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Comment by mlthoughts2018 | Hacker News Reader

mlthoughts2018

I’m so sad that most consumers want to pay for things like this or Spotify.

I only buy digital albums, almost always from Bandcamp or bespoke band-specific sites, or Amazon if there’s no other choice.

Always just a straight download of mp3 or ogg formats, backed up and accessible in cloud storage.

I use VLC player on all my devices, and syncing music with the VLC wifi download tool is so extremely easy and simple.

I have all the music I could ever possibly want, easily accessible on all devices and easy to sync on all devices, no internet connection needed, no monthly charge or user account, no ads, can transfer it all to any new devices I get with no vendor lock-in.

I just can’t believe the populace was suckered into music streaming instead of music owning. So sad.

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I would have never discovered 99% of the music I listen to if I didn't use Spotify.

There are pros/cons to both sides of this argument. Many artists would not have a music career if it weren't for platforms like Spotify (mainly Spotify). Spotify put their music in people's ears. Spotify made people fans and now those fans buy tickets and go to their shows, so these bands are able to tour.

There are pros/cons to both sides of this story.

> “I would have never discovered 99% of the music I listen to if I didn't use Spotify.”

Can you take a step back and recognize this is weird and pathological. Music recommendations should come from experience, people, multiple sources. If a for-profit platform interested in extracting as much money from you as they can (let alone minimize their costs paid to artists) is responsible for 99% of what you believe you are choosing to consume... something’s pretty wrong.

Imagine saying, I wouldn’t have discovered 99% of the foods I like if not for my Blue Apron subscription...

> Music recommendations should come from experience, people, multiple sources

Why do you assume streaming replaces all that? Streaming services immensely complement all that.

The comment above specifically said 99% of the music they listen to was discovered by Spotify. That is replacing, not complementing. This is also the same model I see in friends or colleagues who use Spotify: it is their sole source of music or music recommendation.

I suppose their recommendation quality only goes up the more you use the platform. It is a damn good recommender. From Discover Weekly to similar features like "Artist/Song/Playlist Radio" that continue playing similar music after your playlist/album ends... the Spotify recommendation systems are probably the most successful, enhancing implementation of ML I can recall seeing in the wild. Certainly much better than YouTube which for months has been begging me to watch this "Pete Davidson Got Stuck Paying for Kid Cudi's Birthday Dinner..." video (I'm not a fan of either of those guys).

Maybe you should give it a try. Certainly can't hurt.

Exactly. Spotify and Youtube links enable sharing music easily among friends. Friends send me messages "hey check out this" accompanied by a link directly to spotify. If we were still in the tape/CD age, this wouldn't be as easily possible.

I also prefer to purchase albums to own in a format of my choosing and you sound like a jerk. Why do you feel the need to crap on things other people enjoy and don’t affect you?

Because streaming:

- is available almost anywhere: your phone, your car, your smart waffle maker.

- leads to much better music discovery through curated playlists, “discover weekly”s, radio stations based on songs/artists/genres

- you can instantly share your music and music tastes with friends, leading to even more music discovery

- many more other minor things (like creating playlists for parties etc.)

Streaming isn’t available where there’s no internet connection, unless you just happen to have cached what you’re looking for. Whereas my entire music collection is available any time.

I also heavily dispute that Spotify, Apple, etc lead to better search or discovery.

> Whereas my entire music collection is available any time.

You carry your “easily accessible cloud storage” everywhere with you?

> I also heavily dispute that Spotify, Apple, etc lead to better search or discovery.

You don’t “dispute”. You “firmly believe”. As others already pointed out: I’d never have discovered as much music within my music tastes as I’ve done with Spotify.

There’s no chance in hell I could’ve stumbled on some indie band that is US-only while leaving in Sweden.

There are Swedish bands which are suddenly popular in Brasil and they go there on tours, which they never would’ve done without Spotify.

Etc. etc.

> “You carry your “easily accessible cloud storage” everywhere with you?”

Huh? I mean, first of all yes, I do. I have my whole music library in Dropbox, but that’s not related to what I’m saying.

I have my whole music library already cached on my phone, tablet, laptop, etc., and so can listen without an internet connection. This is in VLC, not any cloud storage (I just use that for backups only).

I would be bankrupt if I bought all the albums I stream now.

Well personally I'd rather have all the music I'll ever need right here with basically a few taps on my phone for a very small cost every month instead of having to buy and download every album/song I want (would be extremely expensive in my case), back them up in the cloud, sync them with all my devices etc.

This comes from someone with a collection of roughly 1500 12" vinlys, meaning from someone who actually owns his music.

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