How We Listen To Music

1832 Views 23 Replies 10 Participants Last post by Formerly Given To Fly, Mar 8, 2020

Formerly Given To Fly

Discussion Starter · Sep 8, 2019

On the music listening spectrum, the two extremes seem to be streaming free low quality mp3’s and buying vinyl. Everything else is in between and most of it is digital, though there is a wide range of quality within digital. Overall, convenience is the number 1 priority.

On the film watching spectrum, things are sort of the same except nothing is free or low quality. Convenience is still important but in order for Netflix, Disney, and every film studio to maintain control over their “content,” some convenience is sacrificed. For example, you can’t watch a movie in 4K HDR on a 15 year old TV. In fact, the only way to watch 4K content is if you have a 4K or higher TV and HDMI 2.0 ports that support HDCP 2.2. If any component does not support HDCP 2.2, all the media reverts to 1080p. The reason things are like this is because of money. TV/Film is really expensive to create so the parties involved implement security measures to protect it from theft. I can burn a CD, I can’t burn a BluRay disc. It can be done but not with your computer at home.

Why has the majority of the music industry done none of this? These protections can be applied in the physical and digital domains but only a few independent labels have done it. This is an honest question. Things can be done differently, but Sony, Universal, and Warner might not be thrilled about it. Your thoughts...

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Formerly Given To Fly

Discussion Starter · #21 · Jan 28, 2020

ThomasUV777 said:
And talk about convenience. Double-clicking a file to listen to 1 specific song as opposed to getting the CD, taking it out of the jewel case, praying to God that the disc doesn't have scratches or isn't dirty, skipping through all the tracks to get to the song you wanted. Goodbye back-breaking labour! And a standard family only had one pc standing in the living room anyway so it was there for all to enjoy.

It was also around 2000 that video-DVD's were becoming a mainstream thing. I recall saving up for a PS2 around that time and being one of the first people in class being able to play a DVD. But by the end of the academic year, everyone had a DVD player. Sure, you could download movies on your PC back then, but it was a whole hassle getting it to play on your TV. For the people who watched movies on their PC monitor, it worked just fine. But when you got a family that wants to collectively enjoy movies, DVD's was still the best movie-watching option. I'm starting to feel like Randy Marsh after buying that Blockbuster video store.

Audio-DVD's were a very niche market and offered no new form of convenience. Kind of like why 4K Blu-Rays aren't taking off (and probably never will), despite the fact that the picture quality is better (in theory) as opposed to streaming (4K) video content. The average person just digs the whole comfort of Netflix, Amazon Prime etc, even though they are compromising on quality when compared to the best physical media out there.

Man I used the word "convenience" a lot.

Perhaps this will clarify what I find frustrating: Using the CD as the standard, any resolution below CD quality is described as "you can't tell the difference." Any resolution above CD quality is described as "you can't hear the difference except for film which is at 24bit/48kHz." This does not make sense but implies all sound is the same unless you are watching a movie...

lain:

You mentioned "a nice high-quality set of speakers" as part of a pleasant listening experience for yourself. That makes sense. I could be wrong, but I think more people might think this makes more sense (and is more convenient): https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Studio/...&pd_rd_r=93960074-fb39-4806-98b2-a3c48a1d60b7

People like cheap speakers they can talk to and you are an a**hole if you don't like them too. That's frustrating.

Now, after all this negativity I need a pick me up, so I'm going to watch a movie on my iPhone using the phone's speakers because it is convenient...

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mike570

· #22 · Jan 28, 2020

People listen to music out of a hockey puck these days. 'Nuff said.

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bikitasi

· #23 · Mar 4, 2020 (Edited)

On the film watching spectrum, things are sort of the same except nothing is free or low quality. Convenience is still important but in order for Netflix, Disney, and every film studio to maintain control over their "content," some convenience is sacrificed. For example, you can't watch a movie in 4K HDR on a 15 year old TV. In fact, the only way to watch 4K content is if you have a 4K or higher TV and HDMI 2.0 ports that support HDCP 2.2. If any component does not support HDCP 2.2, all the media reverts to 1080p. The reason things are like this is because of money. TV/Film is really expensive to create so the parties involved implement security measures to protect it from theft. I can burn a CD, I can't burn a BluRay disc. It can be done but not with your computer at home. Lucky Patcher Kodi nox

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Formerly Given To Fly

Discussion Starter · #24 · Mar 8, 2020

To branch out the topic of “How We Listen to Music” I am curious about how many times people listen to a song/album they like? Rough guesses are welcome.

Personally, it depends on the music, how long it is, how demanding it is to listen to, etc. It turns out, I like listening to movies as background sound to allow sounds I hadn’t noticed before to emerge. According to iTunes, I “played” Star Wars - The Force Awakens 1,000+ times. I think “played” means “pressed play” not “watched the whole thing” because that would be rather remarkable if I had in fact listened/watched the entire movie 1,000+ times.

The 2nd most listened to song was Muramasa by Periphery at 400+ but closer to 500. I think that is pretty accurate. The song is a 2:52 album intro. I tend to consume specific music in a relatively short period of time until I am familiar with everything about it and then rarely ever listen to it again. This is probably not the norm, which I am fine with, however, when the powers at be were deciding how much a streamed song is worth, they made their decision based on the belief “a song is listened to 30 times over the life of the medium.” I have no idea where they got that number but it seems low.

How many times do you listen to music before the newness wears off?

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