Is it unwise to buy a state of the art CD player at this time?

bonzo75

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Mike, subscribe to tidal lossless for..a lifetimes worth of "new" music.. cost you $20 a month ..chickenfeed
Roon , as a front end is worth a $1000000 for leading you down discovery paths and with your local collection and tidal is a formidable audio tool..

+1: Just my thoughts, stream new music this way, get some real quality downloads from quality sites like Channel Classics, Challenge Classics, ripping some CDs (there used to be an SACD ripping service advertised on computer audiophile). More expense that, if you can afford it, should go to vinyl. Of course for people like Mike who have already gone flat out on room, Analog, Speakers, etc...further spend can be to a CD player but for someone who is not at that level, IMO, should be the lowest priority.
 

marty

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I’ve been traveling in Europe on business for a few days and haven’t tuned in for a while, but this thread has taken on multiple personalities. It’s certainly more potpourri than the OP intended, but an informative discussion nonetheless.

First, in case I missed its mention, Russ’ hearing loss was due to an acute case of otitis externa that he is now treating with Ciprodex, and I’m told it is no longer a major concern, thank goodness.

Second, although this is not a thread about the Goldmund Studio/T3F , I would just make the quick points that its performance improves dramatically if you throw out the piece of crap power supply it comes with and install an inexpensive, fanless, industrial 24v regulated low-noise, DC supply. Also, remove that piece of crap plastic top that covers the arm carriage, and pay meticulous attention to the right amount of silicone damping fluid used in the paddle reservoir.

The most important point of the thread pertains to the “do I” or “don’t I” purchase the Spectral 4000. My vote is a resounding “no” for two reasons,. First, I’ve heard it. I heard it at Overture with top of the line Spectral/MIT everything, including the kitchen sink, through some Magico S7s. All I can say is that if that’s what you think a piano sounds like in real life, buy it. That doesn’t mean it is bad sounding, in fact, it was quite good. Clean as a whistle and low in distortion. But for me, it was missing something and in my view, what it was missing is called T-U-B-E naturalness, warmth, roundness, or what’s that other term? Oh, yeah, coloration! There, I’ve said it. Sue me. But recall I do have a Steinway sitting right behind me in my listening room so I think my reference point is fairly solid. Seriously, this just comes down to personal taste; not right or wrong. It’s a whole system approach. As much as I love Spectral, I think there is such a role for too much of a good thing. Now give me all of the above but with a Lampi or good tube DAC? And now yer talkin’, again, at least for me. For example,the piano sound Mike Lavigne has achieved with his humble Lampi (and not so humble DartZeels) was just beautiful, and far more impressive (i.e realistic) than anything I have heard through the all Spectral/MIT kitchen sink Magico S7 system.

So let’s move on from “sound” considerations to “life style” considerations. As I told Russ, if you want to buy the Spectral, or any CD/DAC to play your favorite 100 CDs over and over again until the end of time, then have at it. But the point that many have made which I think is key, is that I see no reason to buy something that does not allow you to take advantage of the world of music that is out there now and in the future. The silver disc is dead. Forget about it. (Yes you can buy them. That point has been made.) But at what cumulative cost? TIDAL at 20 bucks a month is just chump change compared to what you would have to spend in silver disc equivalents, and for what? Some of those silver discs will be played a few times and then put in a shelf until Woody Allen discovers them again in the movie Sleeper. THERE IS SO MUCH DAMN MUSIC OUT THERE. Why would you not want to take advantage of the world’s library for $20/mo? (yes, some exceptions exist). You can supplement as necessary with DSD downloads or buy CDs on occasion if you wish. I suspect that if you’re one of those people that say “well, TIDAL or DSD downloads is not the same quality as my LPs or even CDs” then we have reached an impenetrable wall. Hey, how much of the world’s greatest music in on LP? Sure there’s a bunch. And I respect the LP uber alles school. (Hey, I’m a member!). But if you’re telling me you NEED an LP or CD to enjoy music, especially in light of the fact that you are willing to accept a very low numerator compared to the denominator of musical possibilities in the world now and in the future, then we respectively have to agree to disagree. From my perspective, hell, I enjoyed music on AM radio when I was a kid and I sure as hell can enjoy it very well now on TIDAL or via DSD downloads. It’s all about the music, at least for me! What would bum me out more than anything is playing my favorite CDs over and over again on 20K machine that is good for nothing else. Then again, that’s why there’s vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. As my old mentor Paul Heath used to say; “you pays yer money and you takes yer choice”. I’ve already made mine. I wish Russ good luck as he tries to make his.
 
