To be honest I typed in "My old man's a mushroom" wanting to know if Blackadder would come up (it didn't) and I ended up watching this because I was interested to find out why it came up for this search. Personally, I'm 14 and I don't get pocket money, but I do value music. I don't really get to do much but as soon as I earn a decent pay I will buy albums and songs. I agree with you about music being for everyone but I do see why Spotify has taken this action.
Some pretty interesting comments on this video. Personally, I don't use spotify, so I couldn't give a shit about its free accounts. Some people (typically financially dependent teens or whatever) can and should pirate music instead of paying for it. I know I did back in the day. Now that I'm working, though, I can afford to buy the albums, so I do. I think of it as supporting the artist from whom I'd like to hear more music. Nothing, no matter what they say, substitutes an album sale.
I only just saw this video because of new crap youtube, so I'm chipping in because it's something that annoys me as well. I've sworn by Spotify for a good 2 years, not only for it's free-ness, but the more MySpace and the like went downhill, the more Spotify enabled me to find music I hadn't already discovered. It consequently annoys me that I'll be giving that up but I now intend to use Spotify rarely to not at all. I'd rather buy an album a month than pay to not even own the music...ah well.
@crackedhandsmusic Exactly the same for me. But that's the thing, you and I are in the music buying demographic for whom music means something and isn't just function. It's something more than just something to have on in the background when cooking dinner or to just to dance to (not saying those things aren't bad, but there are levels of appreciation). For most people music is functional and they don't really want to own a CD or a record. However, I <3 my record collection.
People who use Spotify don't value music? Riiight. So just because I can't afford to pay for music it means I don't value it. I'm not arguing with you because you have some valid points but I honestly think Spotify is awesome and it's not that I wouldn't be 'willing' to pay for it, it's that I literally can't. What ever the music industries do, it's unfair to someone.
@GypsieWings Unless you don't buy any luxury goods (alcohol, takeaway, club tickets, cinema tickets, an ipod, jewellery, designer label clothing etc) I don't believe you when you say you can't afford it. If you can pay for such things, then you do have the money to buy music, be that a spotify subscription or a CD, and you choose not to because you value those other things more. If you can't afford such luxury goods then pirate away, but don't expect Spotify to go out on a limb to cater for you
@jonnydarkmusic To be honest,you probably come from a well off family but I don't and being 'poor' means I'd rather pay my rent than buy music. This doesn't mean I don't value music it just means I don't have the money to spare. Of course I value music but when it's a choice between having a home and buying music then I'd rather live. Spotify should appeal to everyone. It's main audience are teenagers who usually can't afford the subscription. I just don't think you're seeing this from all sides
@GypsieWings Right, in which case, those people should pirate their music, you included. If they can't pay for it, there's no point depriving them. This is something which I really failed to address. I think the official 'legal' distributions of music should spend more time catering to those who can and want to pay for music and making it awesome for them rather than trying to cater to those who can't/won't. I thought it was obvious with spotify you were paying for the service, not the music.
I'm 14. I don't get pocket money and the money I occasionally get for holidays/birthdays I save to buy my family presents, or for something really important in the future (education etc.) My family simply don't have the amount of money it would cost to fuel my music addiction. For all these reason I listen to Spotify. Now, I will go to illegal downloads, not because I partially want to but there is no other way I can think of.
@SweetAsAStrawberry To be fair this wasn't directed at you. You're economically inactive, you have no real disposable income and so you fall in to the category of people who wouldn't pay for music anyway. Admittedly, I think you possibly do have the money to pay for the £5/month account if you choose to, but benefit of the doubt I'll agree you don't. It kinda sucks for you but yeah illegally downloading and birthday presents are your way to go. There's no way you could have paid anyway :)
Yes I would pay for music if I could. But I can't.
Likewise, I love technology. However I built an AMD system.
I would love to live in a big house. But I live in a simple one.
We can't pay for everything we want and love, no matter how much we love it, if we physically can't. Being poor somehow should stop you from listening to music? WHAT THE F MAN. Why should how much money I have give/take away the right to perceive specific FUCKING sounds?
@1337RussianCoDPlay3r It shouldn't. As I said in the video, you shouldn't be prevented from listening to music based on your income, that's obviously ridiculous. But with Spotify, you're not paying for the music, you're paying for the streaming service.
