Preferences for CDs, Downloading or Streaming

[jayne lee wilson]

BTW to Qobuz users.... has anyone else noticed that more tracks are getting greyed out now? So you can only hear part of the album.....this occasionally happens with high-profile New Releases, and you get the full album eventually...but this isn't the case here.

Looking for the Florent Schmitt Piano Quintet, the two albums I found greyed out all of the Quintet whilst allowing the other works to be played.... just now, the Gaia Scienza's Schubert Trios are similarly affected - only allowing a partial listen of each work.....
Thankfully I have the CDs of these, and current New Releases don't seem to be affected, but what a bizarre development..... maybe some record companies are having to get meaner in the current crisis...or I may be unlucky in my choices & it isn't so recent....anyone seen this?

Time to drop them a line & find out......

[Bryn]

BTW to Qobuz users.... has anyone else noticed that more tracks are getting greyed out now? So you can only hear part of the album.....this occasionally happens with high-profile New Releases, and you get the full album eventually...but this isn't the case here.

Looking for the Florent Schmitt Piano Quintet, the two albums I found greyed out all of the Quintet whilst allowing the other works to be played.... just now, the Gaia Scienza's Schubert Trios are similarly affected - only allowing a partial listen of each work.....
Thankfully I have the CDs of these, and current New Releases don't seem to be affected, but what a bizarre development..... maybe some record companies are having to get meaner in the current crisis...or I may be unlucky in my choices & it isn't a recent development....anyone seen this?

Time to drop them a line & find out......

I also find some 'track' stall, partway in (and I am not thinking of the 30-second extracts but, say, 5'17 seconds into a 5'53" track). The recent Niquet Lully is a case in point when it comes to streaming, I find.

[Dave2002]

BTW to Qobuz users.... has anyone else noticed that more tracks are getting greyed out now? So you can only hear part of the album.....this occasionally happens with high-profile New Releases, and you get the full album eventually...but this isn't the case here.

Looking for the Florent Schmitt Piano Quintet, the two albums I found greyed out all of the Quintet whilst allowing the other works to be played.... just now, the Gaia Scienza's Schubert Trios are similarly affected - only allowing a partial listen of each work.....
Thankfully I have the CDs of these, and current New Releases don't seem to be affected, but what a bizarre development..... maybe some record companies are having to get meaner in the current crisis...or I may be unlucky in my choices & it isn't so recent....anyone seen this?

Time to drop them a line & find out......

Those are the kinds of issues which have kept me sticking with CDs and SACDs. OK - I often do stream - just too lazy to find the CD and put it in a player, but at least I know I can do it - mostly. As for downloads .. some sites suck you in, and you buy the first three movements (say) of a symphony, and then go back a while later to pick up the last movement, but someone has decided to remove it from the site. Happened all too often. I think there are similar issues with streaming too - though not quite the same. Like JK I also use Youtube quite a lot - and sometimes the quality is really rather good - or at least passable, though for toe tapping excitement there's no comparison with a good quality source. I know that JLW likes, or has liked, Qobuz in the past but I never worked up quite that level of enthusiasm for it, and only ever used it to sample things quickly.

[jayne lee wilson]

Those are the kinds of issues which have kept me sticking with CDs and SACDs. OK - I often do stream - just too lazy to find the CD and put it in a player, but at least I know I can do it - mostly. As for downloads .. some sites suck you in, and you buy the first three movements (say) of a symphony, and then go back a while later to pick up the last movement, but someone has decided to remove it from the site. Happened all too often. I think there are similar issues with streaming too - though not quite the same. Like JK I also use Youtube quite a lot - and sometimes the quality is really rather good - or at least passable, though for toe tapping excitement there's no comparison with a good quality source. I know that JLW likes, or has liked, Qobuz in the past but I never worked up quite that level of enthusiasm for it, and only ever used it to sample things quickly.

OK but remember you don't buy the individual albums here.... its £15 pcm for all you can eat & there's always too much choice.......anyway, I'll report back here if Q say anything, they're usually very responsive.... I guess it probably is a record company problem, especially given that on the Naxos Schmitt albums it is only the most important works that are greyed out....but hey, I take the rough with the smooth and try to fix a problem...

Problem, meet solution!

Perhaps that notable Schmitt expert, enthusiast and promoter Mr. Hinton knows something about it...

But I still love Qobuz! The new Naxos Nielsen Violin Sonatas are playing now (complete!).

[AmpH]

My listening time is split roughly 40% vinyl LP , 30% CD / SACD , 30% streaming ( Qobuz ). Streaming from Qobuz via laptop / DAC into the main system and the Qobuz smartphone app is gradually increasing at the expense of CD listening and has opened the door to so much music I would probably never have listened to otherwise.

My LP listening ( via much loved SME , Michell and Sony DD turntables ) will never diminish, particularly to my treasured Northern Soul / Stax / Tamla Motown record collections, much of which are not and never will be available on any other medium.

Downloading is not and never has been part of my listening.

[johnb]

All my listening is via music on my hard drive (either ripped or downloads) so it would make sense to opt for downloads given the choice. However, I always have to edit the tags on download files.

In practice, I like having the CDs but it is often more convenient and quicker to buy the download. Given the option I tend to get HiRes downloads when there is the option, though I'm not sure I could tell the difference between CD and Hi Res.

Incidentally, I too have noticed greyed out albums/tracks on Qobuz. In my case with CDs that had previously been fully available.

