What an odd thing to do a blog about. I wanted to get across a few feelings about my transition from purely ‘physical’ music to streaming. Definitely came to the party pretty late.
I love music and remember the excitement when one of my favourite bands released their latest album. I realise that a few of these groups are very popular and like a bull to a red flag I love a ‘deluxe’ boxset. It’s like a mist descends: I the love the anticipation…
Back in the Day
In 2008 I fondly remember Oasis released their ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ album. This was the first album they released after I’d really gotten into them (see what I mean about being late to the party?)
It was a big set with four vinyl, two CDs and a DVD with a huge book full of lyrics and it was beautiful. 8 years later I actually got a record player!
The thing is, and I’ll be honest here, music is expensive and buying full price CDs was getting a bit pricey. I’d check through Amazon’s second hand listings and Poundland to get a good deal. It often crossed my mind that streaming might be the way forward to help with the bank balance.
So I spent a little time condensing my CD collection and getting rid of the cases (at the moment I’ve still got the inlays but we’ll see how long this lasts) and then I saw a ‘3 months for 99p’ deal for Spotify so I took the plunge.
Streaming
It’s now been over a year since I changed over to using Spotify and I had a few predictions going in and I found them to be right!
So for a set fee I can listen to the billions of songs that exist across the Spotify platform.
I’ve found bands Steam Powered Giraffe and current favourites Katzenjammer that I might never have had the joy of hearing. Of course there was always YouTube but I could never really get on with listening to tunes that way.
All I do is load up my phone with 20 albums + and off I go.
The Cons of Spotify
You know what’s on my mind? That these artists aren’t getting a lot of money for their hard work (and this is coming from an ‘artist’ who is also on Spotify). You need SO MANY listens to make it financially viable. The bigger artists like Coldplay, U2 and Foo Fighters are sort of doing OK with millions of monthly listeners.
There’s also the fact because I can listen to SO much music that investm ent into bands and following your favourites isn’t as important anymore. As digital cameras sort of made photographs less valuable because you now had access to 100s of photos that could just delete like that – you’ve now got super commercially focused, throwaway music. Same with film/TV streaming.
When you bought a CD it was an investment and you’d have to listen to it a lot; you’d get value out of it. It’s not the same now as I don’t need to put a lot of time into really listening. Done, done and on to the next one.
The Future
Am I going to stick with Spotify? Yes I am. Like I predicted all this above, I also predicted that it would save me money and it has. I now like this money saving scheme of mine! It’s got its claws into me but you know what? I still want to listen to my favourites… and when they’re one of my big favourites I’ll still buy the deluxe boxset (or at least the vinyl!)
What does this blog state? It means I’ve been sucked in – but having access to back catalogues of Weezer, Feeder, the Rolling Stones and finding new bands like the above and Larkin Poe has been such a great experience.