Reverse this though. Recording music is expensive, even a basic home recording set up you're running in to the hundreds. Does this mean that recording music should only be available to those who can afford to sink money in to it? Is that fair?
@1337RussianCoDPlay3r Hi, welcome to a capitalist society. You're obviously new here. The system we run is that currency is exchanged for goods and services. If you have no currency, then sometimes the government will provide basic goods and services for you free of charge, or give you a little money. However, we also have radio if you're absolutely desperate to perceive specific FUCKING sounds, though most stations don't broadcast that sort of thing until after midnight.
Fortunately, I have seen many people commenting on the actual page informing us about the changes, most of them talking about how they will be going off to the pirate bay and such, never using Spotify again.. I hope those comments act like a kick in the teeth and poke in the eye for Spotify.
Its not actually £10 it more like £4.99 if you don't want the bull offline mode,access on you mobile and higher quality but it is a shame there doing this as it was my go to to find new music =[
"You know, its ironic that just at the point the lawyers and the businessmen had calculated how to control music, the internet comes along and fucks everything up. God bless the internet."
Talk of suffering artists is ridiculous, when you consider music for what it actually is, an art form, not a commodity. Especially when the cost of distributing music digitally is almost zero. A real artist would just be happy that people listening to and are getting something out of their music, rather than wondering if people are coughing up money for it. Their payment is their craft. Talk of only "real" music lovers spending money on music is bullshit aswell. Free art. Wave the pirate flag!
@VilliersTerrace You are touching on an issue that I want to make a future video about and I'll say that for now you are grossly oversimplifying the situation because for one, the costs are not almost zero, not by a long shot. I will concede that whether music is worth paying for or not is a bit of a grey area though. I could write a whole essay on this, but the comments aren't the place for it. I'll make one of the next videos, if not the next video about this.
This was really interesting, Jonny. And the first that I had heard about the changes!
I use Spotify for all my background music when I'm doing things on my computer, repeatedly listening to my favourites. Think I may need to pay the £10 a month, although as you said, I may shop around now.
It seems the internet has had this effect on a lot of things. We expect nearly everything available online to be free. I think part of this stems from the knowledge of just how easy it is to copy a digital file. It becomes difficult to give value to something that can be replicated and distributed so easily. We lose sight of the real effort and costs that went into creating that song/video/web service in the first place.
I find too many people claim to be so called 'music lovers'. I'd say because I write music myself I appreciate it that little bit more. I personally I think music is affordable. I buy all of my music. Spotify is a good way to listen to preview music, but not for listening to. If I can't afford to buy a CD I wait till a can or I download it then buy the CD when I can. I would like to think music is worth buying. Most artists work hard on it. Yet it tends to be valued little.
i agree with you son some level, but some record labels, like Team Love have several albums up for free, because they believe music is something everyone should have, and if these tracks are available for free elsewhere, then why pay for spotify, even if it takes a little bit more time and effort, you save money where you can.
And, re more videos.. I'm fine with any video from you, ive missed them :/
I think one of the reasons I like Spotify is that it has a collection of old music that is not available on CD. I've recently gotten into The Smiths thanks to Spotify, something that would not have been possible since their albums are not sold anymore. Sure, there are pre-owned copies on E-Bay, but why should I buy them when I didn't know that I would like it? Also, none of that money would have been sent to the artist, or at least the music industry - but Spotify sends a small share.
@SuperPombear But that's just not true! Walk in to any HMV and you'll probably find a good chunk of The Smiths' back catalogue there. Also, you can find almost anything available new from online stores. Sure you;ll have trouble getting things like Loveless by My Bloody Valentine on wax, but that's because it went out of press and the record label doesn't exist any more.
Despite that, you can still preview artists with Spotify regardless of these changes. I don't know what the problem is?
@jonnydarkmusic Why should I got into a shop and buy an album if I don't know if I'd like it or not? I was talking about discovering music, not buying music.
Besides, what would you rather do - spend potentially a lot of time searching for an artist's album that you know little about or typing in 'The Smiths' in Spotify and searching? I care little for having a physical copy of an album, as all the music I listen to is on my pc or an ipod, so mp3 files are much more convenient than a CD
@SuperPombear But Spotify free still allows you to do that, you're just limited. Also you have youtube videos of their songs, myspace pages, streaming on their own websites/free downloads, friend recommendations, blogs. Then there's old media too (radio, magazines). These are more than enough ways for you to listen and decide whether you want to buy their music or not.
