Sign in / up

back to article CURSE YOU, 'streaming' music services! I want a bloody CD

Oh bloody hell, grandma, what have you done this time? “I thought that was obvious. It’s your birthday. I bought you a CD.” A CD? That’s so uncool. So unhip. Are you, like, square? “I remembered you used to like music when you were a student. Have you gone off it?” You no’ down wit’ da word, daddio. Grannio. CD is old. Is …

COMMENTS

Post your comment
House rules Send corrections
Add to 'My topics' unstar *

Page:

  1. petur

    Oh so true...

    My solution is two-fold:

    1) I have my own streaming server on my NAS, so if the environment is right, I can stream any of my music. Works fine at home, on holiday (if there's free wifi),...

    2) I can take a subset of that music onto a portable device, and play locally. Works fine on the go or on holiday (no free wifi)

    The portable device syncs with the NAS so if I add a new album of an artist I tend to listen to a lot, it will find its way on the portable device by magic :)

    Of course, I am the type of user who tends to listen to a set of artists a lot, and if I want to listen to anything else I turn on the radio.

    If there's something new, interesting, I can shortly listen online or even download the torrent, and when I think I'll listen to it more, I go out and buy it.

    I don't like monthly subscriptions for the same reason I don't like renting a house: at the end of the road (pun not intended), you pay the same (or even more) and end up with nothing. A CD, I can pass on to my kids, or sell.

    Of course, if you listen to different music every day, or move location every few years, things are different.

    16 3 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh so true...

      Great until you find out your NAS gets exploited unless you also go via a VPN and let's face it port forwarding is usually more than many normal folks can manage.

      The convenience of iTunes Match is pretty amazing - yes you can cobble together something similar but playlists update across devices, new music appears on all devices etc. - and probably for less cost than leaving your NAS running 24x7 (assuming you were leaving it on mostly for that).

      Buying a CD is on average more expensive - firstly you end up buying all the tracks when you may only want some of them. Previously I've bought lots of albums for just 1-2 tracks and despite listening to the other tracks to see if they 'grow' on me I would not have paid for them. As for resale - a lot of CDs are literally worth pennies second hand and of course you are assuming your kids would want your choice of music (do you like your parents?) or they do not end up with them anyway via a subscription service anyway.

      4 23 Reply
      1. petur
        Reply Icon

        Re: Oh so true...

        I'm sure you're not being exploited when using iTunes (it's on another level and it's in the T.O.S. so it's good). Yes portforwarding requires a tiny bit of IT knowledge which I hope you have, visiting this site ;)

        I also run my server https-only with blanket .htaccess, and all portal services (like the streaming) that might be vulnerable to the bash bug and future mishaps are on unique paths that a brute-force scanner won't see. As Bruce Schneier recently said, being 100% safe from hacking is an illusion, so this is my best effort. And I have offline backups.

        Contrary, however, good luck if your iTunes account gets hacked and wiped, as some journalist discovered a while ago - it wipes across devices so bye bye local copies.

        I also don't care about playlists because either I listen to albums, or it's just a track of some one-hit-wonder, which gets dropped in my 'various' folder and gets random treatment. Or selected on genre.

        Oh, and since I listen to albums, I like to have all tracks so CD makes sense for me. I can still buy individual tracks from google play and download the mp3 (those one-hit-wonders aren't worth the FLAC)

        10 2 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Oh so true...

          My point about port forwarding was that it is beyond many normal users - yes would expect many reading this to understand and be able to set it up - but there is other life out there...

          Try asking your average Joe about blanket .htaccess - good luck there. Regardless NOT having your device Internet accessible is even more secure?

          As for iTunes accounts getting hacked / wiped - are you certain if someone wiped your iTunes Match via one device it would DELETE a local copy of the file on your hard drive. I'm not sure but I doubt it and of course as you keep backups - so do I. So recovery would be just the same - i.e. you let iTunes re-match them?

          I like personally like playlists but I have that option of using them or just playing the album as you do - so I have more options.

          1 3 Reply
        2. Terry 6 Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: Oh so true...

          "Yes portforwarding requires a tiny bit of IT knowledge which I hope you have, visiting this site"

          But so many commentards forget that we're a small subset of the user group. So any item which is about generally applicable tech is not something that we can view from just our own standpoint. If you can do it and I can do it it's still not going to work unless thay can do it.

          2 1 Reply
          1. JEDIDIAH
            Reply Icon
            Mushroom

            Re: Oh so true...

            Still. Port forwarding is little more than "just another GUI option" on most home routers.

            Implementing it is pretty trivial.

            It just goes to show that shiny happy user interfaces didn't weren't the salvation of the tech-impaired as we often get told they are supposed to be.

            0 0 Reply
      2. Triggerfish
        Reply Icon

        Re: Oh so true...

