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

[Azure]

Originally Posted by SebC

The subscription model is a good one, but some people just like to collect.

It is collected. 18 million+ songs that you can access instantly.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by Tiger

There are legal sites. Like mp3sale.ru that are only ten cents a song and still pay artist royalities, but are not located in the states so they don't have to sell for a minimum cost. I don't have a problem paying for music, i only have a problem paying too much for it and the artist getting so little.

You don't actually believe that do you? Those sites are rumored to be run by the Russian mob and basically pay nothing to anyone. They use a loophole in Russian digital copyright law that allows them to sell pirated music without permission from the owner and keep almost 100% of the money. In the event that they actually do pay Russian statutory royalties (which amount to tiny fractions of a cent for every song sold), they're paid to a Russian licensing group and never end up in the hands of artists.

Those sites are the worst of both worlds. You still have to pay money to some shady company but the artists and owners of the music get nothing. You might as well just pirate the music and at least save yourself some cash.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Azure

It is collected. 18 million+ songs that you can access instantly.

Until you stop paying. It's not your collection, there's no ownership.

Originally Posted by Reaper

Yeah, I'd buy a lot more music if it was a quarter of a cent.

An entire album would be like 4 cents tops.

I'm pretty sure you think you're joking, but that might be about the right price for digital music. I could see the top artists making less under such a scheme because they have high market penetration, but for everyone else it might be better to sell your album to 2500 people who would buy it at 4 cents than 4 people who buy it at $25.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Azure

It is collected. 18 million+ songs that you can access instantly.

So what happens if you don't have internet access? Serious question - I've never used rdio or anything similar. Is there any option for offline listening? I've never looked at subscription services as I assumed there was no offline option, which is a deal breaker for me.

[DownInFlames]

Rdio lets you download songs to listen to them offline.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by SebC

Until you stop paying. It's not your collection, there's no ownership.

What is the point of actual ownership of 95% of music these days? There are maybe a handful of albums that I'd actually care to really own.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by kermitology

What is the point of actual ownership of 95% of music these days? There are maybe a handful of albums that I'd actually care to really own.

I owned music at one point. 500-600 CDs probably. Where did those end up? I don't even really know. Every time I moved less came with me. I think I might have 15-20 left somewhere in the garage. A lot of good that ownership did me. I think I burned about 50 of them before getting bored with that idea.

I wonder if the Spotify model will eventually completely take over. Cloud based subscriptions (and non subscription models) that you can download or stream as needed seems to be the way of the future. Is anyone really going to be managing non-centralized libraries of mp3s in a couple years? Seems old fashioned already.

Oh and to the original post, I think that Apple Match, Google Music and Amazon all do pretty much what he says. If you have the mp3s or the cd, you can match them and have all your songs in the cloud for streaming, downloading whatever, if you prefer an ownership model.


Seems that music is moving towards a pretty obvious end game with these cloud based services. Video is the one I'm curious to see how it plays out.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by SebC

I'm pretty sure you think you're joking, but that might be about the right price for digital music. I could see the top artists making less under such a scheme because they have high market penetration, but for everyone else it might be better to sell your album to 2500 people who would buy it at 4 cents than 4 people who buy it at $25.

I was making fun of the fact that .25 cents is 1/4 of a cent.

[Azure]

Why would I want to even own music anymore? It uses up hard drive space, and as we all probably know...lots can go wrong there.

Physical copies have wear and tear and with time they go kaput too.

Honestly, why wouldn't I want to pay Rdio $10/month to store 18 million songs for me? Sounds like a hell of a deal.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Azure

Why would I want to even own music anymore? It uses up hard drive space, and as we all probably know...lots can go wrong there.

Physical copies have wear and tear and with time they go kaput too.

Honestly, why wouldn't I want to pay Rdio $10/month to store 18 million songs for me? Sounds like a hell of a deal.

The problem with having everything cloud based is that if you ever are in a location without an internet connection or a slow internet connection that you are unable to listen to said music.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Reaper

The problem with having everything cloud based is that if you ever are in a location without an internet connection or a slow internet connection that you are unable to listen to said music.

False. Rdio allows you to sync to mobile devices and tablets.

This was a crucial component of me purchasing this subscription as it would be horrible for flights, but it works.

Obviously you won't have access the ENTIRE collection but you can synch before you go.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

False. Rdio allows you to sync to mobile devices and tablets.

This was a crucial component of me purchasing this subscription as it would be horrible for flights, but it works.

Obviously you won't have access the ENTIRE collection but you can synch before you go.

Try to sync an entire week's worth of music before you leave for the arctic.

[coaster]

Do any of these pay for music sites sell in an uncompressed format? I can't see paying a dollar per song for watered down quality like mp3. Sounds like crap on a decent stereo.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Reaper

Try to sync an entire week's worth of music before you leave for the arctic.

Sure. What is supposed to be difficult about this?

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Reaper

Try to sync an entire week's worth of music before you leave for the arctic.

This experience seems incredibly universal and should form the basis of the general application of music policy.

Point being, Rdio is fine for 99% of people, the rest of you, who are going to the arctic, will unfortunately have to continue paying itunes/CD prices for your music.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by coaster

Do any of these pay for music sites sell in an uncompressed format? I can't see paying a dollar per song for watered down quality like mp3. Sounds like crap on a decent stereo.

Bullcrap. It might sound like crap on a high end "audiophile" stereo but it sounds perfectly fine on the vast vast vast majority of music setups.

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by coaster

Do any of these pay for music sites sell in an uncompressed format? I can't see paying a dollar per song for watered down quality like mp3. Sounds like crap on a decent stereo.

Yes, a few come to mind that I've bought from.

Zunior.com - Mostly Canadian indie rock
mergerecords.com - Merge records sells flac files of their artists' music
bandcamp - A good collection of independent bands
CD Baby Another independent band site

If you want mainstream artists it's tougher to find lossless music for sale.

[coaster]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Bullcrap. It might sound like crap on a high end "audiophile" stereo but it sounds perfectly fine on the vast vast vast majority of music setups.

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.

[Rathji]

I tried Rdio, and found it to be awesome, except the reality is that I would rather listen to a podcast than a song over 90% of the time, so it wasn't worth the $10 a month for me.

[Galakanokis]

A buddy of mine who is in a bad out here in Van said they make squat off of the $1 downloads from itunes. He said 50% goes to Apple right of the top and the rest goes to the record company/producer. Not sure if that is the way it works for everybody or if the amounts are negotiated. They do it to simply get their music out there.

I have 3 or 4 gigs on my phone or ipod and everything else is either pandora or rdio. Rdio is great although I have only been using the free desktop version.