But you said it yourself, Spotify is convenient, but you don't value it enough to want to pay for that convenience. Simple.
@jonnydarkmusic ...but indie artists will suffer the most from this. I know a few artists that can't afford to sell physical copies of their albums, or can't afford to sell them abroad or w/e, so they put it on Spotify. Apparently 2/3 of all Spotify's users are free or open users - that's a hefty chunk of publicity that poor little indie's are losing, providing that they all leave because of this limit (and judging by the comments on Spotify's blog, that is likely). As for iTunes instead... ihdk
Well done for broaching such a controversial topic. I totally agree that the key here for most people is that they're so used to free music that to them it has no financial value. I think attitudes need to change and for that to happen companies like Spotify need to change. Hopefully this will be the catalyst for that change.
I think i have a pretty good system for getting my music...
For music that is new, i listen to it on youtube - i don't know weather i like it so i want to be sure, if i get really into it quickly i sometimes use a youtube converter to get it onto itunes -> to get it onto my ipod,
but quality sucks plus its only 1 song,
Then later if i get more into the band i buy a CD - i love having CDs.
I never buy on ITUNES - 1. i like to own the case 2. I end up re-buying songs with the CD.
I'll only buy vinyl not such a big fan of CDs as when I move those onto my PC the quality gets punched in the face basically so I buy Vinyl and transfer it onto my PC as a .wav file. I don't see a problem with pirated music as the quality is so bad. And I'm not going to pay for a remastered version of something I own 4 times on vinyl. and if I do pirate something I usually end up buying it anyway for the better quality.
@sgtelzilcho But I'm not complaining about piracy, I'm making a point about how many people who consume music don't think that music is worth paying for and have a strange sense of self entitlement.
Dude, I torrent recordings of albums if I bought the vinyl and it didn't come with a download code, I have no moral qualms against that at all.
oh I didn't mean it like that I was just making a point, it kind of came out wrong. What I meant to say is that people who just pirate and don't buy don't appreciate the music, but I think it is perfectly fine to get a digital copy for convenience as long as you own it already. It really is a shame about spotify though I think the ads made it OK.
@sgtelzilcho Nah, I agree with you entirely. I think all of us wanted Spotify to work but it was just bleeding money and making huge losses. It was a crappy deal for artists too, I think I've made something like 10p in just over half a year, not that that bothers me but the major record labels were Spotify's biggest investors. They were likely getting impatient for Spotify to start turning profit so the change has been made now. It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here.
Have you heard of soundcloud I'm sure artists could upload their music to there and not enable downloads then just puts links up to where you can buy the album, could work but it might be a bit of a faff
@sgtelzilcho Oh dude, I'm all about soundcloud and bandcamp :D They're far better systems than spotify for both musicians and fans. The problem is though that most people don't know about those services and they don't have the same sort of library that spotify has. I'd love bandcamp to become the de facto way music is listened to online though.
However(form my last comment),I don't agree with the new spotify changes. Although i don't use it so much myself, i think i was a good way for people t listen to albums before they paid for them, especially for the people who don't have so much money to spend on music and can only afford to buy something they really value.Of course there are many other ways to look at it but i personally want to support the bands I like as much as possible especially as I listen to a lot of small,local bands
I don't really use it anyway, the ads annoy me too much.
As an artist Spotify concerns me... If you think of the 1000 fans rule (/guideline!) I think it works pretty well assuming CDs/itunes/bandcamp are the standard distribution models... If Spotify takes over (or something similar) I think you'd be looking at a much bigger number of fans needed to get by.
I've never put my music on there though, so I'm not sure about this, just what I've read. Is your stuff on there?
@MusicFromBlueSkies Yeah my stuff is on there, it was mostly an image thing. If you're on spotify it looks professional and it was just a nice easy way to recommend people to it.
There's a school of thought that cloud players will become like radio stations and that there will multiple services like Spotify that are specialized. Now that the streaming services are rolling back on the free stuff, it leaves room for price competition and niche marketing. Here is where things get interesting.
@jonnydarkmusic Specialised radio stations... That's last.fm!
It'll be interesting to see if this move does lead towards higher royalties, though somehow I doubt it.
