

I don't think you should have to pay near cd prices for something vastly inferior simply because it sounds fine on your Ipod. The earlier suggestion of 25 cents sounds about right.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by coaster

My comment was that it "sounds like crap on a decent stereo system" which comparatively it does.

I don't think you should have to pay near cd prices for something vastly inferior simply because it sounds fine on your Ipod. The earlier suggestion of 25 cents sounds about right.

Okay, I'm not going to continue arguing about the difference between the terms "decent" and "high end".

I consider anything around $500 "decent" and my opinion is it won't make a difference, but let's just shelf that discussion.


With respect to payment, are you really paying "near cd prices".


I would suggest that CDs have probably come down in price to keep up with the inexpensiveness of digital downloads.

I feel like the average album on itunes, at least new release is between 9.99 and 12.99.

Now, it has been many years since I've purchased a CD but I do recall as a kid buying CDs from both HMV and big box electronics where they were used as loss leaders and they were almost always more expensive than they are now even though we're talking about 15+ years of inflation.

[Azure]

So if you have a 32GB microSD card, you can sync a lot of music from Rdio for offline listening. Practically like a mp3 player.

Honestly, with that kind of service for that kind of price, I'm not seeing why anyone would go for anything else.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Azure

So if you have a 32GB microSD card, you can sync a lot of music from Rdio for offline listening. Practically like a mp3 player.

Honestly, with that kind of service for that kind of price, I'm not seeing why anyone would go for anything else.

I am not using hyperbole when I say that Rdio was life changing in the way that I consume music.

As a tip, see the following link

http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/articles/890607


They finally fixed the ability to route to external storage as prior thereto you could only use internal storage (which was a PITA with my 8GB Galaxy Tab).

[Hanna Sniper]

Never considered Rdio as a route before, looked into for the first time because of this thread…. But unfortunately I can’t find a catalog online to value if it’s worth the fee. How thorough is the library

If I wanted to listen to Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon, would I have the choice of the original, the 2011 remastered version and the 2003 30th anniversary SCAD release?

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Azure

Honestly, with that kind of service for that kind of price, I'm not seeing why anyone would go for anything else.

I can think of a few instances. I like having the ipod in my truck and having it sync thru the usb/headunit so everything is tucked out of the way and the steering wheel controls work. I can't see having that capability with rdio or any other service. And yes, I understand I could go through an aux in, but I'm not a fan of it.

I can definitely see subscribing, and potentially buying less music, but so far I see it as a supplement, not a replacement for my music.

One question I have, is what are the artists seeing with a subscription service vs itunes or cds? You're now talking a fraction of a percent of $10 a month vs a fraction of a percent of $10 an album. I can't imagine this is any better for artists, and would predict its substantially worse.

However, is this any different than 40 years ago? Bands resorted to touring and merchandising for money, not album sales.

Originally Posted by Hanna Sniper

But unfortunately I can’t find a catalog online to value if it’s worth the fee. How thorough is the library

You can sign up for free and search the library. I'm not too sure of the limitations of the free account (I would assume offline storage and match are disabled), but so far I've been streaming all night.

[corporatejay]

Should have a one week free trial no credit card required.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

I can think of a few instances. I like having the ipod in my truck and having it sync thru the usb/headunit so everything is tucked out of the way and the steering wheel controls work. I can't see having that capability with rdio or any other service. And yes, I understand I could go through an aux in, but I'm not a fan of it.

I can definitely see subscribing, and potentially buying less music, but so far I see it as a supplement, not a replacement for my music.

One question I have, is what are the artists seeing with a subscription service vs itunes or cds? You're now talking a fraction of a percent of $10 a month vs a fraction of a percent of $10 an album. I can't imagine this is any better for artists, and would predict its substantially worse.

However, is this any different than 40 years ago? Bands resorted to touring and merchandising for money, not album sales.


You can sign up for free and search the library. I'm not too sure of the limitations of the free account (I would assume offline storage and match are disabled), but so far I've been streaming all night.

Offline storage works, or did when I did my trial.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Offline storage works, or did when I did my trial.