        Yes but with a CD or DRM free downloads I own my music.

        25 1 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Holmes

          Re: Oh so true...

          @Triggerfish - "Yes but with a CD or DRM free downloads I own my music."

          Why the hell would you want to own your own music when you can rent it from Cupertino and beg the Apple security department for access to it on 5 devices of Apple's choosing??

          Get with the program kid. "Owning" stuff is soooo 1800's.

          19 5 Reply
          1. Triggerfish
            Reply Icon

            Re: Oh so true...

            You're right and lets not forget if I install itunes on windows I'll never complain about any other program being shit and buggy in comparison.

            12 0 Reply
        2. P. Lee
          Reply Icon

          Re: Oh so true...

          >Yes but with a CD or DRM free downloads I own my music.

          Oh no you don't. Trying playing it in a public place and see what happens!

          --

          But, yes, CD's provide better control and prevent pay-per-listen so that's good.

          0 7 Reply
          1. TheOtherHobbes
            Reply Icon

            Re: Oh so true...

            Do you know why record labels are pushing vinyl so hard?

            Because vinyl is a precious object that can't be copied.

            No, really. To hardcore punters, vinyl rips just don't have that Special Vinyl Magic[tm]. So the majors are desperately trying to sign bands from vinyl-friendly genres like doom metal so they can sell music on bits of plastic and pretend it's 1965 again.

            Streaming? Spotify has burned through >$1bn, and still no IPO. And Demonoid is back.

            See that writing on the wall? That's the future, that is.

            3 1 Reply
        3. The Vociferous Time Waster
          Reply Icon

          Re: Oh so true...

          Newsflash: no you don't. You own the media and have a license to listen to the music

          0 7 Reply
          1. JEDIDIAH
            Reply Icon
            Mushroom

            Re: Oh so true...

            > Newsflash: no you don't. You own the media and have a license to listen to the music

            Trying to repeat the big lie doesn't make it any more true.

            0 0 Reply
        4. dave 93
          Reply Icon

          I hate CD cases

          Totally agree that it is better to have something physical to own, even though we are definitely heading to an always on, access to everything everywhere, world, but what were they thinking of with the stupid 'jewel case'. Just sayin'

          1 0 Reply
      3. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Oh so true...

        "The convenience of iTunes Match is pretty amazing - yes you can cobble together something similar but playlists update across devices, new music appears on all devices etc. "

        If that were true I'd consider it good advice, but it doesn't work on all devices - only Apple ones. Whereas if I go for either ripping my own or a streaming service such as Spotify then it really does work across all of my devices, including my Mac.

        6 0 Reply
    2. Kev99 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Oh so true...

      What Petur said. And my NAS has been up & running for a couple years and has never been bothered, something the streaming services can't claim.

      1 0 Reply
    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      I still can't stop laughing

      Every time I come across someone who invests a lot of money in a music system and then plays mg3's on it. Like hauling garbage in a Rolls Royce.

      10 0 Reply
    4. breakfast Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Oh so true...

      This solution is quite genre specific- the average NAS believes hip hop is dead and refuses to store it.

      0 0 Reply
    5. tomp83
      Reply Icon

      Re: Oh so true...

      I've wanted to set up my own streaming server for a while now. Could you share what streaming solution you're using?

      Cheers

      0 0 Reply
    6. N13L5
      Reply Icon

      streaming music sounds like crap

      Unless you have really crappy ears, you can hear all the compression artifacts, not to mention the hick-ups from imperfect connections. And where's your music if you can't get a connection, or you failed to pay some bill?

      A FLAC file recorded from Vinyl or CD is really the only way to go in an age of cheap storage and easy availability of reasonably priced high quality pro-audio gear. And if you really love your music, you need an EMP proof cabinet for your music storage and playback gear.

      1 0 Reply
  2. Fihart

    Bah, humbug.

    You can keep yer streaming nonsense. I realised long ago (circa the first Walkman in 1980 ?) that I didn't really need music on the go. It was fun for a few minutes but soon I didn't even notice it. And with ambient noise on the street in London or on public transport, impossible without damaging my hearing.

    So, though I have all the necessary gear to rip even vinyl to MP3, I generally listen via CD at home with minimum distractions. As used CDs have recently sold for between 50p and £2, my collection has swelled greatly.

    Supplies are inevitably drying up so I suspect that once the penny drops that CD offers convenience and quality, they may become more sought-after than vinyl.

    14 3 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bah, humbug.

      I've no issue with buying cheap CDs - but I rip them into iTunes where using Match they appear on all my devices and can be streamed or downloaded to any. Sometimes I listen to an album (as distributed) but more often I compile playlists - something you just cannot do the same with CDs.

      Newly released music I buy the tracks I want (after previewing them online) which works out cheaper than buying a whole CD of 50% tracks I didn't want and can get them immediately.