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NorthStar

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Post #233 ? Alex,
What you have recommended is where I was when I put down the deposit on the SDR-4000SV - Make my CD playback the best it can be.
One thing people may be missing with regard to the Spectral SDR-4000SV, is that it is not just playing back bits.
Johnson has included some proprietary signal enhancing circuitry in the SDR-4000SV so that all Red Book is played back as if it is HDCD.
Whatever the reason, it is somewhat magical.

On post #233, I think it just made the Spectral SDR-4000SV a must audition for me.

I feel the exact same.
____

Right not I am listening to one of my favorite Bluesmen (and yes, on CD with HDCD encoding):



It not only sounds fabulous but also magical. You can click on the above picture cover for free music samples...that is if Blues is in your alley.
________

@ Russ, I am on the exact same wavelength with you; I want to discover everything...including/in particular on the Spectral SDR-4000VS Processor (CD transport/player/all...).
...From the best professional audio reviewers in the biz, and from everyone else; ultra high-end audiophiles.
I also wish that I could audition it myself. The money is not important, the music sound quality is.

To me a great music source player (CD) is one of the essences of my raison d'être. My considerable music investment in that format is 101% worth it.
 

NorthStar

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Oh, did I mention it; he's in my room...and in 3D.
______


______

And if you like Doug MacLeod, make sure to check all his other albums (CDs), including this one:

 

Johnny Vinyl

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So let’s move on from “sound” considerations to “life style” considerations. As I told Russ, if you want to buy the Spectral, or any CD/DAC to play your favorite 100 CDs over and over again until the end of time, then have at it. But the point that many have made which I think is key, is that I see no reason to buy something that does not allow you to take advantage of the world of music that is out there now and in the future. The silver disc is dead. Forget about it. (Yes you can buy them. That point has been made.) But at what cumulative cost? TIDAL at 20 bucks a month is just chump change compared to what you would have to spend in silver disc equivalents, and for what? Some of those silver discs will be played a few times and then put in a shelf until Woody Allen discovers them again in the movie Sleeper. THERE IS SO MUCH DAMN MUSIC OUT THERE. Why would you not want to take advantage of the world’s library for $20/mo? (yes, some exceptions exist). You can supplement as necessary with DSD downloads or buy CDs on occasion if you wish. I suspect that if you’re one of those people that say “well, TIDAL or DSD downloads is not the same quality as my LPs or even CDs” then we have reached an impenetrable wall. Hey, how much of the world’s greatest music in on LP? Sure there’s a bunch. And I respect the LP uber alles school. (Hey, I’m a member!). But if you’re telling me you NEED an LP or CD to enjoy music, especially in light of the fact that you are willing to accept a very low numerator compared to the denominator of musical possibilities in the world now and in the future, then we respectively have to agree to disagree. From my perspective, hell, I enjoyed music on AM radio when I was a kid and I sure as hell can enjoy it very well now on TIDAL or via DSD downloads. It’s all about the music, at least for me! What would bum me out more than anything is playing my favorite CDs over and over again on 20K machine that is good for nothing else. Then again, that’s why there’s vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. As my old mentor Paul Heath used to say; “you pays yer money and you takes yer choice”. I’ve already made mine. I wish Russ good luck as he tries to make his.
If TIDAL works for you, then as you say...have at it. I don't need an infinite amount of choices to discover that one gem I want to have. Participation on music related fora, various FB pages, friends with like-minded interests, YouTube channels, etc., are just as effective, and for sure filters out the recommended audiophile pap that some pretend passes as music.
 

NorthStar

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"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
- The Compact Disc, Vinyl, Reel-to-Reel (and Cassette)

Just because it reminded me of this, which I've read some time ago:

Edward Snowden ? @Snowden
The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.
3:42 AM - 15 Aug 2016
 

Al M.

