Welcome to Incremental Social! Learn more about this project here!
Check out lemmyverse to find more communities to join from here!

ViscloReader ,

I've spent a good part of my life downloading my music and using mp3 playing apps.
On time I downloaded Spotify to add songs to a shared playlist with friends. I figured I might try the app since I have it installed.

This is the worst music playing app in the world. (I was on free tier) How could anyone see this and think "oh yeah I will pay a subscription to this service". Seriously

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

Actually purchasing music is insanely expensive. Paying a flat fee to have access to essentially the entire collection of music humans have ever created, instantly, is unparalleled value. But you do you.

chordsphere1 , (edited )

I just download to actually have the songs. No DRM, No Ads, No song getting removed from streaming service... I have 500+ songs downloaded in opus format and it only takes 2.5Gb with many of them being longer than 5 minutes. I don't know why people keep using these services while they keep saying they hate it because there are so many ads or why they keep paying for DRM (aka. not owning anything)...

efstajas ,

Where do you download them from?

chordsphere1 ,

YouTube Music

Geobloke ,

Not OP but I use bandcamp so I can pay the artist a decent amount rather than what ever Spotify does. Not sure if the new owner has increased the cut they take though

lepinkainen ,

Soulseek is still a thing.

The_Tired_Horizon ,
@The_Tired_Horizon@lemmy.world avatar

Musician here..

...I tell people to download both the mp3 and the wavefiles from Bandcamp. Sometimes Soundcloud has a download option (depends on the artist). I still buy CDs where I can.

Amir ,
@Amir@lemmy.ml avatar

Tidal, Deezer and Quboz all have ways to download the content. The most stupid one being to record the output of the music player, but there's tools that automatically get the full metadata too and ensure the audio is cropped to silence.

To do it in an intended way, Bandcamp and other services let you pay once to have access to the source file on your account "forever".

chordsphere1 ,

For Spotify, there is spotdl which downloads the music from YouTube Music, and then embeds the metadata from Spotify.

Amir ,
@Amir@lemmy.ml avatar

Isn't YTM like 128-192kbps AAC? I'd rather not even bother ripping that lol

chordsphere1 ,

Do you have any recommendations on what would be better to do?

Amir ,
@Amir@lemmy.ml avatar

If you must use Spotify, use ZSpotify with DOWNLOAD_REAL_TIME and hope you don't get banned. Alternatively, use it with a burner account.

I prefer Deezer and pay for Deezer HiFi. Deemix still works to rip FLACs from there.

chordsphere1 ,

Thanks, I certainly don't have to use Spotify.

intensely_human ,

Napster

Amir ,
@Amir@lemmy.ml avatar

Opus at max bitrate is only like 1/4th the size of FLAC. At that point, why not just store it in 10GB while keeping the full quality?

chordsphere1 ,

That definitely makes sense, maybe I should do that... thanks

Grimm665 ,

Same here, been collecting since the iPod Mini days, 18,000+ songs and 100gb+ of data (almost all mp3 though)

Serve them up with Airsonic and i've got my own streaming music service i can use anywhere.

chordsphere1 ,

Yeah I also use Jellyfin so I can also stream them from anywhere!

Zip2 ,

I upgraded to a decent set of headphones with a dedicated DAC, then realised just how terrible Spotify’s sound quality is, even on maximum. I hung on a while for the empty promise of lossless audio then ditched them.

I’m now increasingly glad that I’m giving money to their competitors.

Amir ,
@Amir@lemmy.ml avatar

Spotify's encoding (vorbis 320kbps) should be transparent at the maximum bitrate. However, it's possible that the files uploaded on there are mastered differently, for average consumer consumption instead of the full dynamics of most source material. I know SoundCloud enforces "loudness" mastering with presets when uploading for example.

The real reason Spotify's quality is inferior to others is that, if you have the music files, you can apply in-app parametric equalization on every platform and compensate for imperfections of your output device.

Zip2 ,

My problem was by the time it had been through normalisation for equipment and hearing correction, it sounded very artifacty. Maybe a lack of bits and low sampling rate.

Muffi ,

Switched to Tidal when Spotify announced their reduction in artist pay, and I can highly recommend it. The interface is much better, although lacking podcasts (but luckily there are many great FOSS podcasts apps out there).

pyre ,

what do you mean 'although', that's an added benefit!

