Industry Researcher Has Never Seen So Many Disc Releases — the Majority Bootlegs

[rtbcIII]

¨Piracy has been the most successful form of distribution worldwide.
If you don’t get [films] through Netflix or state-sponsored television in your country, then you go and access it as a pirate. I don’t like it because I would like to earn some money with my films. But if someone like you steals my films through the internet or whatever, fine, you have my blessing.¨

- Werner Herzog, 2019

[Computer Gary]

Now people are literally throwing away all their cds and dvds so that they can stream it online with the justification that it is cheaper in the long run.

I don't understand the logic. They've already paid for the CDs and DVDs they're throwing away, and now they're spending more money to stream it. Presumably via a subscription system that they're going to have to pay every year to renew in order to maintain their access. How is that cheaper?

(Semantic afterthought: is "streaming" the same as downloading, regardless of whether or not payment is involved? I don't subscribe to any streaming services like Netflix or whatever, but I do download videos from the Internet. Does that mean I'm streaming as well? If I am... uh... never mind. )

(Hey... unlike the "people" mentioned in Lord Reith's post, I still have all of my CDs and DVDs and I don't plan to get rid of them, so I guess that's a plus for me. )

[Lord Reith]

I suppose the other reason I hate streaming is because of the false context it puts music in. When I listen to music from 1963, I don't want it framed in the culture of 2023. That means i don't want to see and hear ads, voices, albums, recommendations, comments, messages, images and other trash from people I don't know or care about. In fact, almost all the original context is removed on streaming. All you get in most cases is a tiny reproduction of the front cover, with no back cover, booklet, credits, composer or anything. The music is completely stripped of its original context. It becomes anonymous and detached.

The end result of this is that people begin to make nonsensical and meaningless comparisons between the past and present. The other day some guy on a well know forum said that the original Beatles mixes are flat and lifeless. No, they are not. They may sound flat and lifeless on streaming, but that's only because they're sitting alongside amped-up modern mixes with massive bass/treble boost and multiband compression. That thought never occurred to one single person at the time the music was made, and it shouldn't bother anyone now. So the response from the overlords to these sorts of sentiments is to do the same thing to the Beatles music. Or to make anyone who listens to Run For Your Life or You Can't Do That feel like a criminal.

For me streaming is the aural equivalent of those boring retrospectives where everything is framed through the eyes of the present culture and a bunch of talking heads are brought in to explain to the listener/viewer how they should react. No thanks. Give me the original context. Give me an lp to hold, an old copy of the NME to read and no-one and nothing to remind me that it was 60 years ago while I listen to it. In other words, take me back to the past for an hour, and leave me alone.

The only time I use streaming is for free to audition something and see if I like it. I've tried to use it to discover new music but found it to be a poor tool for that. Streaming is, essentially, just the internet on a platform. Each album is just a webpage and countless numbers of them never get any streams. And you've got millions of webpages and no clear way of navigating it... other than talking to and asking other people... which means that you didn't need streaming to discover it in the first place anyway. There was Pandora which tried to use humans to recommend new music to you, but it failed miserably because there was no conversation. To find new music, I need to talk to someone and establish a common frame of reference. That was what you could do once upon a time in a record shop. Now they try to make an algorithm to suggest music for you, and all it does is steer you towards stuff you hate because it is a dumb machine with no soul or empathy. And so everything goes backwards as usual, because people do not understand that what makes the world go round is people themselves, and not phones and algorithms. And that what you have sitting between your ears is very probably the most complex and advanced thing in the entire universe.

[Kwai Chang]

All streams, rivulets, brooks and rivers flow to the sea...
Even if the consumer would sell their own children for convenience
this commodity is indeed liquid, solvent, easy to use, lightweight, unbreakable, clear, pure, and more...
AND, NOT-Physical! Because it's about something rare or slow or anticipated or prayed for, or conjured or achieved and NOT-Physical. I know I said it twice and that is just as heavy as ALL the stock of physical products in any warehouse and the weight of the gasoline to haul them. That's not even the prolog. That's already too good to be true! Ask ANY fund/budget manager! This moment is better than commerce itself. THE COMMODITY is lucrative, and in a constant state of gimmickry that cant get old if it's conveniently confusing and certified authentic. Save the sku number for a chance to win Director's Cut! And NOT-PHYSICAL. Water seeks it's own level...can you guess where this is leading?
Yes, it leads back to The Beatles, The Ocean(Cloud), and a flow meter!
You don't pay for anything you don't listen to!<-----(Have you got it yet??? REAL profit)
I never said it was ethical.
But, there is no defense!
It's an automated system.
Press 1 to Agree To Terms!
See what I mean?
KC