      As for quality - probably CD has the edge over compressed formats but Apple's iTunes Plus encoding does well to my ears in a head to head comparison and with Apple Match they even give you a high quality encoded version which may be better than a lower quality MP3 etc. So yes you may trade a slightly (but probably unnoticeable to most people) lower quality for huge convenience.

      0 2 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "What if royalties from broadcast radio-play was divvied up like this?"

    A business with a radio audible to customers needs a public licence - apparently even if it is only the sole car mechanic's radio in the workshop. If they want to play their own choices from recorded music then the licence for that is more expensive.

    The royalties from that music licence will be split in a way that is totally unconnected to the tracks which are heard. Presumably the proceeds get distributed to artists on the assumption that the most popular ones are getting the most plays.

    Or do they count each licence according to employees/customers social groups and their likely listening preferences?

    5 0 Reply
    1. Diogenes
      Reply Icon

      have an upvote

      being a fan of "real" music (ie with very very few exceptions nothing after 1900 - no not a typo 1900) it makes my skin crawl to think that even a cent of my money would help support Bieber (justin) not the guys & girls who play/sing Bieber (the one who wrote masses 400 years ago)

      16 4 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: have an upvote

        Hear. Hear.

        Has there been any real music - I don't mean noise - produced since then?

        6 8 Reply
        1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov
          Reply Icon

          Re: have an upvote

          Er, yes.

          27 2 Reply
        2. P. Lee
          Reply Icon
          Thumb Up

          Re: have an upvote

          >Has there been any real music - I don't mean noise - produced since then?

          Williams is ok, Rutter's arrangements are rather good, though I find the occasional drum irritating.

          0 0 Reply
        3. cordwainer 1
          Reply Icon

          Now Now....

          Let's not confuse the medium with the message...or in this case, the plural of medium - media - which is what the rest of us are discussing.

          0 0 Reply
      2. keithpeter Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Windows

        Re: have an upvote

        "...being a fan of "real" music (ie with very very few exceptions nothing after 1900 - no not a typo 1900)"

        Fashions in home listening change, as do fashions in performing. I found

        http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/studies/chapters/intro.html

        absolutely fascinating (especially the piano chapter). The database of transcriptions of 78s will keep you going for a month or so.

        PS: should you decide to venture into the 20th Century, try some Peter Warlock songs and pieces. 'Modern' in structure but 'old' in sound world.

        2 0 Reply
      3. Martin
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        Re: have an upvote

        "...being a fan of "real" music (ie with very very few exceptions nothing after 1900 - no not a typo 1900)..."

        Sibelius

        Rachmaninov

        Stravinsky

        Shostakovich

        Prokofiev

        Strauss R

        Neilsen

        Janacek

        Debussy

        Mahler

        Bartok

        Copeland

        Ravel

        Holst

        What a lot of wonderful music you are missing out on - and that's only a selection from the first half of the twentieth century, and completely ignores jazz, rock and pop music.

        18 0 Reply
        1. PJI
          Reply Icon

          Re: have an upvote

          and Tavener, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Orff, Bruch, Faure, Smyth, Glass, Shostakovich, ….

          3 0 Reply
          1. Fihart
            Reply Icon

            Re: have an upvote

            Add the unfairly neglected Spanish composers -- Falla, Albeniz, Rodrigo, Turina, Granados.

            0 0 Reply
        2. Tom 7
          Reply Icon

          Re: have an upvote - there is NO missing out.

          He may be missing out on those you mentioned but to hear those you have to miss out on other stuff: two ears one life and more music than you could listen to on double speed in a cryogenic life preserver.

          You dont even need audio - you can get some insights into a lot of stuff using things like musescore where you even get to mix your own arrangements! Might not be the same as having an orchestra or live album but judging from the noises coming from people ear buds and stupid little balls on tables most dont seem to give a shit about sound verity anyway.

          0 0 Reply
      4. Stoneshop
        Reply Icon

        @Diogenes: Re: have an upvote

        On the whole I agree with you, but using the word "real" for pre-1900 music spoiled your upvote. There's a lot of "unreal"music I can appreciate that 's not X-FactorMTVTop40 junk.

        0 0 Reply
      5. tony2heads
        Reply Icon

        Re: have an upvote

        I would make exceptions for Prokofiev, Shostakovich Rachmaninoff and some Stravinsky

        0 0 Reply
    2. Alistair Dabbs
      Reply Icon

      >> royalties from broadcast radio-play

      I'm not talking about the silly charge that Performing Rights hit offices and garages with. I mean what radio stations pay to play each track. All artists receive the same rate.

      0 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: >> royalties from broadcast radio-play

        " All artists receive the same rate."

