Musicians who sell ONLY from their own websites

[Boomzilla]

At least some current musicians seem to have opted NOT to allow streaming services to carry their work. If you want the music of the artist, you go to their own website and (usually) have the option to buy or stream some MP3 content. Want to buy a CD quality song or album? You're out of luck. Not available even from the artist's website.

This is frustrating.

I also find a lot of performances on YouTube that I'd like to buy in CD quality. No such luck. You might find a studio recording of the same song on CD, but the live performance on YouTube is SO much better. I've written to several bands asking that they make their YouTube performances available either on CD or Blu-Ray - I'd buy them. But no response, so maybe I'm in the minority on this?

I'm looking for solutions.

Encourage the streaming companies to compensate the artists better (and be willing to pay more for their subscriptions)?
Persuade YouTube to offer content at higher quality for sale and download?
Ask the individual artists to make higher quality content available on their own websites?

Open to suggestions...

Boom

[Sayer]

Many musicians use Bandcamp.com. It offers a much fairer payment structure and allows the artist to offer lossless FLAC downloads of their music. I've been using it for many years now for my music.

[DYohn]

Don't rely on streaming as a serious music source?

[AudioHTIT]

Dec 6, 2021 11:43:14 GMT -5 DYohn said:

Don't rely on streaming as a serious music source?

Why with lossless streaming now available do you want to eliminate a useful source of music?

[marcl]

I support buying direct from musicians whenever possible. And I sometimes find it's the only way to get certain albums. Bandcamp is certainly a good source.

Regarding streaming as a "serious music source", it's a conundrum. The provenance of any music file as delivered can rarely be known. The final delivery mode may be "lossless" in the sense that it delivers a bit-perfect rendition of the file from its server to the customer. But the fidelity of the file on their server can't be known. It may be a CD quality file or better. But the CD may have been remastered and compressed from a backup master tape, so vinyl might actually sound better. The service may have dynamic range requirements for the files they receive from record companies. Etc.

Here's an example. I have a file from 2L records that is 96/24 FLAC downloaded from their store. I have listened to the same recording on Apple Music purported to be "lossless" and the difference in dynamic range and soundstage is not subtle. The Apple Music version clearly lacks the impact and depth of the original 2L file.

That said ... I do enjoy Calm Radio and Apple Music for certain listening situations, and especially the latter for previewing music I might want to buy.

[AudioHTIT]

Dec 6, 2021 12:24:50 GMT -5 marcl said:

I support buying direct from musicians whenever possible. And I sometimes find it's the only way to get certain albums. Bandcamp is certainly a good source.

Regarding streaming as a "serious music source", it's a conundrum. The provenance of any music file as delivered can rarely be known. The final delivery mode may be "lossless" in the sense that it delivers a bit-perfect rendition of the file from its server to the customer. But the fidelity of the file on their server can't be known. It may be a CD quality file or better. But the CD may have been remastered and compressed from a backup master tape, so vinyl might actually sound better. The service may have dynamic range requirements for the files they receive from record companies. Etc.

Here's an example. I have a file from 2L records that is 96/24 FLAC downloaded from their store. I have listened to the same recording on Apple Music purported to be "lossless" and the difference in dynamic range and soundstage is not subtle. The Apple Music version clearly lacks the impact and depth of the original 2L file.

That said ... I do enjoy Calm Radio and Apple Music for certain listening situations, and especially the latter for previewing music I might want to buy.

I fully agree the artist should get their due, and streaming may not be the way to achieve that. As for provenance, Apple Music has at least given you a reason to believe it is known, under some conditions. Currently they have three categories, plus a bit rate and depth; Spacial (Atmos), Lossless (ALAC), Apple Digital Master (a more nebulous definition which currently includes mastering from a ‘high resolution source’ into ALAC). Of course you can never be sure without analyzing the signal, but it’s reasonable to expect that a 24/96 ALAC file came from a master with at least that resolution. Further, in most cases we’re only really hoping for Lossless at 16/44.1, which is not that much of a challenge. I can’t speak however to your specific example.

Here are a couple examples of how this is displayed.

Lossless, Apple Digital Master, 24/96


Lossless, Apple Digital Master, 24/48, Atmos/Spacial


Lossless, Apple Digital Master, 16/44.1


Do other streaming sources give this info?

[Sayer]

Just so people have an idea what musicians earn from the streaming services:

[stiehl11]

As far as streaming: I buy the media that I want in the format I want, put it on my Plex and have it anywhere, anytime, I want it. Streaming is fine for background noise or finding new music/artist(s). But that's just me.

As for quality: sample rate is not a true indication of quality; just the sample rate. High bitrate Mp3 files are nearly indistinguishable from CD quality (YMMV). And a high-rez bitrate on a poorly mastered song won't make it sound any better. Bitrate friendly files are likely because the artist is having to pay by the bit for customer downloads from the hosting site and/or does not have enough bandwidth from the host to handle high-volume high-bitrate downloads from the hosting site. Contact the artist and offer to buy a copy of their song/album at whatever bitrate you want and see what they say. The other thought is that the artist may not want "master grade" files out there to protect their Intellectual Property.

[zoomer67]

I agree with Boomzilla's comment about YouTube; There are a ton of great live performances by a bunch of my favorite artists on there,too. I'd love to have them on Vinyl or Blu-ray. I actually own a CD-R deck and have tried once or twice to make a 'mix tape' CD-R of some top performances but it doesn't work over the Toslink line out.I think I'd need to record the audio over the analog outs.Maybe I'll try that next time to see how (good/bad??) it sounds.