[Fast lucky]

The CD was already a major step down from vinyl albums - holding a LP in your hands was something

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which was never the case with CD, but streaming ... it goes completely beyond my understanding and is utterly stupid and dangerous for the user / customer. You have no control on future availability or prices and you simply do not own your music, nor enjoy owning it.

[jpgrcat007]

WHO & WEF have many Industry folks along with them with this crappy 'The Great Reset

I never heard of McCartney or Ringo involved with them

WEF's 'You don't own anything & be happy' will be you don't anything & be very unhappy

Pay attention, is all I'll say...I'll make sure WEF never gets near my collection

[Doug]

...take me back to the past for an hour, and leave me alone.

So true!

Erasing the physical object also effectively erases history, and our connection to the generations who originally enjoyed (and in many cases) produced the music we're listening to. Streaming has no identity. No history. It's the McDonald's wrapper of music. I love it when the random 45s I pick up have someone's writing all over the label (conversely, I hate writing on albums... go figure!). You think, "Who originally bought this and brought it home... and did they enjoy it, just as I do?"

[MrMurphMcgee]

I own physical media, but I’m largely a streamer at this point because of the convenience. I rarely ever listen to a CD, and even my vinyl is collecting dust as I took apart my set up to sell my vintage turntable before it gets too old.

The context concern is one I definitely have though. I had that same concern when CDs came out and there was no separation between sides of vintage LPs. It continues to be a problem. I have digital films of the important stuff outside of streaming as I will occasionally take a break from streaming to save a few bucks. I’m constantly referring to Wikipedia though to find out the original side breaks for albums I’m not as familiar with. I love my Bose Bluetooth, and my apple headphones and the convenience they provide. It just seems to be what I need at this weird age (57). I have a home in FL and one in SC, so as I travel between them, I can take most of my music with me.

Just me ramblin'.

[Lord Reith]

Let me clarify that when I say I don't stream I mean I don't subscribe to spotify or anything. I stream music stored on my phone for convenience, but I look at lp covers, books or other paraphernalia while I do so. So the phone plays a very small part in it.

I like Doug's comment that streaming is like McDonalds. Music has become part of the "speedy system" to be released in an instant, flicked through and assessed in another instant and bookmarked with the possibility it'll never be listened to again. The same as you only appreciate money you worked for, you only really appreciate music you worked to find. The circumstances in which the music was acquired and first heard creates an extra layer of depth. Songs become bound up with memories. I think that's why lovers of underground records have such a strong connection to the music - because in many or most cases we struggled to find it and sometimes waited decades or a lifetime for the opportunity. It has been a long, hard struggle... the polar opposite of online streaming.

[Kwai Chang]

Water weighs 8 lbs. per gallon, so
Is it better as a liquid, a solid, a vapor, or should it be converted to a digital form of strata known as currency?
That always begins the debate but that is over. Things are now in place and soon you will know that Alchemy was
just a mirror and a chanted incantation and a buck-eye!
Lead into gold!
NO! Water into gold?
NO! (Water is already gold)...
Physical into NOT-PHYSICAL...YES!!!
Has anyone told Perry Cox yet?
Ha, he's not worried...
Market forces were invented by him!
In a virtual world nobody carries anything...
And the only thing of any value that you can give to someone is your word.
A canned alcoholic beverage called 'Happiness Not Included On The Beach' ------>(ha'penis)
And since TIME is getting closer...I'll cut through the tinsel for you:
Welcome to Hollywood:The App!
BANG! Bang! We're ALL Kevin Dorfman
VrooOMM! Everybody ordinary passenger!
Consoooomer!!! As long as you never know the truth!
KC