RIP iTunes

Leo

Well-known member
it's long been fashionable to complain about iTunes but I'll miss it to a degree, hopefully the replacement Music app will retain features and functionality. I don't really care about iTunes as a music storage program but would really miss the download store, if that goes away (considering the growth of streaming, it probably will eventually, if not now). Say what you will about feeding the evil empire of Apple but the iTune store has a stunningly enormous selection of obscure tracks and albums, many not available via Bandcamp or other services. or you can always go to discogs and buy the rare vinyl for $$$...

I get the sense I'm one of the few people here who still cares about owning music, the concept of streaming seems great but rubs me the wrong way. I don't like how they pay artists royalties or the potential to be without any music if the service is down, my wifi gets fucked, etc. plus it feels like being held hostage, who's to say a service won't decide one day to jack up subscription prices or reduce service.

I also get the sense that a lot of people here don't buy music at all, just live off youtube and maybe Spotify. I'm an old fucker, obvs.
 
Last edited:

sufi

lala
same

i had a phase of hoarding mp3s from soulseek and blogs , there was definitely a satisfaction in chasing down obscure treasures
 
Last edited:

Leo

Well-known member
I'm not a collector in the least, my vinyl purchases over the past 10 years have largely been relegated to 12" singles in the $1 bins, or less than that from charity shops. but I still want to own things that I love.
 

sufi

lala
i'd like to hear matthew woebot on this topic, but he seems to have wandered off again
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
it's long been fashionable to complain about iTunes but I'll miss it to a degree, hopefully the replacement Music app will retain features and functionality. I don't really care about iTunes as a music storage program but would really miss the download store, if that goes away (considering the growth of streaming, it probably will eventually, if not now). Say what you will about feeding the evil empire of Apple but the iTune store has a stunningly enormous selection of obscure tracks and albums, many not available via Bandcamp or other services. or you can always go to discogs and buy the rare vinyl for $$$...

I get the sense I'm one of the few people here who still cares about owning music, the concept of streaming seems great but rubs me the wrong way. I don't like how they pay artists royalties or the potential to be without any music if the service is down, my wifi gets fucked, etc. plus it feels like being held hostage, who's to say a service won't decide one day to jack up subscription prices or reduce service.

I also get the sense that a lot of people here don't buy music at all, just live off youtube and maybe Spotify. I'm an old fucker, obvs.

you don't own music if you have it as an mp3, unless, of course, you pay for it. which is very dumb unless it's some rare 1970s turkish folk or something on bandcamp.
 

firefinga

Well-known member
I fell for the I-Pod hype around 2004 when I bought an I-Pod Mini, which was a decdent mp3 player (however the batteries were a bit crappy and it had no fm-radio which I missed back in the day) - however I never bought a single tune from the I-Tunes store. That was also the heydays of mp3 blogs and soulseek, so I got lots of mp3s from there.

As for streaming I don't like it really, I get bad vibes from the fact I am connected to some server if I want to listen to some music I like, and if the company get's bought or folds, your "collection" (you have paid for) is possibly gone as well. I do use youtube as a "streaming service" in a way, though.

As for buying music, I still do it - bandcamp mostly, and since I have this thing for outdates media (sort of) I currently buy cheap CDs from ebay and discogs and such.
 

luka

Well-known member
i'd like to hear matthew woebot on this topic, but he seems to have wandered off again

We talked about this actually. He said the reason history stops with grime is that is the last music to be released on vinyl. After that there is no magical artifact and without the magical artifact reality cannot be altered, material reality, doesn't change without the material fetish object being produced and inserted into the fabric of the real. After that we enter the virtual.

(I'm extrapolating here somewhat)
 

Leo

Well-known member
We talked about this actually. He said the reason history stops with grime is that is the last music to be released on vinyl. After that there is no magical artifact and without the magical artifact reality cannot be altered, material reality, doesn't change without the material fetish object being produced and inserted into the fabric of the real. After that we enter the virtual.