I know Spotify could be useful in other ways, I just don't like the idea of supporting something which I think is bad for music. Though I'm well aware they don't give a shit about me and my decision makes no difference at all! They only need the majors to bring people in, and they all own shares! Fuck it, I'm becoming a bin man.
@MusicFromBlueSkies In the words of Martin Atkins "Welcome to the music industry! You're fucked! You're fucked, you're fucked you're fucked! Nobody cares about you or your band!"
Well said: if you don't want to pay for the music you can't value it that much. I buy music instead of downloading it illegally for two reasons:
1) because i believe that you only really like a band properly if your willing to pay for their music (otherwise you just have random tracks lying around for no reason)
2)I enjoy the feeling that you gave something to the band in return for their music buy paying for it.
@electroboy24 I think listening to music and owning music are two different things.
Does an artist charge you for looking at a painting? No, but do they charge you for owning it? Yes.
It's the same for music, in my opinion. Why should I pay for listening to music when I don't own it, I am just browsing it or I am trying to discover a new artists that I may not even like?
Why should I pay £10/month for a music browser? That's what Spotify is, and it is not worth £2/month, nvm £10!
@SuperPombear If you don't like the artist that you've found then surely you won't listen to them 5 times? Spotify is still free to use, you're just limited. I use Spotify to browse artists and see if I like them and five times should be enough playthroughs for me to decide whether I like them or not.
As for the painting analogy it falls down because you need to have an exhibition hall so people can view it and that has to be paid for and art gallery's do charge for some exhibitions.
@SuperPombear I totally agree.I think my first comment didn't show this,if you read my second comment it's about how spotify is a great way for people to discover music and see if they like it before paying.That's why the free account was good; people got a chance to listen to all the music they wanted,which is good because people get to more artists..However,the amount that artists get per play is terrible,Jonny Dark got about
10p after 6months on spotify,but it may increase his album sales
@electroboy24 It may increase his album sales yes, but one thing it will certainly increase is the amount of people that go to his live shows. Concerts cannot be pirated, unlike albums or songs, and people have to pay to get in, and the artist gets alot of money that way to - not to mention I am sure it is something they enjoy.
Isn't that the most important thing? That everyone, whether it is the person playing it or the guy that is illegally listening to it, can enjoy music?
@SuperPombear As for the live music thing, that's also a little bit of a misconception, that's material for another video though.
I know what you're getting at though. Even if all the labels went bankrupt today and the music industry as we know it died, kids would still pick up guitars tomorrow. At the same time, no such thing as a free lunch. The internet kinda fucked old business models and now people are struggling to find new ones that'll work. It's genuinely fascinating :D
I download, I listen, I like, I buy, I listen, I love, I support them for the rest of their career... If anything streaming encourages me to buy artists' records.
To be honest I typed in "My old man's a mushroom" wanting to know if Blackadder would come up (it didn't) and I ended up watching this because I was interested to find out why it came up for this search. Personally, I'm 14 and I don't get pocket money, but I do value music. I don't really get to do much but as soon as I earn a decent pay I will buy albums and songs. I agree with you about music being for everyone but I do see why Spotify has taken this action.
HorsemadxEmma 3 days ago
Some pretty interesting comments on this video. Personally, I don't use spotify, so I couldn't give a shit about its free accounts. Some people (typically financially dependent teens or whatever) can and should pirate music instead of paying for it. I know I did back in the day. Now that I'm working, though, I can afford to buy the albums, so I do. I think of it as supporting the artist from whom I'd like to hear more music. Nothing, no matter what they say, substitutes an album sale.
OrgasmandTea 8 months ago
I only just saw this video because of new crap youtube, so I'm chipping in because it's something that annoys me as well. I've sworn by Spotify for a good 2 years, not only for it's free-ness, but the more MySpace and the like went downhill, the more Spotify enabled me to find music I hadn't already discovered. It consequently annoys me that I'll be giving that up but I now intend to use Spotify rarely to not at all. I'd rather buy an album a month than pay to not even own the music...ah well.
crackedhandsmusic 10 months ago
@crackedhandsmusic Exactly the same for me. But that's the thing, you and I are in the music buying demographic for whom music means something and isn't just function. It's something more than just something to have on in the background when cooking dinner or to just to dance to (not saying those things aren't bad, but there are levels of appreciation). For most people music is functional and they don't really want to own a CD or a record. However, I <3 my record collection.