Muffi ,

I liked having both in the same app until I discovered AntennaPod, which is far superior to Spotify's podcast manager.

pyre ,

I was mostly joking but I'm just so over podcasts. Even when people who I like and follow on YouTube talk about their podcasts my eyes glaze over.

I have so little time and patience for low effort hours long drivel that i find what I'm doing now more worthwhile than listening to a podcast. Not saying all podcasts are like this obviously but that's my default assumption.

balder1991 ,

It’s just like everything else in the world, 90% of things are shitty, but the good 10% of things are always worth finding.

WildPalmTree ,

Multitask. Listen to a podcast AND do what you are doing now. Can't be many people that sit down, focus and say "I'll now listen to a podcast and do nothing else".

pyre ,

that's only more proof that it's worthless.

daddy32 ,

"lacking podcasts" is a plus for most people, I think.
But Tidal's interface is a bit worse for me in one thing: it lacks the "remote control" Spotify has: controlling playback from any device on any device (e.g. playing on the computer and using the phone as a remote) and also the ability to transfer the playback from one device to another - like pausing it on the computer, picking up the phone, connecting it to car and resuming playback.

Muffi ,

I use KDE connect for remote controlling, so I never even noticed. But I can see that being an annoying loss.

FreakinSteve ,

Who?

slaacaa ,

I cancelled spotify a few months ago, when getting some free Apple music with my Airpods. Not the best, but still happy that I don’t have to use Spotify anymore, will probably shop around after my free period with Apple is done

boonhet ,

I was satisfied with Apple Music myself (until I no longer had need for it), but I keep hearing that Tidal is one of the better services if Apple doesn't quite cut it for you. Supposedly they have a reasonably fair cut for the artists compared to Spotify, and also good audio quality (to be fair, Apple has high quality available too, if you enabled it in the settings)

spare_muppets ,

Just for funzies, my Spotify family plan in Canada is $17.84 CAD, which works out to $13.05 USD at current exchange rate.

Usually Canadians are screwed harder on, well pretty much everything, so I'm surprised that Americans are paying more for this. Guess it's "what the market will bear" or similar nonsense. Please discuss.

ILikeBoobies ,

Just FYI, Napster’s family plan is only $14.99 CAD

PsyDoctah9Jah ,
@PsyDoctah9Jah@lemmy.world avatar

I'm so grateful, I have thousands of songs and just hit shuffle and made my own playlists. I always thought internet radio was overpriced 😅

callmepk ,
@callmepk@lemmy.world avatar

Glad I moved away from Spotify to Apple Music years ago (for different reasons tho)

Got_Bent ,

The only reason I keep Spotify anymore is that I've got a family plan with something like six accounts. I gave those to random acquaintances back in the Facebook days - people who are really into music.

If I cancel Spotify, there are five people out there who are suddenly and without warning going to find themselves without music.

I really don't even remember who they are, but I feel like continuing the subscription is my community service

icedterminal ,

Pretty sure you can see their email address. This should give you the opportunity to message them stating you'll be canceling the subscription. They'll still be able to subscribe on their own.

westyvw ,

I never did get a music subscription of any kind. Guess I am glad about that now. I just host my own server. Spotify never had a quarter of what I want to listen to anyways so I guess there is that.

Listening to Legion of Mary 12-10-1974 right now.

extremeboredom , (edited )

Production cost for a full length album STARTS at around $10-15k.

That's a lot more than "zero" in my book.

AstralPath ,

In the modern era, that's not exactly true. This number is only relevant if you're outsourcing tracking, mixing and mastering which are all things that can be done in a bedroom nowadays. How do I know? Because I did so myself a number of years ago.

If you're not learning how to do these things yourself, you're simply wasting money or you're rich enough/your band is supported enough to not give a fuck.

The only thing we paid for was album art and mastering simply because I wanted one specific engineer to do it just cause. All in all we paid less than $2k for a full release. We could have paid zero if we did our own artwork and I mastered the album myself which is not exactly impossible for the average person to do.

I get your sentiment, but money is not necessarily needed en masse to release music any more. If you already have your instruments and associated gear, a REAPER license is $60 and you can use the included plugins to create a full professional quality release.

I had a plethora of plugins a while back but I've wiped them from my drive in favor of REAPER's stock plugins, the available JS plugin libraries and a few choice free plugins along with a single drum VST. That's it. I have pro quality mixes and masters with just that.

