No thread. Seems like the time is right - Australia is finally catching up with the rest of the world and it looks like streaming music services will become a ''thing'' for us this year.
Spotify is landing in Australia imminently.
Rdio has just launched and is offering free unlimited 7 day trials. Created by the guys behind Skype.
JB Hi-Fi have launched Now, which stinks from a UI POV for me - and no mobile support. But y'know... development happening within Aus is not bad.
Overseas, the landscape is a little more populated - Rhapsody, Napster, etc etc. But we're only just getting started it seems.
So... it's definitely a killer app. For me, I think it will pay for itself just through being able to try music before I buy the hardcopy stuff. For casual music listeners, this'll basically replace their single track music purchases on iTunes that probably have a limited listening time span anyway.
The question I want to know the answer to is will any of these services manage to work out a business model that doesn't completely screw the artists out of decent revenue?
Thoughts?
i do doubt if these services will have my kind of music.
i'd like it if it's free, with some advertising to support it, and i can get it on my car, er, RADIO!
Channel Erk?
i can sort of see why people might be into this, but it doesn't appeal to me at all. i would never, ever pay for this sort of thing. though i probably wouldn't spend a day streaming bandcamp and soundcloud either.
Actually they all have a huge range of stuff including a lot of ''our'' sort of music.
Not everything, but a lot.
No.
My question is, who to opt for? Should I go with Rdio because Spotify has garnered rage from peeps like Jon Hopkins upon seeing their pissy royalty statements? Or should I presume they'll all be the same and go with Spotify because they're better established?
Or should I just torrent/mediafire shit I'm interested in ahead of purchase, and continue buying hundreds of dollars' worth of CDs every month like usual? Yes, I think so.
But seriously, it's like making me pay for radio. How good can Sirius and XM satellite radio be that people in America are paying to listen?
I think I'll just pretend these things don't exist for a couple of years until I'm sufficiently behind the times..and THEN I'll succumb to peer pressure.
It's on-demand though, tiny - radio doesn't let you queue up whatever you want to listen to.
Raven - I take your point, but the simplicity of this (and the fact that I can Spotify piped straight out to my stereo via Squeezebox) is pretty appealing. Basically having access to a massive music collection from my stereo remote... there's something to like about that.
You could have called Roise to request some Green Day.
I'm not really poo pooing it. I'd be interested. I'll try it. If it's cheap (I'm willing to hear advertising).
www.wearehunted.com
Site compiles 99 most hyped songs from a plethora of blogs each day.
No, but I think for most copyright holders, some revenue is better than no revenue. And this sort of service doesn't automatically preclude consumers from buying physical media or making paid downloads.
I've heard people raving about Rdio, seems to have a pretty good interface.
I used Spotify almost constantly when I lived in the UK. Heard lots of new things and they had plenty of variety. I imagine it is even better now (although I suppose it is possible it has changed for the worse and has way more advertising / commercials in between songs than when I used it). I've spent the last two years back in Australia hoping that it'd be made available here, so I'm glad something is finally being done about that.
oooooh when is spotify coming here? it really is great.
i got a free trial of the jb hifi one.. i used it once or twice.
i really want google music to come here - i want to be able to back my music up on the cloud and download it anywhere i need it. its the missing link of having a digital library..
I've had Spotify since 2008 and it's great (somehow managed to get a premium subscription when it first launched, but checked a week or so later and it had been closed off to Australia). I'd say Spotify isn't too far away from launching here, given they recently advertised for PR and Sales managers for this region.
As with anything, it's only held back by naive labels and artists who withhold their music because they believe it's 'canabilising' their sales, which it doesn't. It's the same tired argument we heard 10 years ago about iTunes. Personally, I still buy CDs, I still rip them to iTunes and I discover and listen to a lot on Spotify.
As for royalties rates, of course they are low compared with physical or downloads; they have to be otherwise these services would never get off the ground. It's all about scale, and in Sweden where Spotify started, it's now the no. 1 source of revenue for labels, topping even iTunes.
Here are a couple of good articles on the topic:
[Spotiwhy? : Are Subscription Music Services a Sustainable Business Model?]
(http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/spotiwhy-are-subscription-music-services-a-sustainable-busin.html)
Rob Wells, Universal Music's Global Digital Prez: 'The Idea That Spotify Cannibalizes Sales is Bogus'
BTW, Rdio and Spotify are on-demand, not algorithm radio-like services; that's Pandora you're thinking of.
Also, there is a Spotify thread, donnae about the others.
are those services any different to grooveshark?
Spotify is legitimate for starters, and is not user generated.
You search for an album and can play it from start to finish. Every few songs will be interrupted by ads (unless you choose a premium pricing model), and you currently only get 10 hours of listening time each month (unless you choose a premium pricing model).
So with Spotify you basically get access to a very large, vast library for free - but the best part is you can get entire albums that have been correctly named. I was really into a pub band in London called 'The Bonfire Band'. They're on Spotify even though they're indie. It's great.
avoid anything that's locked within the fa*r*cebook system
Just signed up to the Rdio free trial. So far, the interface trumps Spotify's (not that Spotify's is bad).
One advantage of Spotify is that it has it's own client (which is waaay lighter than iTunes, btw) which allows for faster playback, no buffering and fast forward with minimal or no delay. That said... just listening to Teenage Snuff Film on Rdio and it's handling all of that reeeally well!
Shitloads of local content up there already, including catalogues by The Drones, Eddy Current, Royal Headache, Spencer P. Jones (!).
Very impressed so far.
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What the fuck? Is there a catch with Spotify?
What do you mean? It's free, with ads...
I think I've figured spotify out. Made $55.12 in 5.9 days, reckon I can do better than that just need to jig a few things, nice to finally make money from streams.
I love how you've specified the amount of time down to the first decimal place :-D
Yeah I like stats :)
5 days 21 hours 36 minutes
Is the trick to sign up for multiple accounts of your own and playlist your own tracks on repeat?
That is a trick, yes.
I'm going to the Sydney one tomorrow. Thought I might ask about Pandora sues publishers over online music royalties
As Music Streaming Grows, Royalties Slow to a Trickle
Another article on the same thing, using the same data. But an interesting claim that streaming royalties are following the same path CD royalties did. Any comment from someone who knows about CD royalties from back in the day?
more like [behind the] nytimes...
the desktop version of rdio is free for 6 months
the desktop version of rdio is free for 6 months
i don't really buy into the argument that the more people subscribe the more musicians will get paid...i mean a million listens is a million listens. if the split is already set then you are investing a lot of faith in them just changing the split out of sheer altruism later down the track. the company is already worth 3 billion and they are paying peanuts, i don't see them changing the split even if they were worth 30 billion. what's more, so long as spotify continues to become the standard, the less influence the labels and musicians will have in regards to bargaining for more cash. in conclusion, it's a seriously fucked situation and one i don't see improving.
Rdio is free for six months. SIGN UP YOU IDIOTS, IT'S THE BEST
rdio on iphone too?
Ken oath. The UX and feature set are streets ahead of the competition. Spotify is getting all the ink because they were so aggressive early and then got the backing of Facebook and the major labels.
Buying Rdio would be a smart move by Apple, actually. They're long overdue in entering the streaming market, despite buying (for it's IP and engineers) Lala years ago.
Rdio is on iPhone, yes. And you can stream via the browser, which you can't do on Spotify, currently - a godsend for workplaces that block software downloads.
It's great. I Get it now.
Study shows piracy and streaming don't negatively impact retail sales of music. (http://bgr.com/2013/03/20/music-piracy-study-digital-revenues-385611/).
Link to study.
Blah, here's the original article.