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First, in case I missed its mention, Russ’ hearing loss was due to an acute case of otitis externa that he is now treating with Ciprodex, and I’m told it is no longer a major concern, thank goodness.

I am very glad to hear this, and thanks for reporting, Marty.

The silver disc is dead. Forget about it. (Yes you can buy them. That point has been made.)

It appears you don't see the contradiction in that statement.
 

853guy

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So let’s move on from “sound” considerations to “life style” considerations. As I told Russ, if you want to buy the Spectral, or any CD/DAC to play your favorite 100 CDs over and over again until the end of time, then have at it. But the point that many have made which I think is key, is that I see no reason to buy something that does not allow you to take advantage of the world of music that is out there now and in the future. The silver disc is dead. Forget about it. (Yes you can buy them. That point has been made.) But at what cumulative cost? TIDAL at 20 bucks a month is just chump change compared to what you would have to spend in silver disc equivalents, and for what? Some of those silver discs will be played a few times and then put in a shelf until Woody Allen discovers them again in the movie Sleeper. THERE IS SO MUCH DAMN MUSIC OUT THERE. Why would you not want to take advantage of the world’s library for $20/mo? (yes, some exceptions exist). You can supplement as necessary with DSD downloads or buy CDs on occasion if you wish. I suspect that if you’re one of those people that say “well, TIDAL or DSD downloads is not the same quality as my LPs or even CDs” then we have reached an impenetrable wall. Hey, how much of the world’s greatest music in on LP? Sure there’s a bunch. And I respect the LP uber alles school. (Hey, I’m a member!). But if you’re telling me you NEED an LP or CD to enjoy music, especially in light of the fact that you are willing to accept a very low numerator compared to the denominator of musical possibilities in the world now and in the future, then we respectively have to agree to disagree. From my perspective, hell, I enjoyed music on AM radio when I was a kid and I sure as hell can enjoy it very well now on TIDAL or via DSD downloads. It’s all about the music, at least for me! What would bum me out more than anything is playing my favorite CDs over and over again on 20K machine that is good for nothing else. Then again, that’s why there’s vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. As my old mentor Paul Heath used to say; “you pays yer money and you takes yer choice”. I’ve already made mine. I wish Russ good luck as he tries to make his.

Just to address the bolded part (but leave the rest for context), the $20 a month comes at the cost of the artist. You’re right, “there is so much damn music out there”, and most of it is being distributed and listened to at the expense of the artist. (Artist revenue has shifted from album/single sales to touring, merchandise and endorsements in general.)

The way to ensure an artist receives the greatest cut of revenue is to purchase their self-distributed CD. In that case, their cut is 100%, with artist revenue at $12.00, and they need shift only 105 units to make the minimum U.S. wage. If you were to purchase their CD from a retailer where the artist is signed on an (averaged) royalty deal with a label, the retailers makes 30%, the label 47% and the artist makes 23%, with the artist taking home $2.76 requiring 457 units to make minimum wage.

While it’s true Tidal is second only to Googleplay in artist royalties per play ($0.0073 for Googleplay versus $0.0070 for Tidal - Spotify pays $0.0011, YouTube $0.0003), an artist would still need 180,000 plays per month on Tidal to make the minimum wage (U.S.). For a signed artist on Tidal, Tidal takes 25%, the label takes 55% and the artist makes 20%, requiring 393 times the unit play of a store-purchased CD for less of a cut (by 3%). Given Tidal’s user base it sitting below Rhapsody, Deezer, Spotify and YouTube with only 1.5 million paying users compared to 30 million Spotify paying users, an artist needs 36% of Tidal’s users to play its album in order to make minimum wage. In other words, on Tidal an artist needs to rely on a disproportionate percentage of a smaller pool of users in order to make minimum wage. Tidal’s bias toward urban music genres (and already-established multi-million seller artists - remember the “poor, struggling artists” Tidal whipped up on stage for its relaunch, like, er… Madonna?) means indie and lesser known artists are therefore likely to suffer relative to already-established artists.

And to repeat to what I already wrote in post #213, for all Tidal’s bravado in regard to artist percentages relative to the competition, the fact that it owes $438,000 to labels in unpaid royalties seems to suggest that your $20 bucks a month isn’t getting into the pocket of the artist half as much as it would like you to believe it is.

