Online Streaming / Radio Stations - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

Romanelli

Bone Swah

Gender: Male

Location: Broomfield, Colorado

Moderator

baystateoftheart wrote:

Serious question: is buying a used CD better or worse than streaming the album? You could say that by making sure record shops have business, you're indirectly contributing to more new CD sales in the long run, or that by making that particular CD scarcer in the market, you're increasing the odds for a reissue. But both are quite indirect, and the artist is still making $0.00 from you listening to that album, whereas they make $0.03 from you streaming it on Spotify or $0.10 on Apple Music.

Romanelli, what is the new vs. used breakdown of your CD purchases?

Fair question. But first...the decimals on those Spotify and Apple Music payments do need to be moved one spot to the left. It's $0.003 and $0.010. It's seems picky, but it's a big difference.

I do have many used CD's in my collection. For various reasons. I have no way of breaking it down, but I can tell you that the majority of the used came early on, and has diminished over the years. A learning process, if you will. I buy new now whenever I can. Sometimes albums are out of print and new copies are not available. It's always better to buy new. Especially for the smaller artists who are struggling to make their way. Best way there is to buy directly from the artist's website or at a live show. Ten years ago, I bought more used than new. Today, I buy new much more than used, and try to find a way to do so whenever I can. It's more expensive that way, but the way I see it, people don't commit to a major collection to do it on the cheap. At least, that's it for me.

As for your opening question: both are not good, but at least the artist (or whoever gets the royalties) has been paid for that used CD when it was new. Doesn't make it right that they don't get paid for the used purchase...but it least they get paid once. The streaming service paid nothing for the album they are seeing get streamed countless times. In fact, chances are very high that the artist has paid to have their album on those sites. Even worse...some artists pay 3rd parties to boost the number of streams they get. An absolute ripoff.

It's an issue that some in the music industry are fighting for...royalties for used products. Also, in America only, artists are not paid royalties...only songwriters and publishers. That needs to change as well.

I hope that answers your questions.

To be clear...my problem with streaming services is that their business model discourages people from purchasing albums. Why buy the album when you can listen to it all you want here for $12 to $20 per month? What they are selling is subscriptions to their services, while turning around and paying artists below the absolute minimum for their products.
_________________
I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history

MadhattanJack

Just to end the list...

Gender: Male

Romanelli wrote:

But first...the decimals on those Spotify and Apple Music payments do need to be moved one spot to the left. It's $0.003 and $0.010. It's seems picky, but it's a big difference.

Somebody once told me that the Spotify math is based on the assumption that nobody is going to listen to more than 10 albums per day for a full 30 days straight. (I used to do that routinely, but of course that was back when my favorite bands were still making records.) If a typical album has 12 tracks, that's 4 cents paid to the artist, and 10 x 4 is 40 cents (per day), and 40 cents x 30 = 12 bucks. Supposedly, that's why $12 is Spotify's individual monthly subscription rate.

I figured it was probably BS too, and they're just charging whatever they think they can get away with, but at the same time it's hard to argue with the exactitude.

Romanelli

Bone Swah

Gender: Male

Location: Broomfield, Colorado

Moderator

MadhattanJack wrote:

Somebody once told me that the Spotify math is based on the assumption that nobody is going to listen to more than 10 albums per day for a full 30 days straight. (I used to do that routinely, but of course that was back when my favorite bands were still making records.) If a typical album has 12 tracks, that's 4 cents paid to the artist, and 10 x 4 is 40 cents (per day), and 40 cents x 30 = 12 bucks. Supposedly, that's why $12 is Spotify's individual monthly subscription rate.

I figured it was probably BS too, and they're just charging whatever they think they can get away with, but at the same time it's hard to argue with the exactitude.

Where else in America can someone get paid $0.04 (4 cents) for an hour's worth of hard work? I'll tell you where.

PRISON

Wait. No...sorry. I take that back. The current federal minimum rate of pay for incarcerated prisoners is $0.12 (12 cents) per hour. Never mind.
_________________
I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history

baystateoftheart

Neil Young as a butternut squash

Age: 30

Location: Massachusetts

Romanelli wrote:

baystateoftheart wrote:

Serious question: is buying a used CD better or worse than streaming the album? You could say that by making sure record shops have business, you're indirectly contributing to more new CD sales in the long run, or that by making that particular CD scarcer in the market, you're increasing the odds for a reissue. But both are quite indirect, and the artist is still making $0.00 from you listening to that album, whereas they make $0.03 from you streaming it on Spotify or $0.10 on Apple Music.

Romanelli, what is the new vs. used breakdown of your CD purchases?

Fair question. But first...the decimals on those Spotify and Apple Music payments do need to be moved one spot to the left. It's $0.003 and $0.010. It's seems picky, but it's a big difference.

I do have many used CD's in my collection. For various reasons. I have no way of breaking it down, but I can tell you that the majority of the used came early on, and has diminished over the years. A learning process, if you will. I buy new now whenever I can. Sometimes albums are out of print and new copies are not available. It's always better to buy new. Especially for the smaller artists who are struggling to make their way. Best way there is to buy directly from the artist's website or at a live show. Ten years ago, I bought more used than new. Today, I buy new much more than used, and try to find a way to do so whenever I can. It's more expensive that way, but the way I see it, people don't commit to a major collection to do it on the cheap. At least, that's it for me.

As for your opening question: both are not good, but at least the artist (or whoever gets the royalties) has been paid for that used CD when it was new. Doesn't make it right that they don't get paid for the used purchase...but it least they get paid once. The streaming service paid nothing for the album they are seeing get streamed countless times. In fact, chances are very high that the artist has paid to have their album on those sites. Even worse...some artists pay 3rd parties to boost the number of streams they get. An absolute ripoff.

It's an issue that some in the music industry are fighting for...royalties for used products. Also, in America only, artists are not paid royalties...only songwriters and publishers. That needs to change as well.

I hope that answers your questions.

To be clear...my problem with streaming services is that their business model discourages people from purchasing albums. Why buy the album when you can listen to it all you want here for $12 to $20 per month? What they are selling is subscriptions to their services, while turning around and paying artists below the absolute minimum for their products.

Regarding the decimal, I was multiplying by 10 for listening to your whole 10-song album. Interesting, I've never heard of royalties for used physical media as a concept, and had no idea people were fighting for it. Totally agree that artists should get royalties in addition to songwriters and publishers. Thanks for the answer!

Personally, I pay for Apple Music, a bit of used vinyl, shows, and merch. Sometimes I check out CDs from the regional library system. As a renter who isn't yet settled for the long run, I don't feel ready for a large physical collection, but maybe it would be more interesting as a homeowner. I do enjoy good packaging and liner notes, neither of which streaming has.
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LTSings

Gender: Female

The Tree is an online Southern Gospel radio station. Of course, I don't like every song they play, but they play a lot of the music I love. Right now, they are playing "I Left it in the Water" by Southbound, which is one of my favorite songs of 2025, so far.

https://thetreeradio.com/southern-gospel-radio/