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posted by janrinok on Saturday June 16 2018, @04:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the something-you-can-own dept.

Kim Bayley breaks down UK spending statistics to show that superfans buying old school physical media are providing for 15% of the UK's total retail music market, even when streaming is counted. She asserts that curtailing the availability of these physical storage media will damage not just retailers, but the overall health of the music industry itself. In doing so, she presents a strong economic case for why the music industry should treasure its vinyl and CD superfans.

Naturally it would have a clear financial cost: according to ERA's research those 157,000 vinyl Superfans spent between them £63m on vinyl in 2017, equivalent to more than half a million – 525,000 – premium music subscriptions.

In other words, lose a town's worth of vinyl buyers the size of Chelmsford and you need a city's worth of premium music subscribers the size of Manchester to make up the loss.

When it comes to CD, the impact is even greater. ERA's researches show that in 2017 an incredible 292,000 Britons spent £400 or more on the format. That's equivalent to buying a CD virtually every week.


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 16 2018, @04:57AM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday June 16 2018, @04:57AM (#693861) Homepage

    Faggots! The United States of America will reign Supreme! You Fifth-columnist punks shall FALL. HA. Hahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHHHAHA! Long-live The United States of America! HAHAHAHAHAHA! YEAH, NIGGAAZ!

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by canopic jug on Saturday June 16 2018, @05:36AM (9 children)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Saturday June 16 2018, @05:36AM (#693864) Journal

    So the obvious question to ask then is if streaming not about the money, what are they trying to pull off on us with it? I suspect the anwer is more surveillance capitalism and control.

    A bigger questions is why so people notice and even fewer care? The younger, the more apathetic they are.

    The few teenagers who have been willing to talk at length about it really have no interest in sound quality and stream shockingly poor audio reproductions sometimes with monophonic sound, usually with low sample rates and bit depth and nearly always complete with severe compression artifacts and other distortions. All of them, even when shown a CD with music they like a lot, react very negatively to the medium and want nothing to do with it even if they have very poor copies of the same tracks ripped from Youtube or similar. The local main public library is even considering trashing their entire CD collection of tens of thousands of discs rather than trying to do outreach to the tax payers (and their families) who sponsored the collections and expound on the benefits of the fine resources they spend a lot of money acquiring and maintaining. A related problem there is those particular libraries also eliminated their collection management activities overall for ALL their collections a few years ago, not just music, and wheelbarrows of random books go off to the incinerators all the time here with special emphasis on old items regardless of relevance, quality, or popularity.

    But steering back to the storage media themselves, my big gripe is that people are just shunning not only sound quality but also freedom and wider selection. Instead they actually seek out 1960's transitor radio quality sound which contain built-in surveillance and loss of control as part and parcel of the deal.

    WTF?

    --
    Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @06:21AM (7 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @06:21AM (#693866)

      Many laptops don't even come with a disc drive anymore. It's more convenient to load up a USB stick or hard drive with music, and arguably more convenient than that to use a music streaming service or YouTube.

      Paying Spotify members get 320 kbps. Free users are limited to 160 kbps or something. Let me guess, the kids don't pay for streaming and have to listen to ads too.

      Anybody who is interested in audio quality can without much effort pirate an album in 320 kbps MP3 or FLAC.

      • (Score: 2) by canopic jug on Saturday June 16 2018, @08:02AM (5 children)

        by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Saturday June 16 2018, @08:02AM (#693884) Journal

        Let me guess, the kids don't pay for streaming and have to listen to ads too.

        Anybody who is interested in audio quality can without much effort pirate an album in 320 kbps MP3 or FLAC.

        The key part being anyone who is actually interested. I'll have to track down some musicians and ask. Maybe they are different. Ages ago it used to be a status contest to see who had the highest fidelity sound system. Strange that something so measurable would fall by the wayside.

        So yeah they listen only to the subset of sounds presented as music under the free-of-charge options. That makes their experience just what is profitable for Spotify and Youtube. Pretty much zero interest in actively discovering new or old bands too. I would guess then that, again, its about profits. Profits might not be the highest but the investment for those profits are by far the smallest possible.

        --
        Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
        • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday June 16 2018, @09:45AM (2 children)

          by MostCynical (2589) on Saturday June 16 2018, @09:45AM (#693901) Journal

          CDs are an investment.
          "Young people" want the latest, newest, next..
          Which will be different next week, or even tomorrow.
          They will support these performers *by* watching and subscribing to youtube channels, and by listening on Spotify.
          CDs are irrelevant.
          Quality is completely irrelevant.
          *relevancy* is everything. To be relevant to is to be the one being watched on youtube and listened to on spotify.. It self-defines.
          Belong to the group, listen to the "in" performer.
          Listen again in a month? Never! (Except, maybe, in an ironic way, at a party)

          --
          "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @09:57AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @09:57AM (#693903)

            Sorry to interrupt your stream of consciousness but unless you are planning on selling some rare disc + packaging to collectors, they are not an investment. CDs hold digital information that can be copied endlessly.

            An M-Disc or some other future archival storage medium may be "an investment" if it can store a large amount of data without degradation for a long time. Because you can be assured that obscure data contained on it will probably not be lost. But CDs will degrade and lose their data within decades.

            • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday June 16 2018, @10:24AM

              by MostCynical (2589) on Saturday June 16 2018, @10:24AM (#693907) Journal

              Quality music at (reasonably) affordable price
              Not shares, property, or investment for the furture, but still, an investment in the music and the performer.