I get it: The music industry is broken and something is better than nothing, right? Well, kinda. Not really.

Perhaps the best way to sum up my perspective is to answer your question here: “Why would you not want to take advantage of the world’s library for $20/mo?”

Why not? Because when someone gives you everything for nothing, someone else is losing out big time.

https://www.fastcodesign.com/3048607/what-major-music-streaming-services-pay-artists-visualized
 

NorthStar

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I didn't read Marty's post till after I posted mine below his.
It's a good line of thought; use everything available today to expand our musical horizons. Discover all the great music in the world and play it from our favorite music sources. Follow our own trends with our own music formats that we like and with the audio sources we're satisfy with.

Is it unwise to buy a state-of-the-art CD player @ this time? Certainly not for some people. The Spectral 4000 is twenty grands (MSRP).
A dCS state-of-the-art digital CD/SACD stack is eighty-five grands (MSRP).
The Spectral is more than four times less expensive.

I like Marty's post because he listened to the Spectral 4000, and he also mentioned his "tubed warmth/colored sound" personal preference:
"But for me, it was missing something and in my view, what it was missing is called T-U-B-E naturalness, warmth, roundness, or what’s that other term?
Oh, yeah, coloration!"


And this:
"Seriously, this just comes down to personal taste; not right or wrong."

Plus this:
"As much as I love Spectral, I think there is such a role for too much of a good thing. Now give me all of the above but with a Lampi or good tube DAC? And now yer talkin’, again, at least for me. For example,the piano sound Mike Lavigne has achieved with his humble Lampi (and not so humble DartZeels) was just beautiful, and for more impressive (i.e realistic) than anything I have heard through the all Spectral/MIT kitchen sink Magico S7 system."
 
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Al M.

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Just to address the bolded part (but leave the rest for context), the $20 a month comes at the cost of the artist. You’re right, “there is so much damn music out there”, and most of it is being distributed and listened to at the expense of the artist. (Artist revenue has shifted from album/single sales to touring, merchandise and endorsements in general.)

The way to ensure an artist receives the greatest cut of revenue is to purchase their self-distributed CD. In that case, their cut is 100%, with artist revenue at $12.00, and they need shift only 105 units to make the minimum U.S. wage. If you were to purchase their CD from a retailer where the artist is signed on an (averaged) royalty deal with a label, the retailers makes 30%, the label 47% and the artist makes 23%, with the artist taking home $2.76 requiring 457 units to make minimum wage.

While it’s true Tidal is second only to Googleplay in artist royalties per play ($0.0073 for Googleplay versus $0.0070 for Tidal - Spotify pays $0.0011, YouTube $0.0003), an artist would still need 180,000 plays per month on Tidal to make the minimum wage (U.S.). For a signed artist on Tidal, Tidal takes 25%, the label takes 55% and the artist makes 20%, requiring 393 times the unit play of a store-purchased CD for less of a cut (by 3%). Given Tidal’s user base it sitting below Rhapsody, Deezer, Spotify and YouTube with only 1.5 million paying users compared to 30 million Spotify paying users, an artist needs 36% of Tidal’s users to play its album in order to make minimum wage. In other words, on Tidal an artist needs to rely on a disproportionate percentage of a smaller pool of users in order to make minimum wage. Tidal’s bias toward urban music genres (and already-established multi-million seller artists - remember the “poor, struggling artists” Tidal whipped up on stage for its relaunch, like, er… Madonna?) means indie and lesser known artists are therefore likely to suffer relative to already-established artists.

And to repeat to what I already wrote in post #213, for all Tidal’s bravado in regard to artist percentages relative to the competition, the fact that it owes $438,000 to labels in unpaid royalties seems to suggest that your $20 bucks a month isn’t getting into the pocket of the artist half as much as it would like you to believe it is.

I get it: The music industry is broken and something is better than nothing, right? Well, kinda. Not really.

Perhaps the best way to sum up my perspective is to answer your question here: “Why would you not want to take advantage of the world’s library for $20/mo?”