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
Dude. Slightly harch don't you think? I mean I agree with some of the points but some people genuinely can't afford it. Relax.
emilythestrange971 10 months ago
do you know prof brian cox
ismcb4sc 10 months ago
People who use Spotify don't value music? Riiight. So just because I can't afford to pay for music it means I don't value it. I'm not arguing with you because you have some valid points but I honestly think Spotify is awesome and it's not that I wouldn't be 'willing' to pay for it, it's that I literally can't. What ever the music industries do, it's unfair to someone.
GypsieWings 10 months ago
@GypsieWings Unless you don't buy any luxury goods (alcohol, takeaway, club tickets, cinema tickets, an ipod, jewellery, designer label clothing etc) I don't believe you when you say you can't afford it. If you can pay for such things, then you do have the money to buy music, be that a spotify subscription or a CD, and you choose not to because you value those other things more. If you can't afford such luxury goods then pirate away, but don't expect Spotify to go out on a limb to cater for you
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
@jonnydarkmusic To be honest,you probably come from a well off family but I don't and being 'poor' means I'd rather pay my rent than buy music. This doesn't mean I don't value music it just means I don't have the money to spare. Of course I value music but when it's a choice between having a home and buying music then I'd rather live. Spotify should appeal to everyone. It's main audience are teenagers who usually can't afford the subscription. I just don't think you're seeing this from all sides
GypsieWings 9 months ago
@GypsieWings Right, in which case, those people should pirate their music, you included. If they can't pay for it, there's no point depriving them. This is something which I really failed to address. I think the official 'legal' distributions of music should spend more time catering to those who can and want to pay for music and making it awesome for them rather than trying to cater to those who can't/won't. I thought it was obvious with spotify you were paying for the service, not the music.
jonnydarkmusic 9 months ago
MASSIVE AGREE. People who don't pay for music should try making and selling their own music sometime :(
daisylmao 10 months ago
I'm 14. I don't get pocket money and the money I occasionally get for holidays/birthdays I save to buy my family presents, or for something really important in the future (education etc.) My family simply don't have the amount of money it would cost to fuel my music addiction. For all these reason I listen to Spotify. Now, I will go to illegal downloads, not because I partially want to but there is no other way I can think of.
SweetAsAStrawberry 10 months ago 2
@SweetAsAStrawberry To be fair this wasn't directed at you. You're economically inactive, you have no real disposable income and so you fall in to the category of people who wouldn't pay for music anyway. Admittedly, I think you possibly do have the money to pay for the £5/month account if you choose to, but benefit of the doubt I'll agree you don't. It kinda sucks for you but yeah illegally downloading and birthday presents are your way to go. There's no way you could have paid anyway :)
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
Yes I would pay for music if I could. But I can't.
Likewise, I love technology. However I built an AMD system.
I would love to live in a big house. But I live in a simple one.
We can't pay for everything we want and love, no matter how much we love it, if we physically can't. Being poor somehow should stop you from listening to music? WHAT THE F MAN. Why should how much money I have give/take away the right to perceive specific FUCKING sounds?
1337RussianCoDPlay3r 10 months ago
@1337RussianCoDPlay3r It shouldn't. As I said in the video, you shouldn't be prevented from listening to music based on your income, that's obviously ridiculous. But with Spotify, you're not paying for the music, you're paying for the streaming service.
Reverse this though. Recording music is expensive, even a basic home recording set up you're running in to the hundreds. Does this mean that recording music should only be available to those who can afford to sink money in to it? Is that fair?
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
@jonnydarkmusic
Well I believe that the artist should be paid for the work they do. I should probably just stfu and start using Youtube VEVO. :/
1337RussianCoDPlay3r 10 months ago
@1337RussianCoDPlay3r Hi, welcome to a capitalist society. You're obviously new here. The system we run is that currency is exchanged for goods and services. If you have no currency, then sometimes the government will provide basic goods and services for you free of charge, or give you a little money. However, we also have radio if you're absolutely desperate to perceive specific FUCKING sounds, though most stations don't broadcast that sort of thing until after midnight.
delamrio 10 months ago
@delamrio
But the artists were getting money from Spotify.... So technically currency was being exchanged.