(I'm extrapolating here somewhat)

reminds me of the the current resident advisor video on dubplates:
 

Leo

Well-known member
you don't own music if you have it as an mp3, unless, of course, you pay for it. which is very dumb unless it's some rare 1970s turkish folk or something on bandcamp.

nothing dumb about buying an mp3 of an otherwise impossible to find vinyl release.
 

Woebot

Well-known member
it's long been fashionable to complain about iTunes but I'll miss it to a degree, hopefully the replacement Music app will retain features and functionality. I don't really care about iTunes as a music storage program but would really miss the download store, if that goes away (considering the growth of streaming, it probably will eventually, if not now). Say what you will about feeding the evil empire of Apple but the iTune store has a stunningly enormous selection of obscure tracks and albums, many not available via Bandcamp or other services. or you can always go to discogs and buy the rare vinyl for $$$...

I get the sense I'm one of the few people here who still cares about owning music, the concept of streaming seems great but rubs me the wrong way. I don't like how they pay artists royalties or the potential to be without any music if the service is down, my wifi gets fucked, etc. plus it feels like being held hostage, who's to say a service won't decide one day to jack up subscription prices or reduce service.

I also get the sense that a lot of people here don't buy music at all, just live off youtube and maybe Spotify. I'm an old fucker, obvs.

I don't like Spotify either - as convenient as it is. I simply feel no connection when i listen to music off it. And the absence of that sense of belonging and transaction with fellow human beings that you get when you buy an object from them is some part of it. Largely it's just another brick in the wall that Silicon Valley is using to encase people in their egos. HOWEVER my children love it and they even like the social media aspect of it (bah!) and it is remarkable how learned people get using it! I would say as well that Spotify's algorithms are very impressive - and they must have a team of serious music geek dudes working out top old tracks.

And Leo, as for being held hostage... just you wait until all other forms of music have been curtailed and everyone is dependent on streaming... they'll start hiking the prices up.

I won't miss iTunes especially because I never got the kick out of buying mp3s/aacs that I did from buying records or even cds.
 

Woebot

Well-known member
We talked about this actually. He said the reason history stops with grime is that is the last music to be released on vinyl. After that there is no magical artifact and without the magical artifact reality cannot be altered, material reality, doesn't change without the material fetish object being produced and inserted into the fabric of the real. After that we enter the virtual.

(I'm extrapolating here somewhat)

i think we'll have to call this the Davis-Ingram hypothesis because you've retooled/conflated what i said to make it more interesting and strategic!

though broadly (and without being shy of being an old cunt) YES.

i did say that the last modern musical artifacts that i bought were grime 12"s (up until about 2006-7) and that as far as i was concerned they were the last bits of living music to be put on vinyl. everything after then was just bohemian.

all my own 100 charts were was lists of physical objects. to that end not really "best of music" at all. for me those objects had/have a "mana" a physical, magical energy as talismans. people (or at least voices in my head) have criticised me for this on the basis of it being materialistic but actually as i get older i've begun to reflect that REALLY, certainly in my childhood, the most important things WERE objects. objects, artefacts, cuddly toys, environments, atmospheres. much more important to me than people ever were. and that in fact that was OK - more than OK!

what luke injects about objects being the last level in the emanation of ideas from the higher order is exactly correct. and i'd agree that artifacts are disruptive in this physical realm the way that 1,000,000 "Funky" mp3s never were.

but also, and this was something we did discuss, there is a practical aspect to this which is that final step to actually press up a record or distribute a CD is an important one in sorting the wheat from the chaff. when the Aylesbury Allstars pressed "Buss Red Right" and took it down to Cameo in Soho they were convinced it was worthy of that effort and expense.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Read an article today about how Netflix and Amazon Prime are losing loads of content as studios set up their own streaming platforms - and how eventually if you want to watch whatever you want to watch you'll have to subscribe to ten different services.

Got me thinking if we'll look back on Spotify as it is today nostalgically in a decade - perhaps the labels will all have their own streaming services too?

Chances are they'd struggle to make it work as well as Spotify does (rivals to Netflix have the same problem).
 
Top