Why not? Because when someone gives you everything for nothing, someone else is losing out big time.

https://www.fastcodesign.com/3048607/what-major-music-streaming-services-pay-artists-visualized

Thank you for reminding us of the moral dimension of all this. It is also the reason why I have been reluctant to share CDs on a larger scale. If you want to have that music, just buy that darn thing.

The rise of streaming is immoral. Perhaps the big artists can make their money from concert sales and merchandise, but all the other ones are left in the dust.
 

Mdp632

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My question is what is masking that sound of the piano? The noise floor has to the lowest and resolution the highest of any solid state electronics. So valves add distortion which makes the Harmonics sound more realistic? The quest to Make transistors a sound like tubes continues I guess. Unless these Swiss brands add something that spectral is missing. Solid state wise ..
 

NorthStar

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Just to address the bolded part (but leave the rest for context), the $20 a month comes at the cost of the artist. You’re right, “there is so much damn music out there”, and most of it is being distributed and listened to at the expense of the artist. (Artist revenue has shifted from album/single sales to touring, merchandise and endorsements in general.)
The way to ensure an artist receives the greatest cut of revenue is to purchase their self-distributed CD. In that case, their cut is 100%, with artist revenue at $12.00, and they need shift only 105 units to make the minimum U.S. wage. If you were to purchase their CD from a retailer where the artist is signed on an (averaged) royalty deal with a label, the retailers makes 30%, the label 47% and the artist makes 23%, with the artist taking home $2.76 requiring 457 units to make minimum wage.
While it’s true Tidal is second only to Googleplay in artist royalties per play ($0.0073 for Googleplay versus $0.0070 for Tidal - Spotify pays $0.0011, YouTube $0.0003), an artist would still need 180,000 plays per month on Tidal to make the minimum wage (U.S.). For a signed artist on Tidal, Tidal takes 25%, the label takes 55% and the artist makes 20%, requiring 393 times the unit play of a store-purchased CD for less of a cut (by 3%). Given Tidal’s user base it sitting below Rhapsody, Deezer, Spotify and YouTube with only 1.5 million paying users compared to 30 million Spotify paying users, an artist needs 36% of Tidal’s users to play its album in order to make minimum wage. In other words, on Tidal an artist needs to rely on a disproportionate percentage of a smaller pool of users in order to make minimum wage. Tidal’s bias toward urban music genres (and already-established multi-million seller artists - remember the “poor, struggling artists” Tidal whipped up on stage for its relaunch, like, er… Madonna?) means indie and lesser known artists are therefore likely to suffer relative to already-established artists.
And to repeat to what I already wrote in post #213, for all Tidal’s bravado in regard to artist percentages relative to the competition, the fact that it owes $438,000 to labels in unpaid royalties seems to suggest that your $20 bucks a month isn’t getting into the pocket of the artist half as much as it would like you to believe it is.
I get it: The music industry is broken and something is better than nothing, right? Well, kinda. Not really.
Perhaps the best way to sum up my perspective is to answer your question here: “Why would you not want to take advantage of the world’s library for $20/mo?”
Why not? Because when someone gives you everything for nothing, someone else is losing out big time.


https://www.fastcodesign.com/3048607/what-major-music-streaming-services-pay-artists-visualized

That too had me thinking further than my own belly button.
I feel good deep down inside because not only I support financially the artists playing the Music I love but also promote them in the formats that benefit them the most.
 

marty

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My question is what is masking that sound of the piano? The noise floor has to the lowest and resolution the highest of any solid state electronics. So valves add distortion which makes the Harmonics sound more realistic? The quest to Make transistors a sound like tubes continues I guess. Unless these Swiss brands add something that spectral is missing. Solid state wise ..