1337RussianCoDPlay3r 10 months ago
Fortunately, I have seen many people commenting on the actual page informing us about the changes, most of them talking about how they will be going off to the pirate bay and such, never using Spotify again.. I hope those comments act like a kick in the teeth and poke in the eye for Spotify.
1337RussianCoDPlay3r 10 months ago
I'll just keep buying records.
casioclark 10 months ago
@casioclark To be honest, so will I. You're a bit of a vinyl fan aren't you?
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
@jonnydarkmusic yeah, I've got quite the collection. I'd buy your stuff if you pressed to vinyl in a second.
casioclark 10 months ago
@casioclark Us folks at Superstar Destroyer Records are fans of vinyl. It'll happen one day :)
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
Its not actually £10 it more like £4.99 if you don't want the bull offline mode,access on you mobile and higher quality but it is a shame there doing this as it was my go to to find new music =[
Strangeguy3001 10 months ago
I mostly never go out. The majority of my money goes towards books and music. I always purchase albums in pairs even though my pocket book protests.
battykari 10 months ago
"You know, its ironic that just at the point the lawyers and the businessmen had calculated how to control music, the internet comes along and fucks everything up. God bless the internet."
-Bjork
VilliersTerrace 10 months ago 2
Talk of suffering artists is ridiculous, when you consider music for what it actually is, an art form, not a commodity. Especially when the cost of distributing music digitally is almost zero. A real artist would just be happy that people listening to and are getting something out of their music, rather than wondering if people are coughing up money for it. Their payment is their craft. Talk of only "real" music lovers spending money on music is bullshit aswell. Free art. Wave the pirate flag!
VilliersTerrace 10 months ago
@VilliersTerrace You are touching on an issue that I want to make a future video about and I'll say that for now you are grossly oversimplifying the situation because for one, the costs are not almost zero, not by a long shot. I will concede that whether music is worth paying for or not is a bit of a grey area though. I could write a whole essay on this, but the comments aren't the place for it. I'll make one of the next videos, if not the next video about this.
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
This was really interesting, Jonny. And the first that I had heard about the changes!
I use Spotify for all my background music when I'm doing things on my computer, repeatedly listening to my favourites. Think I may need to pay the £10 a month, although as you said, I may shop around now.
Thisisace 10 months ago
It seems the internet has had this effect on a lot of things. We expect nearly everything available online to be free. I think part of this stems from the knowledge of just how easy it is to copy a digital file. It becomes difficult to give value to something that can be replicated and distributed so easily. We lose sight of the real effort and costs that went into creating that song/video/web service in the first place.
inexplicablyNic 10 months ago
I find too many people claim to be so called 'music lovers'. I'd say because I write music myself I appreciate it that little bit more. I personally I think music is affordable. I buy all of my music. Spotify is a good way to listen to preview music, but not for listening to. If I can't afford to buy a CD I wait till a can or I download it then buy the CD when I can. I would like to think music is worth buying. Most artists work hard on it. Yet it tends to be valued little.
Interesting video.
IAmChuckSama 10 months ago
i agree with you son some level, but some record labels, like Team Love have several albums up for free, because they believe music is something everyone should have, and if these tracks are available for free elsewhere, then why pay for spotify, even if it takes a little bit more time and effort, you save money where you can.
And, re more videos.. I'm fine with any video from you, ive missed them :/
monkeyaround92 10 months ago
@monkeyaround92 Of course :) Free music kicks ass, I just don't like people thinking they're entitled to free music.
And thank you that's flattering. I'll try to be better about putting videos up
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
I think one of the reasons I like Spotify is that it has a collection of old music that is not available on CD. I've recently gotten into The Smiths thanks to Spotify, something that would not have been possible since their albums are not sold anymore. Sure, there are pre-owned copies on E-Bay, but why should I buy them when I didn't know that I would like it? Also, none of that money would have been sent to the artist, or at least the music industry - but Spotify sends a small share.
SuperPombear 10 months ago
@SuperPombear But that's just not true! Walk in to any HMV and you'll probably find a good chunk of The Smiths' back catalogue there. Also, you can find almost anything available new from online stores. Sure you;ll have trouble getting things like Loveless by My Bloody Valentine on wax, but that's because it went out of press and the record label doesn't exist any more.
Despite that, you can still preview artists with Spotify regardless of these changes. I don't know what the problem is?