Looks like it does. Although the sync/offline storage only works for mobile apps. Doesn't look like I can sync it to the computer for an offline mode.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by Hanna Sniper

Never considered Rdio as a route before, looked into for the first time because of this thread…. But unfortunately I can’t find a catalog online to value if it’s worth the fee. How thorough is the library

If I wanted to listen to Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon, would I have the choice of the original, the 2011 remastered version and the 2003 30th anniversary SCAD release?

You'd get the choice of none of the above, since Rdio hasn't licensed Pink Floyd. Which is one of the problems with things like Rdio and Spotify; many of the biggest bands of the 20th century aren't on there. And given the backlash among artists getting essentially no money out of these deals, I wouldn't be surprised to see more pull their stuff from these services in the future.

And the opposite is also a problem where you have to wade through a sea of **** just to find what you're looking for. While I appreciate the completeness in some aspects, I don't need 200 different versions of the same early Bob Dylan concert just because whoever owns the rights to the recording will license it to anyone who'll release it again.

This a repeated problem with a lot of older recordings. Somewhere along the line many artists from the '60s or '70s did some early recordings without proper contracts in place and once they became famous whoever owned the rights would try to capitalize and license them to anyone and everyone. They're the kind of CDs you'd see in a truck stop like those Beatles recordings with Tony Sheridan or something like that and they're all on these streaming services wasting space. Elvis is another good example; 1471 albums and 45289 songs on Rdio. Sinatra has just under 50K songs on there. Some sort of curation would go a long way.

Some things about Rdio and Spotify are amazing, but I don't think I'd ever want to rely on them 100%.

[Thor]

Huge fan of spotify, has totally changed my music listening experience. Also be glad to pay a bit more to pay artists fair shares per listen.

[Rathji]

I don't mind spotify, but I am unwilling to jump through hoops to convince it I live somewhere else.

[Thor]

Yeah oddly enough Iceland got Spotify before Canada, that don't make a lick of sense.

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by opendoor

You'd get the choice of none of the above, since Rdio hasn't licensed Pink Floyd. Which is one of the problems with things like Rdio and Spotify; many of the biggest bands of the 20th century aren't on there. And given the backlash among artists getting essentially no money out of these deals, I wouldn't be surprised to see more pull their stuff from these services in the future.

Pink Floyd shows up for me. For the OP they have the original and the 2011 remaster of Dark Side Of The Moon.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

Pink Floyd shows up for me. For the OP they have the original and the 2011 remaster of Dark Side Of The Moon.

Yeah, they just got it a few months ago, previously it was absent from the catalogue.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

I can think of a few instances. I like having the ipod in my truck and having it sync thru the usb/headunit so everything is tucked out of the way and the steering wheel controls work. I can't see having that capability with rdio or any other service. And yes, I understand I could go through an aux in, but I'm not a fan of it.

I can definitely see subscribing, and potentially buying less music, but so far I see it as a supplement, not a replacement for my music.

One question I have, is what are the artists seeing with a subscription service vs itunes or cds? You're now talking a fraction of a percent of $10 a month vs a fraction of a percent of $10 an album. I can't imagine this is any better for artists, and would predict its substantially worse.

However, is this any different than 40 years ago? Bands resorted to touring and merchandising for money, not album sales.

As far as I know if you have something like an iPod connection or bluetooth the controls work, but I'm not certain about that.

I kind of thought that it would just supplement my music collection, but as Rdio's catalog expanded, it has become my single source for music over the past 2 years. It's changed my life when it comes to music consumption.

As for the amount that is collected by artists, it's probably less than album sales, but reality is that unless you control your own destiny (let's say like Jay-Z) then you're looking at a difference of a cent vs a couple of cents.

Labels are the biggest issue by far, and yes, most bands make their money (as a band) from touring and merchandise sales. But I think that sites like Rdio and Spotify will soon open up a method for getting your music to the masses without going through a label. Why not go directly to Rdio and licencing your music to them so that YOU get the fees directly, not the fraction that the label drops on you like crumbs.