The days of the studio as a necessity are over. Studio time is a luxury, not a necessity.

I want to end this comment with a big "fuck you" to Spotify anyway because streaming services are cancerous to the music creator scenes.

extremeboredom ,

I totally get where you're coming from, have done the DIY production thing, etc. And with full respect to the piece of art you put your soul into, I have to ask, was it a commercial success? As in, paying the bills at home? Because in my experience, you do end up having to invest those kinds of sums if you want to make a return at that level. I hate how music is commerce, trust me. But that's just what I've seen so far.

AstralPath ,

No it was not what many would consider a commercial success. My music is a bit niche, but it was a success in its own right. We had label support (non-financial, basically just printed CDs) for our debut release and more than recouped the cost and if we followed up with releases it likely would have had potential to snowball by re-investing the money into the band. We only released digital and CD digipaks of the album, no merch no extra anything and that gave us more than enough for a second release and then some. I just have no use for the music "industry" as it were. Music is not a means to an end for me, its an outlet and I do it on my terms. I don't jive with the industrialization of art in general and I certainly don't want to whittle my relationship with music down to how much money it can make for me. I get it if people wanna commoditize it though. That angle is just not for me.

Indie artists by and large self produce and a metric ton of them do so to an incredibly high caliber. Big tech Spotify man is not wrong, he's just an asshole. A leech, if you will.

extremeboredom ,

I appreciate you taking my question in the spirit it was meant, and the thoughtful response.

I guess what rubbed me the wrong way about CEO Douchebag's comment was that it discounts just how relatively enormous of an expense production can be for the small artists trying to make a living. I've spent some time in the music industry and it has left me with a bad taste in my mouth. The necessary evil of commerce intersecting with art is a big reason for that, especially coming to the realization of just how necessary that evil is.

But yes I agree, it is definitely possible to create excellent art of high technical quality from home.

queue ,
@queue@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Here's a few things that are cheaper!

  • Soulseek/Nicotine+
  • Usenet Groups
  • Libraries (only if your local one has CDs, and often is popular music and no indie stuff)
    And if you want some album art: MusicBrainz Picard

If you want it on your phone, SD cards are cheaper than ever for big space. Unless you're on iPhone.

Welp_im_damned ,

Unfortunately most android phones are slowly phasing away the SD card slot. The only flagship that still supports it is Sony with their Xperia. I don't know of any major mid-rangers models that still support it. The only low end phones now. But the overall experience is painful.

romamix ,

On the positive note though, the migration process during the setup wizard copies all your music to the new phone

Welp_im_damned ,

That really isn't much of a positive note if you have a lot of data. You are forced to buy the higher tier storage if that's even available to you.

queue ,
@queue@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

My Xiaomi phone for $400 supports up to 1 TB SD cards, so that's pretty sweet.

vividspecter ,

Even Xiaomi are getting rid of the MicroSD slot now (and the headphone jack). At least onboard storage has been starting to increase again, although it's not close to the amount a SD slot can provide.

Welp_im_damned ,

Xiaomi is phasing it out as well https://lemdro.id/pictrs/image/5f6de658-0a7c-4726-8d97-fc84f3b36351.png

FreakinSteve ,

MOTOROLA

Welp_im_damned ,

Again even Motorola is phasing out micro SD card. Anything above 300ish.

AshMan85 ,

So what is their excuses for older musicians that paid for expensive studio time before the day of home studios? Cause they still pay them like shit too

where_am_i ,

I just hope that one day Spotify goes premium-only and all of you can go cry somewhere else.

Literally the hero of the music industry, but the whole lemmy takes a dump on them. Man, people on this platform are just all poor and uneducated. So, everything paid is bad, and no idea of what's actually behind the costs.

Go pirate some mp3s and remember, that despite how disgusting music labels are, if everyone did what you do, your favorite artist would've stopped producing their music long-long time ago. So, this simply puts you into the same leeching category with the corpos that you so despise.

rayquetzalcoatl ,
@rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.world avatar

The hero of the music industry? How do you mean? I'm not disagreeing with you re the pirating of mp3s, but I believe artists make far more in touring than streaming revenue - particularly with Spotify, which has very publicly been a sticking point in the past

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • technology@lemmy.world
  • random
  • incremental_games
  • meta
  • All magazines
    •