Mdp, if I knew the answer to your question not only would I be genius, but there would probably be no need to have forums such as these where we can discuss such subjects until hell freezes over. The addition of 2nd order harmonic distortion from valves are, of course, one long-ago proposed hypothesis, but honestly, my response there is "who the heck knows?". Even more importantly, for me, is "who the heck cares?" (To be honest, I guess I do care for science sake, but not for listening sake). A real piano just has timbre, naturalness and a something else (resonance? decay? wholeness? god-only knows?) that just seems to be "not quite there" with the all Spectral system I heard. (Moreover, I think that such a comparison would be obvious to most listeners). And much of what I used as an example of a piano is also true, at least to my ears, for many other instruments and for human voice. I do not mean this as a negative comment. As I said, the Spectral system sound is good. Damn good. In fact, most of us would feel blessed to have such a superb system. But again, for me, its just not as ultimately satisfying as a lot of Spectral and perhaps a touch of something else (i.e. tubes?). Dave Wilson actually said this a long time ago when he commented "you need tubes in there somewhere". As far as I can tell, he was on to something way back in the early days of High End audio as his statement still seems to hold water today with many of us.
 

NorthStar

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Russ, do you have any tube gear somewhere in your system?
{HDCD sounds "tuby" enough to me, with realistic decay, natural reverb, spatial sustain and that transparent filtering coloration type that dynamically and harmonically I cherished...that sort of magical jazz.}
____

* In your first original post you did mention this:
"I do have a significant library of both CD's."

Same here, and as Marty said earlier:
"Seriously, this just comes down to personal taste; not right or wrong."
 
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FrantzM

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The thread is definitely OT but I wanted to address the "Morality" argument. From various reports, streaming did not free the artists as some romantics would like to believe... Could well be more of the same..

This article, although just one point of view would tell an interesting story about the (old?) distribution model, the one not based on Streaming but rather on the sale of CD, it is not that much better , you decide ...

READ HERE

Quoting from the article:

And that explains why huge megastars like Lyle Lovett have pointed out that he sold 4.6 million records and never made a dime from album sales. It's why the band 30 Seconds to Mars went platinum and sold 2 million records and never made a dime from album sales. You hear these stories quite often.
 

NorthStar

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http://fusion.net/story/233399/streaming-good-albums-bad/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/19/zoe-keating-spotify-streaming-royalties

? https://medium.com/cuepoint/streaming-music-is-ripping-you-off-61dc501e7f94#.u1xze0is2 ? Check this out.

EDIT: I just had a discussion with my friend who is a professional musician for the last sixty years. He knows the music business very very well. I spoke to him face to face, he's my next door neighbor and was just working near my veranda where I just helped him find his prescription glasses.
And I asked him how does he get his best revenues from selling his music, plus royalties. It is more complex than what we think.

The best money he makes is from touring, from gigs and from selling CDs directly @ those gigs.
The most important aspect after that depends on how popular the artist is.
By the way, Costco doesn't carry CDs anymore...I didn't know that.

He told me that on his site he didn't sell a single CD from the last two years.
Yesterday he just received a royalty check in his mail for 0.01 cent! ...From streaming. That was not the first time. Today he just got one for $1,500.
Other times he can get $400/month only from royalties...make that few thousand dollars every three months.

The artists who aren't popular are ripped off by the record companies and all the people who control them.
No wonder artists like Neil Young and Prince (R.I.P.) abandoned their robbers and created their own music "money machines".
Adele; she's very popular and kids they go buy her CDs...she makes money...tons of it. But she's popular, very, and sells with huge numbers.

All the music streaming companies out there, they are compressing the music and they are robbing the artists.
Tidal doesn't compress (CD quality @ 16/44), you don't own a CD with Tidal, you still stream, and from your computer/Internet...all that sort of jazz.
But Tidal is also in financial difficulty and I just don't like the group running that business.

@ the end it's a personal choice, and it depends of our own system's integration with our own music listening lifestyle.
_____

Some of us got big pension checks every month, some of us got big paychecks from our portfolio investments (stocks, bonds, dividends, etc.)
Compared to Paul McCartney, we are little; Paul makes $150,000 by the time he finishes shaving every morning.

<<>> If you want to rewards artists you like...go see them in person Live and buy their CDs on the spot.
@ home go with the flow of the music...from the music sources you prefer...stay true to your roots.
We're all different; Russ has now a bunch of ideas from a bunch of music idealists, from the best WBF's elite. :b
And this thread is good for me too.
 
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853guy

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The thread is definitely OT but I wanted to address the "Morality" argument. From various reports, streaming did not free the artists as some romantics would like to believe... Could well be more of the same..

