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Full quality file releases: will they ever go mainstream?
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| Vector A |
Everybody seems to agree that the market for CDs is shrinking drastically, and that the market for MP3s is picking up the slack. But is there any corresponding growth in full quality (WAV / AIFF / FLAC) file releases? As far as I know, the only stores that offer that service are pretty niche ones like Beatport and Bleep, and the big players (iTunes, Amazon) have no plans to offer full quality files anytime soon.
So it seems we might soon be in a weird situation in which getting a full quality version of new music is simply impossible -- again, leaving aside the small slice of stuff you can buy in niche places like Beatport. Any thoughts on this? |
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| Looney4Clooney |
the new mastering for Itunes works in a manner that you submit the lossless data so they have it. There is no reason not to offer lossless but right now, they need a format and there isn't any consensus. Not to mention it wouldn't really sell enough to warrant confusing people or making them think their mp3 that was a 1$ is not as good as they thought it was.
Honestly , by the time this happens, we will be streaming lossless audio so I don't think it will ever happen. You will just pay a premium for the service. |
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| Vector A |
Hmm, so we'll have to be connected to the net in order to play any music at all? Not sure I like that idea. But I guess one could always just record the lossless stream.
:thepirate |
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| tehlord |
Who exactly is getting paid for streamed audio?
Let's say I pay £10 per month for Spotify premium (which I'm happy to do as the streaming quality is excellent as it's Ogg).
That works out i'm paying about a penny per track I play as I probably play 1000 tracks per month.
I'm glad it's there, but I can't see it as a sustainable business model as the premium service has no ads. |
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| Vector A |
| I could see something like Amazon's Cloud Drive, where you buy an individual file but can just keep it in the cloud for streaming rather than downloading it. Only in this hypothetical case there would be no option for downloading at all -- which makes sense if they want to keep trying to prop up the whole intellectual property business. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| i think that in 5 years, the concept of storing music will seem silly. I mean even in 2016, cisco has projected mobile tranfer rates about 7 times what it is for NA. Most young people listen to most of their music from youtube. The trend is obvious. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| quote: | Originally posted by tehlord
Who exactly is getting paid for streamed audio?
Let's say I pay £10 per month for Spotify premium (which I'm happy to do as the streaming quality is excellent as it's Ogg).
That works out i'm paying about a penny per track I play as I probably play 1000 tracks per month.
I'm glad it's there, but I can't see it as a sustainable business model as the premium service has no ads. |
apple is providing steaming audio. You can download it or not. Up to you. Speeds will be so fast that downloading will just seem silly. I mean think about how people used to download websites for offline use. Seems silly but it was a pretty common thing to do because you had slow access. IT does'nt have to be a flat rate but i think it will go that way.
Young people tend to do it that way. The labels would most likely prefer this as opposed to something they can't control. |
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| tehlord |
I guess it'll be the provider taking the profits then as there's no percentages in there for the artists. If you give people huge libraries at virtually instant download speeds then people will just take everything.
I like the idea of physical media though. Always will. |
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| Vector A |
| quote: | Originally posted by tehlord
I guess it'll be the provider taking the profits then as there's no percentages in there for the artists. |
Not necessarily, it just depends on which model they decide to go with: a time period based subscription service, or a cloud drive type thing where you have access to a set number of files, each of which you have paid for. |
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| cryophonik |
| Maybe a bit off-tangent here, but I think that tehlord raises some good questions regarding where the money is going. I'm guessing that one thing we will see in not-too-distant future is better accountability and tracking of where the money goes. I think it's just a matter of time before the big artists start getting stingy, lawyers get involved, and new laws/regulations get passed regarding how profits are accounted for and distributed. That could create a breeding ground for new tracking services and possibly even blow up the current models for music distribution. Of course, I'm just speculating here, but it seems like a logical step once the Lars Ulriches of the world and their adoring fans start to realize that the market is becoming saturated by everyone and that the dream of the super rockstar is slowly dying as a result of it. |
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| Richard Butler |
Is the market for CD's deffo dying? My gut feel is that it surely is but Kids I know still buy em as there isn't all the hassle of seeking, compiling and downloading music which in reality is often time consuming and prone to all manner of issues - sometimes even seaching for say Deadmaus latest tracks on beatport is a total mindfuk. Current computer technology is awfuly sh1t imo and I long for the day we move to something like graphine machines and hopefuly software designed by people who actualy think like average consumers.
Personally I hear people moaning about i-tunes too. Nothing like as intuative as it could be. IT people must never sit with ordinary consumers and see how they tick.
Got a royalties statement today. The label deducted all manner of costs and even paid a remixer 50 euros. Fair enough I spose. |
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| DigiNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by Richard Butler
Is the market for CD's deffo dying? My gut feel is that it surely is but Kids I know still buy em as there isn't all the hassle of seeking, compiling and downloading music which in reality is often time consuming and prone to all manner of issues - sometimes even seaching for say Deadmaus latest tracks on beatport is a total mindfuk. Current computer technology is awfuly sh1t imo and I long for the day we move to something like graphine machines and hopefuly software designed by people who actualy think like average consumers.
Personally I hear people moaning about i-tunes too. Nothing like as intuative as it could be. IT people must never sit with ordinary consumers and see how they tick. |
Honestly, what the are you talking about? I don't hear anybody complaining about iTunes, and "current computer technology" is, by and large, ridiculously high quality compared to anything that was available 20 years ago or even 5-10 years ago.
An 8-year-old can go online and find and be listening to almost any track on YouTube in seconds - even if he doesn't know the name, just a few lyric fragments will usually do the trick. Not to mention all manner of mobile apps like Shazam and Soundhound that can identify almost any reasonably mainstream track and get you to a download page in seconds, and these apps have something like 50 million downloads each, so they're hardly niche. Oh, and there's Pandora, TuneIn, Jango, and all kinds of streaming radio apps that get just as many downloads and glowing reviews.
And who the spells it "i-tunes"?
Srsly, I only see one person in here who doesn't seem to understand how "ordinary consumers" tick. Fortunately, he's not about to let that stop him from painting both the consumers and the entire "IT" industry as idiots in one broad stroke. *golf clap* |
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