[Bryn]

One thing I find a source of repeated ammusememt is the way the price of lossy mp3s Amazon is quite often higher than the price for the CDs they are derived from, even when buying the CDs would entitle one to free a free download of the very same mp3s.

[Nick Armstrong]

It would be interesting to know what the balance is of those on the forum whose preferences are for cd over download and streaming.

Alps, I posed this question on the Brahms Piano Quintet BaL thread. Would it be possible to transfer the appropriate responses to this new thread?

I’ve been pretty much 100% streaming / downloads for some years now (and in the last year or two, all streaming).

The wallfull of CDs has alas been merely decorative for a long while Since the advent of Qobuz and the ability to throw music to the main hifi from iPad or iPhone, I haven’t looked back.

The last nail in the CD coffin was changing cars in December: the old one had a CD port plus a connection for iPod. I’d usually have a CD loaded, and burn CDs to put on the iPod. (In a similar way, the previous car to that one had been the last ‘hurrah’ for cassettes). Not the new one. I listen to Qobuz or “Sounds” or France Musique podcasts via the phone.

.

(Re your request: I can move them if you like but they’ll appear in time order i.e. before your OP, if they were posted earlier. If that’s ok, could you PM me with the “#” numbers of the posts on the Brahms thread you want shifting? )

[richardfinegold]

Dipped the toe pretty deep into streaming, but always come back to CDs. I hardly download anymore, and can’t stomach vinyl

I noted in another thread that no one responded to (sob!) that many recordings contained in these big box reissues tend to available only as mp3 downloads once the inventory of the big boxes is gone. That was one reason that I recently shelled out for the big Bruno Walter box, which is worth every penny

[jayne lee wilson]

My listening time is split roughly 40% vinyl LP , 30% CD / SACD , 30% streaming ( Qobuz ). Streaming from Qobuz via laptop / DAC into the main system and the Qobuz smartphone app is gradually increasing at the expense of CD listening and has opened the door to so much music I would probably never have listened to otherwise.

My LP listening ( via much loved SME , Michell and Sony DD turntables ) will never diminish, particularly to my treasured Northern Soul / Stax / Tamla Motown record collections, much of which are not and never will be available on any other medium.

Downloading is not and never has been part of my listening.

Perhaps the crucial point about streaming..... you can be as adventurous as you like without the bigger financial commitment (with all the potentially distorting decision-based psychological implications of purchase and ownership...)...
Among many such discoveries, I've got to know and hear much Early and obscure Baroque music this way, not least Gesualdo and Palestrina....

That recent Nielsen Violin/Piano album is another such (and those Bach Motets) - music I hardly knew or heard before at all, despite my devotion to the composer...

[Goon525]

Jayne, although I can’t say I’ve found lots of instances, I listened to the ‘winning’ Mozart C minor mass by Suzuki after BaL last week, only to discover when I got there that the rather crucial ‘Et Incarnatus Est’ sung by Carolyn Sampson was missing in action. This is worrying, if it’s a new trend. And pointless - sales figures make it quite clear that it’s too late to save physical media.

[Dave2002]

. Dipped the toe pretty deep into streaming, but always come back to CDs. I hardly download anymore, and can’t stomach vinyl

I noted in another thread that no one responded to (sob!) that many recordings contained in these big box reissues tend to available only as mp3 downloads once the inventory of the big boxes is gone. That was one reason that I recently shelled out for the big Bruno Walter box, which is worth every penny

Is your Walter box the LP sized chunky box, which has been around a while? I think it’s still available here, but no longer cheap - if it ever was. If that’s the one, and there’s maybe now little chance of a new version, then maybe I’ll just have to go for it anyway.

Looks as though this might actually be a newer version, from 2019, hopefully with the remastering you’ve mentioned.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bruno-Walter-Complete-Columbia-Collection/dp/B07MWXGCWL/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Bruno+Walter+box+set&qid=1601717096&s=music&sr=1-1

[teamsaint]

Jayne, although I can’t say I’ve found lots of instances, I listened to the ‘winning’ Mozart C minor mass by Suzuki after BaL last week, only to discover when I got there that the rather crucial ‘Et Incarnatus Est’ sung by Carolyn Sampson was missing in action. This is worrying, if it’s a new trend. And pointless - sales figures make it quite clear that it’s too late to save physical media.

What is the evidence for this? Plenty of things have been pronounced dead, vinyl and physical books for example, and are yet a vital and growing part of the sales mix.

I would be very happy to bet substantially that physical media survive in the main. Most recordings need all the sales they can get from whatever channel.
Dowloads and streams make rotten gifts,nand you can’t sign them either.

[cloughie]

Is your Walter box the LP sized chunky box, which has been around a while? I think it’s still available here, but no longer cheap - if it ever was. If that’s the one, and there’s maybe now little chance of a new version, then maybe I’ll just have to go for it anyway.

Looks as though this might actually be a newer version, from 2019, hopefully with the remastering you’ve mentioned.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bruno-Walte...s=music&sr=1-1

The earlier version was not as complete!

[Bryn]

What is the evidence for this? Plenty of things have been pronounced dead, vinyl and physical books for example, and are yet a vital and growing part of the sales mix.

I would be very happy to bet substantially that physical media survive in the main. Most recordings need all the sales they can get from whatever channel.
Dowloads and streams make rotten gifts,nand you can’t sign them either.