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Album Sales Are Dying as Fast as Streaming Services Are Rising (rollingstone.com)
In 2018, Best Buy decided to stop selling CDs, with the change partly brought on by record labels' increasing reluctance to even issue them. Both choices are symptoms as well as causes of a seemingly inevitable trend: Buying music is now going out of style nearly as fast as streaming music is rising. From a report: In 2018, album sales fell 18.2 percent from the previous year and song sales fell 28.8 percent, according to U.S. year-end report figures from data company BuzzAngle, which tracks music consumption. Meanwhile, total on-demand music streams, including both audio and video, shot up 35.4 percent. Audio on-demand streams set a new record high in 2018 of 534.6 billion streams, which is up 42 percent from 2017's 376.9 billion streams.
It's tricky to compare the specific unit numbers of sales to streams --since such a comparison would be pitting continuous playback of a certain piece of music against a one-time purchase of it -- but certain other milestones in the consumption market can help highlight just how much streaming is replacing physical sales and downloads in America. For instance: Even though total song downloads are still in the hundreds of millions, they're coming down in scale at the top. In 2018, there was not a single song that broke 1 million sales -- compared to 14 songs that reached that figure in 2017, 36 in 2016 and 60 in 2015. At the 2 million sales mark, two songs took that trophy in 2017, while five claimed it in 2016 and 16 songs made it in 2015, throwing the modest figures of this year's sales into even sharper relief.
It's tricky to compare the specific unit numbers of sales to streams --since such a comparison would be pitting continuous playback of a certain piece of music against a one-time purchase of it -- but certain other milestones in the consumption market can help highlight just how much streaming is replacing physical sales and downloads in America. For instance: Even though total song downloads are still in the hundreds of millions, they're coming down in scale at the top. In 2018, there was not a single song that broke 1 million sales -- compared to 14 songs that reached that figure in 2017, 36 in 2016 and 60 in 2015. At the 2 million sales mark, two songs took that trophy in 2017, while five claimed it in 2016 and 16 songs made it in 2015, throwing the modest figures of this year's sales into even sharper relief.
I'm not a fan of streaming, but there is almost literally no places left where I can go in and buy CDs just by looking through the stacks and seeing what they have -- which is how I've bought music for the last 15+ years. I'd just go in, wander around, and buy a couple of CDs I found.
If I can't buy it on CD and rip it myself, I'm not interested. I'm definitely not interested in paying to stream music which is then going to be subject to ads and analytics of my information -- I don't trust the streaming services not to be douchy assholes who share my information and violate my privacy, because at this point you have to assume all online stuff is douchy assholes.
So, I can't go anywhere to buy CDs, I refuse to stream ... which means I simply no longer buy music, and listen to my already very large collection of MP3s ripped from CDs I've bought.
I miss actual music stores, but at the end of the day, if they don't want to make CDs, and will only give me digital DRM'd versions of the music or be forced to stream it ... then I simply won't buy their product and will get on with my life.
The music industry didn't adapt to the modern world, and refused to sell a product in the form people wanted. Now, they're losing out on even more revenue.
I bought my first CD in 1981, and guess what, it still works. That is close to 40 years old. I've got records that still play from the 70's, albeit with some scratches now. Do you really believe your streaming service will be around in 2060?
Doesn't everyone just rip music from YouTube? Certainly good enough for the car, and alternate versions are usually available if one would like (radio sessions, non-released versions, live versions, cover versions, etc.)..
I just use a tiny USB stick in my car, with MP3 files.
At home, I gave in and we have Alexa the associated music service. Merry Christmas to me (I'm working on a couple of Skills)!
I need to run, there's a package from Amazon being delivered....
BlameBillCosby.com
I prefer to buy and rip, as no Internet connection is required to play an mp3, and I have full playlist control. And garage sales/used music stores are your best friends price-wise. Sample new stuff on the web and decide if I want to buy the album or track from there when I want something new, radio is unlistenable between the ads and repetitious playlists...
I thought that Video killed the radio star!
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Thank you. As a tiny tiny microscopic part of the music industry - hobbyist artist/self-publisher - I keep far more of the revenue from a sale than than from someone streaming. Buy my album? You've bought me a coffee! Thanks. Stream my album? Well, only another thousand or so streams to go and I can get that same coffee...
Sure, but quality varies. Tidal, Apple, and a few niche services offer some type of lossless selection(very limited, tbh). The rest? Not so much.
Permanently renting your music doesn't appeal to me
The only real upside I can see is that it gives you a modicum of better control over your collection and a backup in case or data loss (albeit with a ton of work to restore).
I think the real difference is people who enjoy music vs people who listen to it. If you just listen you don't care what the song is or who its by as long as there's another one after. Speaking of data loss though, how long is streaming service x going to be available and what happens when it shuts down?
Wanna buy a shirt?
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That should tell you that your conclusion was ultimately a mistake.
On the basic technological level, CDs generally faithfully reproduce a greater part of the original audio than Vinyl is capable of doing. The reason you think the older records are better is more likely to do with the quality of production, before the audio was stamped onto either media, in the 1970s, than it does the medium. Older media is obviously going to sound "better" if the recordings are better than their modern equivalents.
If, comparing like with like, you can't see a difference, then you can't really argue you can conclude one is better than the other. When you've been given identical content on two different mediums, you've found you can't tell them apart. That should tell you that at best vinyl isn't better than a CD (it also says CDs aren't better either), unless you can find technical reasons to support one over the other. As of now, the technical evidence is POP that CDs are higher quality, but possibly not so high anyone can tell the POP that CDs are higher quality, but possibly not so high anyone can tell the POP that CDs are higher quality, but possibly not so high anyone can tell the POP that CDs are higher quality, but possibly not so high anyone can tell the POP that CDs are higher quality, but possibly not so high anyone can tell the SCRATCH erence.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.