Is streaming changing the music we’re listening to?

[Pokey77]

@Audire
OP - While I understand your theory, I don't think that songs will get longer. What I do hope is that artist keep on making whatever music they like. I tend to get into ruts where I play a lot by the same artist, so by the metrics discussed earlier in this thread, it would seem the musician benefits; I like that.

I can say, that for me, streaming has fundamentally changed the way I listen to music and the artists I listen to. I used to buy CDs at Fingerprints in Long Beach CA and I was turned on to a lot of new music there. But streaming has taken that to a whole new level. I've been able to discover so many new genres and that has led to much more enjoyment in my music journey. I am also working on upgrading my Network and music has become even more enjoyable. Going to be trying a Fiber Box II at the end of the week. Hoping it'll take me up a few notches.

@Rexp
While streaming may expose some bad recordings, it has exposed me to hundreds of very well recorded tracks and albums. Its a total win/win for me!

Great thread OP!!

 

[caesar]

That’s great. But still a limited jackpot.

DIGITAL SERVICE PROVIDER	$ PER STREAM
Qobuz	$0.04390
Peloton	$0.04036
iHeartRadio	$0.01426
Amazon Unlimited	$0.01175

For what it's worth, the amount of money spent on the music industry hasn't changed. It has just shifted, Like squeezing a balloon: artists now make their money from touring instead of selling records in the old days.

 

[caesar]

In terms of music discovery, most people in the hobby seem to like Roon, understandably. The tidal app algorithm is super good also, as is YouTube's.

Curious if anyone has opinions of Spotify and other big gorillas - whose goal is to provide the best recommendations possible to keep people engaged on their sites. (I was recently looking for a video of Grateful Dead's "The Wheel" and YouTube recommended a mind-blowing cover of the Dead's Stella Blue by Bob Dylan... Which automatically took me into the Dead doing a fabulous version of Visions of Johanna).

 

[Elliot G.]

I dont think this arguement holds water.
The largest selling Artist today is Taylor Swift. Her chart topping song Anti Hero is over 5 minutes long and I really doubt she writes to hit a time length.
Personally I love streaming.Its easy to use, easy to fiind what I want and get exposed to what I didnt know I wanted

 

[Ron Resnick]

Streaming has not changed the music I listen to.

 

[marty]

I dont think this arguement holds water.
The largest selling Artist today is Taylor Swift. Her chart topping song Anti Hero is over 5 minutes long and I really doubt she writes to hit a time length.

She is the exception to the rule, which as Billy Joel said:

"It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long
If you're gonna have a hit
You gotta make it fit
So they cut it down to 3:05"

 

[Elliot G.]

She is the exception to the rule, which as Billy Joel said:

"It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long
If you're gonna have a hit
You gotta make it fit
So they cut it down to 3:05"

I dont listen to much pop but of the new things I have found on Qobuz ( my choice) I dont see a trend that is showing me shorter pieces of music.
I think this is a non starter.

We both ran out of small talk
The connection seemed to go dead
I was about to say, hey, have a nice life
When she touched my hand and said:
You know I just had this great idea
This could be very cool
Why don't we grab a cab to my hotel
And make believe we're back at our old school
I said babe you look delicious
And you're standing very close
But like this is Lower Broadway
And you're talking to a ghost

not that this has anything to do with anything but IO love the lyrics LOL

 

[caesar]

She is the exception to the rule, which as Billy Joel said:

"It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long
If you're gonna have a hit
You gotta make it fit
So they cut it down to 3:05"

It depends, of course, as always. The "singles" were always "shortened", even for the Beatles and Stones. and the single sometimes differed from what was on the full album. The artist can release an extended version or a longer, live version if they see fit.

 

[Tuckers]

So musicians get paid by individual stream, not length. But creators on Youtube do get paid by attention as opposed to piece, so there is a tendency to make longer videos, some creators I follow try to make ones that are over an hour or even two. The longer they hold the attention of the viewer, the more they can make in commissions. Youtube can get more commercials into your face that way. Even with the creators I like, I prefer video's about 10-20 minutes. I don't have time to digest the longer ones, as I am not as a rule a very passive viewer. I bring this up because this dynamic will probably work its way into music streaming to at some point. But maybe inversely. For instance maybe an artist will make an album with 40 one minute tracks to better monetize from their fans?

 

[Tuckers]

I've been streaming since it was launched about 20 years ago. However, I don't use it as my main source anymore. I do use Qobuz to discover new music some today, but I am acquisitive. I always try to buy/download a work I find and then playback locally. Also, in the genres I like the most, like classic Jazz and Classical, there can be many difference releases of the same work. Its very important to me to get the best rendering of an album digitally which could be a Craft Recordings re-issue or someones rip from a classic vinyl album. You don't generally know which version of a work you are getting on a streaming platform. I also use Qobuz to download music offline to my phone when I travel.

I was part of the Music Genome Project. This is the original open source project hat looked at ways to analyze tracks of music and categorize them so that you could build music recommendation engines. I was a tester and categorization editor. The Music Genome Project was sucked into the Pandora Music Streaming platform, which was pretty much the first streaming platform. All other platforms today use the DNA developed in the Music Genome Project to show you music. I became one of Pandora's top community playlist organizers, and had over 50 of the top playlists on Pandora. This was mostly because I wasn't necessarily an expert in any genre, but put in the work to create playlists in less popular genres, like Ancient Music, Exotica, Surf Music etc. If someone wanted Surf Music, there were 5 playlists available and mine was the most comprehensive and longest. I got most of my playlist tracks by querying the Music Genome Database.

I actually think back then the recommendation engine was clearer and more comprehensive, as it was based on actual people listening to music and categorizing it by clear definitions. And the new music that I discovered was really interesting and high quality. However, that could have been because the whole concept was shiny and new.