              Way beyond the "investment" (time, money, or interest) a "young person" is going to give any performer.

              --
              "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Saturday June 16 2018, @10:44AM

          by anubi (2828) on Saturday June 16 2018, @10:44AM (#693910) Journal

          Ages ago it used to be a status contest to see who had the highest fidelity sound system.

          Now, its the most expensive phone.

          --
          "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @08:03PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @08:03PM (#694030)

          Ages ago it used to be a status contest to see who had the highest fidelity sound system. Strange that something so measurable would fall by the wayside.

          A lot of the measuring made it obvious there was too much bullshit in the hifi stuff.

      • (Score: 2) by Unixnut on Saturday June 16 2018, @11:18PM

        by Unixnut (5779) on Saturday June 16 2018, @11:18PM (#694070)

        > Anybody who is interested in audio quality can without much effort pirate an album in 320 kbps MP3 or FLAC.

        Almost all of which is sourced by ripping from a (SA)CD of some sort. The CD is the only mass available high quality format left. If they went away and all that was available is a mono, crappily compressed streamrip, where exactly do you think the high quality source will come from for you to be able to pirate it in FLAC or 320kbs?

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @02:53PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @02:53PM (#693957)

      "I suspect the anwer is more surveillance capitalism and control."
      This statement makes absolutely no sense. Free (ie. democracies and republics) societies have always had a a form of a free market economy. Communist and fascist societies are the ones that rely heavily on surveillance.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @06:40AM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @06:40AM (#693868)

    for quite some time now ive been budgeting $50 per month on CDs

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @07:11AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @07:11AM (#693876)

      For that money you could probably upgrade your Internet speed, pirate almost all of your music, and have some money left over to buy a few vinyls or go to some live shows.

      • (Score: 2) by Apparition on Saturday June 16 2018, @03:00PM (1 child)

        by Apparition (6835) on Saturday June 16 2018, @03:00PM (#693960) Journal

        Last time I checked, live shows are $300 per ticket or more.

        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @09:02PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @09:02PM (#694035)

          They are closer to $20-100 for lesser known (but still good) bands.

      • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday June 16 2018, @07:34PM

        by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Saturday June 16 2018, @07:34PM (#694027) Homepage Journal

        Either they are too obscure for new ones or too old for old ones

        I always buy complete albums so I can discover new songs

        --
        Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Saturday June 16 2018, @04:06PM (5 children)

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Saturday June 16 2018, @04:06PM (#693986) Journal

      Why? The audio CD format really is obsolete and ought to be retired. As I'm sure everyone realizes, can fit around 1000 CDs worth of music in FLAC format onto one 256G flash drive. Takes a heck of a lot less shelf space than 1000 CDs even if you toss the jewel cases. The industry is the chief roadblock to adoption of the massive improvements in storage and distribution tech since the 1980s when the audio CD standard was released. Why encourage them to keep being obstructionist by buying audio CDs?

      Supporting the artists can be done in so many other, less wasteful ways. Go to their concerts, buy their t-shirts, or just give them cash donations. Cut those parasitic middle men out.

      As for vinyl, WTF is wrong with you people, to actually want vinyl? I mean, damn, why don't you also drive around in a horse drawn carriage if you like vinyl so much?

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @09:10PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @09:10PM (#694040)

        http://www.soundmattersblog.com/pros-cons-vinyl-records/ [soundmattersblog.com]

        Vinyl can last a long time compared to a CD, and there is a robust market for buying and selling them.

        CD on the other hand is useless if a digital copy is widespread. Or you can rip it yourself and then the disc is just taking up space.

      • (Score: 2, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday June 16 2018, @10:48PM

        by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Saturday June 16 2018, @10:48PM (#694063) Homepage Journal

        There are so many amazing things to do in New York City. You can ride through Central Park in a horse drawn carriage. And maybe you'll meet a NYPD mounted officer -- or a dozen! Trump International Hotel & Tower New York has won many awards because it's the best hotel in the city, convenient to it all! trumphotels.com/central-park [trumphotels.com]

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by dry on Sunday June 17 2018, @01:51AM (1 child)

        by dry (223) on Sunday June 17 2018, @01:51AM (#694102) Journal

        Vinyl often has better mastering, as in less compression (by compression, I mean dynamic range). Same with older CD's. I buy CD's at the local thrift store for 50 cents - $1 and the old ones sound much better.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @11:15AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @11:15AM (#694482)

        Apart from anything else, the sleeve/artwork is so often an integral part of the recorded work itself. For example, if you buy PiL's 'Metal Box' as a digital download, you've more or less missed the point.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @11:12AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @11:12AM (#694480)

    ... is to expect that the music you like to listen to is actually available as a stream and/or download, and/or will continue to be so in the future.

    If the powers that be (be they governments or corporations) decide that all that people are going to be allowed to listen to from now on is Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and the Korean People's Army Band, and you've subscribed to their distribution model, then they will be able to prevent you from accessing anything else, and/or quite possibly wipe everything else from your device. (In a more benign future, enjoy trying to stream your favourite music in that cabin in northern Canada, or onboard that cruise ship.)

    I buy and rip stuff from any format I find it in - CD, vinyl, cassette, pianola roll, orgasmatron - and remain in complete control of my music collection.

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