This article, although just one point of view would tell an interesting story about the (old?) distribution model, the one not based on Streaming but rather on the sale of CD, it is not that much better , you decide ...

READ HERE

Quoting from the article:

The difference between the "old" model and Tidal and Spotify is that in the old model many artists were able to negotiate and/or re-negotiate their deals with the labels, or buy back their masters ensuring they would control a greater percentage of revenue generated. In the "new" model, the artist is effectively faced with a "like it or lump it" deal, which is what many (Taylor Swift, The Black Keys, Radiohead, AC/DC, the Beatles, Prince) objected to in the first place. Essentially, it's an argument of what an artist's work is "worth" to the consumer, and how art is distributed/consumed in the public arena.

Just to be clear: I make no judgement on anyone, streaming/not streaming/whatever. I'm simply referencing the data points.
 

bonzo75

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HI

The thread is definitely OT but I wanted to address the "Morality" argument. From various reports, streaming did not free the artists as some romantics would like to believe... Could well be more of the same..

This article, although just one point of view would tell an interesting story about the (old?) distribution model, the one not based on Streaming but rather on the sale of CD, it is not that much better , you decide ...

READ HERE

Quoting from the article:

This morality argument does not appreciate free markets. Now, garage artists have an equal chance of being heard as compared to superstars. Think about that for a moment. Most of us would not have bought the CDs of those we might listen to while streaming.

Other artists will adopt. There will be more live shows. Promotions will change.

If tidal is not paying artists the money it owes, then that is not legal and should be corrected.

Tomorrow there will be another analog vs digital, speaker, or valve thread and i will be on the other side of Frantz, but today he is right. Saying streaming is ruining the artists is unnecessary romanticism.
 

853guy

Active Member
Aug 14, 2013
1,161
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This morality argument does not appreciate free markets. Now, garage artists have an equal chance of being heard as compared to superstars. Think about that for a moment. Most of us would not have bought the CDs of those we might listen to while streaming.

Other artists will adopt. There will be more live shows. Promotions will change.

If tidal is not paying artists the money it owes, then that is not legal and should be corrected.

Tomorrow there will be another analog vs digital, speaker, or valve thread and i will be on the other side of Frantz, but today he is right. Saying streaming is ruining the artists is unnecessary romanticism.

Not quite.

Streaming may or may not be "ruining the artists", but that's not the argument.

The argument is whether John Coltrane's Sun Ship and Nelly's Hot In Here are equivalent in value.

In the old system, value would be decided by the label at their discretion based on the artist's potential revenue, musical relevance and historical importance. In the case of Tidal, Spotify, YouTube, Deezer, et al, none of those factors are used to determine value, and all artists are apportioned the same percentage of revenue. In other words, Tidal believes Nelly's significance as an artist is equivalent to John Coltrane's, and because of that equivalence, both deserve $0.0070 per play.

That is, under a per-play streaming service the artist is no longer seen as an artist, a unique entity in which value is derived from their life's work, but only as a commodity, where their value is derived from the amount of revenue generated. A truly free market would allow the artist to re-negotiate and dictate the terms of their relative value over time, as say, U2 and Metallica have done. Tidal, Spotify, YouTube and Deezer do not operate with the ideals of a free market. They are the opposite of that.

As an aside, it's important to factor in that under the old system an artist would negotiate a deal based on an advance to make an album. Labels, for all their failings, which were/are many, formed a relationship with the artist in which money changed hands in order to create new music. That is, they shared the risk of investment. That's an important distinction. Streaming services do nothing to produce new music. Instead, they simply take advantage of the fact that digital storage is cheap and music is heavily commoditised - they benefit from the work already done by someone else who took the risk to fund it with no exposure to the downside.
 
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NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
24,305
1,323
435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
I just asked my friend musician about Russ's question: He said that if he has a sizable CD music collection, and money; go for it...get a state-of-the-art CD music player.
By the way, my friend streams music, compressed, and has a very humble stereo sound system...very inexpensive. His wife has a Bose radio and an iPad.
Most pro musicians are like that. Many WBF members here will blow his brains out knowing how much your systems cost, and your cables, and your fuses, and all that jazz.
That's life; happiness is a warm gun and we roll with it. :b
 

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