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
@jonnydarkmusic Why should I got into a shop and buy an album if I don't know if I'd like it or not? I was talking about discovering music, not buying music.
Besides, what would you rather do - spend potentially a lot of time searching for an artist's album that you know little about or typing in 'The Smiths' in Spotify and searching? I care little for having a physical copy of an album, as all the music I listen to is on my pc or an ipod, so mp3 files are much more convenient than a CD
SuperPombear 10 months ago
@SuperPombear But Spotify free still allows you to do that, you're just limited. Also you have youtube videos of their songs, myspace pages, streaming on their own websites/free downloads, friend recommendations, blogs. Then there's old media too (radio, magazines). These are more than enough ways for you to listen and decide whether you want to buy their music or not.
But you said it yourself, Spotify is convenient, but you don't value it enough to want to pay for that convenience. Simple.
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
@jonnydarkmusic ...but indie artists will suffer the most from this. I know a few artists that can't afford to sell physical copies of their albums, or can't afford to sell them abroad or w/e, so they put it on Spotify. Apparently 2/3 of all Spotify's users are free or open users - that's a hefty chunk of publicity that poor little indie's are losing, providing that they all leave because of this limit (and judging by the comments on Spotify's blog, that is likely). As for iTunes instead... ihdk
SuperPombear 10 months ago
Comment removed
SuperPombear 10 months ago
I think I used the word change a little too much there. That'll teach me to write comments whilst trying to have a conversation at the same time :/
DFineNormal 10 months ago
Well done for broaching such a controversial topic. I totally agree that the key here for most people is that they're so used to free music that to them it has no financial value. I think attitudes need to change and for that to happen companies like Spotify need to change. Hopefully this will be the catalyst for that change.
DFineNormal 10 months ago
I think i have a pretty good system for getting my music...
For music that is new, i listen to it on youtube - i don't know weather i like it so i want to be sure, if i get really into it quickly i sometimes use a youtube converter to get it onto itunes -> to get it onto my ipod,
but quality sucks plus its only 1 song,
Then later if i get more into the band i buy a CD - i love having CDs.
I never buy on ITUNES - 1. i like to own the case 2. I end up re-buying songs with the CD.
corpsemunger 10 months ago
I'll only buy vinyl not such a big fan of CDs as when I move those onto my PC the quality gets punched in the face basically so I buy Vinyl and transfer it onto my PC as a .wav file. I don't see a problem with pirated music as the quality is so bad. And I'm not going to pay for a remastered version of something I own 4 times on vinyl. and if I do pirate something I usually end up buying it anyway for the better quality.
sgtelzilcho 10 months ago
@sgtelzilcho But I'm not complaining about piracy, I'm making a point about how many people who consume music don't think that music is worth paying for and have a strange sense of self entitlement.
Dude, I torrent recordings of albums if I bought the vinyl and it didn't come with a download code, I have no moral qualms against that at all.
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
@jonnydarkmusic
oh I didn't mean it like that I was just making a point, it kind of came out wrong. What I meant to say is that people who just pirate and don't buy don't appreciate the music, but I think it is perfectly fine to get a digital copy for convenience as long as you own it already. It really is a shame about spotify though I think the ads made it OK.
sgtelzilcho 10 months ago
@sgtelzilcho Nah, I agree with you entirely. I think all of us wanted Spotify to work but it was just bleeding money and making huge losses. It was a crappy deal for artists too, I think I've made something like 10p in just over half a year, not that that bothers me but the major record labels were Spotify's biggest investors. They were likely getting impatient for Spotify to start turning profit so the change has been made now. It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here.
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
@jonnydarkmusic
Have you heard of soundcloud I'm sure artists could upload their music to there and not enable downloads then just puts links up to where you can buy the album, could work but it might be a bit of a faff
sgtelzilcho 10 months ago
@sgtelzilcho Oh dude, I'm all about soundcloud and bandcamp :D They're far better systems than spotify for both musicians and fans. The problem is though that most people don't know about those services and they don't have the same sort of library that spotify has. I'd love bandcamp to become the de facto way music is listened to online though.
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
However(form my last comment),I don't agree with the new spotify changes. Although i don't use it so much myself, i think i was a good way for people t listen to albums before they paid for them, especially for the people who don't have so much money to spend on music and can only afford to buy something they really value.Of course there are many other ways to look at it but i personally want to support the bands I like as much as possible especially as I listen to a lot of small,local bands
electroboy24 10 months ago
I don't really use it anyway, the ads annoy me too much.