        Does a full symphony gets the same rate as a station's signature tune - or does each movement count separately - or is it length related? The Channel 4 TV old signature blast of a few notes was apparently a nice earner for many years.

        0 0 Reply
  4. Tezfair

    CDs for me

    Every single streamed album I ever purchased are inaccessible due to DRM as I have replaced my computer and the email address is from a long-gone-bust ISP. Sure I have windows media backups but they still needed to authenticate to open. I suppose I could crack them, but over the years I have obtained the same music from CD rips or by other means.

    6 1 Reply
    1. Craigness
      Reply Icon

      Re: CDs for me

      Those are downloads, not streaming. Sign up to a streaming service and those albums will be available to you again. Move between services and they will still be available.

      3 1 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: CDs for me

        "Sign up to a streaming service and those albums will be available to you again. "

        But I don't fucking want a streaming service. It's music rental on a "take or pay" basis, and I don't like either the rental, the monthly cost, the patchy catalogue, or the fact that under too many specific circumstances it simply doesn't work.

        I must say I do have free Spotify ad-funded account, but only as a "try before you buy" facility. And then I buy the CD elsewhere.

        3 0 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: CDs for me

          AudioGalaxy anyone?

          0 0 Reply
      2. John Tserkezis
        Reply Icon

        Re: CDs for me

        "Sign up to a streaming service and those albums will be available to you again"

        No they won't. I call it the "Top 40 Syndrome", that is, as long as you only ever look for anything in the Top 40, you'll find it anywhere. Anywhere at all.

        However, if you have a more discerning taste, then you're at the whim of your streaming provider, where you get to listen to a wide range of very specifically licensed product, that might not be what you want.

        Good luck with that.

        5 0 Reply
      3. pogul
        Reply Icon

        Re: CDs for me

        > Those are downloads, not streaming. Sign up to a streaming service and those albums will be available to you again. Move between services and they will still be available.

        I'd be very surprised if they have Doo The Moog, Avanti, RDF, Tofu Love Frogs, Lost T-shirts of Atlantis and many other unsigned or little known bands. Are we only allowed to listen to approved music these days?

        Also, sharing music is still something that is painful in the streaming (or even MP3/FLAC/file storage) world. Playing your music at someone else's house for example, is something that was infinitely easier in the "good old days".

        1 0 Reply
      4. jonfr
        Reply Icon

        Re: CDs for me

        @ Craigness

        Until that streaming service goes the bankrupt path. Should happen soon, when the I.T 2.0 bubble goes burst. I am sure that is going to happen soon. Since that bubble has expanded high and wide over the past few years.

        1 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: CDs for me

      Pretty sure iTunes music is not DRM?

      1 1 Reply
      1. petur
        Reply Icon

        Re: CDs for me

        "Pretty sure iTunes music is not DRM?"

        Depends.. it used to be DRM, and then there came non-DRM at a higher price. Are you saying the 'old' DRM tracks are now also non-DRM without cost. That doesn't sound like Apple to me.

        And because I don't want to sound like an Apple basher, I loath the way Google hides the download links for the tracks you buy.

        0 0 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: CDs for me

          If you use iTunes Match you can re-download as DRM free AFAIK.

          I know people who have had lower quality MP3s - let iTunes 'match' them - then download the higher quality iTunes Plus version.

          Think a lot of people judge (compressed) digital music based on old / downloaded MP3 played on portable players via the headphone jack or through cheap headphones and compare to CDs played on a more expensive hifi setup. Compare iTunes Plus (compressed) or their specifically 'Mastered for iTunes' stuff which is actually re-mastered from higher quality digital originals or from the analogue originals but mastered for digital device playback.

          0 0 Reply
  5. Cipher

    You think you're old...

    ...we discovered FM radio and "progressive rock" in the early 70's, and, with some not so cheap kit, began recording these rather long offerings to tape.

    Pink Floyd, ELP, Moody Blues, Procul Harem...

    We were rather hard on our brothers and sisters still clinging to AM radio or playing 8 tracks, "Commercial" music was the derisive term we tagged that stuff with. Later we denigrated it as "Pop."

    The Times They Be a Changing...

    That said, streaming has no value to me. I listen to my CDs in the house, in the truck or on a portable player if necessary.

    I often hear "Hey Gramps, aren't those CDs heavy to drag around for a man your age."

    Whippersnappers...

    9 0 Reply
    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Holmes

      Re: You think you're old...

      You need a player with a USB stick (insertable such that it doesn't stick out) accepting every (free, non-DRM) music format, not using FAT and no bigger than the palm of the hand.

      2 1 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        Re: You think you're old...

        I am not dragging around a big, heavy USB stick !!!!

        (I keep one of those microSD card credit card thingies in my wallet with selections of music for my car and mp3 player on each of the 8 cards).

        1 0 Reply

Page:

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

Forgotten password ?

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like