As an artist Spotify concerns me... If you think of the 1000 fans rule (/guideline!) I think it works pretty well assuming CDs/itunes/bandcamp are the standard distribution models... If Spotify takes over (or something similar) I think you'd be looking at a much bigger number of fans needed to get by.
I've never put my music on there though, so I'm not sure about this, just what I've read. Is your stuff on there?
MusicFromBlueSkies 10 months ago
@MusicFromBlueSkies Yeah my stuff is on there, it was mostly an image thing. If you're on spotify it looks professional and it was just a nice easy way to recommend people to it.
There's a school of thought that cloud players will become like radio stations and that there will multiple services like Spotify that are specialized. Now that the streaming services are rolling back on the free stuff, it leaves room for price competition and niche marketing. Here is where things get interesting.
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
@jonnydarkmusic Specialised radio stations... That's last.fm!
It'll be interesting to see if this move does lead towards higher royalties, though somehow I doubt it.
I know Spotify could be useful in other ways, I just don't like the idea of supporting something which I think is bad for music. Though I'm well aware they don't give a shit about me and my decision makes no difference at all! They only need the majors to bring people in, and they all own shares! Fuck it, I'm becoming a bin man.
MusicFromBlueSkies 10 months ago
@MusicFromBlueSkies In the words of Martin Atkins "Welcome to the music industry! You're fucked! You're fucked, you're fucked you're fucked! Nobody cares about you or your band!"
Words to live by!
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
@jonnydarkmusic haha, true enough.
MusicFromBlueSkies 10 months ago
Well said: if you don't want to pay for the music you can't value it that much. I buy music instead of downloading it illegally for two reasons:
1) because i believe that you only really like a band properly if your willing to pay for their music (otherwise you just have random tracks lying around for no reason)
2)I enjoy the feeling that you gave something to the band in return for their music buy paying for it.
electroboy24 10 months ago
@electroboy24 I think listening to music and owning music are two different things.
Does an artist charge you for looking at a painting? No, but do they charge you for owning it? Yes.
It's the same for music, in my opinion. Why should I pay for listening to music when I don't own it, I am just browsing it or I am trying to discover a new artists that I may not even like?
Why should I pay £10/month for a music browser? That's what Spotify is, and it is not worth £2/month, nvm £10!
SuperPombear 10 months ago
@SuperPombear If you don't like the artist that you've found then surely you won't listen to them 5 times? Spotify is still free to use, you're just limited. I use Spotify to browse artists and see if I like them and five times should be enough playthroughs for me to decide whether I like them or not.
As for the painting analogy it falls down because you need to have an exhibition hall so people can view it and that has to be paid for and art gallery's do charge for some exhibitions.
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
Comment removed
SuperPombear 10 months ago
@SuperPombear I totally agree.I think my first comment didn't show this,if you read my second comment it's about how spotify is a great way for people to discover music and see if they like it before paying.That's why the free account was good; people got a chance to listen to all the music they wanted,which is good because people get to more artists..However,the amount that artists get per play is terrible,Jonny Dark got about
10p after 6months on spotify,but it may increase his album sales
electroboy24 10 months ago
@electroboy24 It may increase his album sales yes, but one thing it will certainly increase is the amount of people that go to his live shows. Concerts cannot be pirated, unlike albums or songs, and people have to pay to get in, and the artist gets alot of money that way to - not to mention I am sure it is something they enjoy.
Isn't that the most important thing? That everyone, whether it is the person playing it or the guy that is illegally listening to it, can enjoy music?
SuperPombear 10 months ago
@SuperPombear As for the live music thing, that's also a little bit of a misconception, that's material for another video though.
I know what you're getting at though. Even if all the labels went bankrupt today and the music industry as we know it died, kids would still pick up guitars tomorrow. At the same time, no such thing as a free lunch. The internet kinda fucked old business models and now people are struggling to find new ones that'll work. It's genuinely fascinating :D
jonnydarkmusic 10 months ago
I download, I listen, I like, I buy, I listen, I love, I support them for the rest of their career... If anything streaming encourages me to buy artists' records.
sherbetheadmusic 10 months ago