If you're in a DM or a group chat, you may not hear "You should listen to X by Y" but rather "Check this out: https://open.spotify.com/blah"

At my current workplace and a previous one, both had Slack channels for sharing music and they were 99% Spotify links.

Partly because of genuine Spotify usage but even not using Spotify at the time, I would find the Spotify equivalent for my own recommendations (to reduce friction for the majority so they'd be more likely to actually listen to the recommendation)

Presumably for those few users not using Spotify, rather than having to find the equivalent song via text search, which may or may not contain a result for Provider Z, this service straight up just converts the Spotify link you've been given into all of the other provider equivalents.

So if you care about your musicians consider seeking out other ways to get your records, e.g. bandcamp

> Effortlessly convert Spotify links to your preferred streaming service

You'd think my comment assuming you didn't need an account was already absurdly wrong but with your response the cake was taken, because I'm not from America either.

edit: misread parts of grandparent. Yeah, the 30s previews are gone, didn’t even realize anyone used those.

> The good thing about Tidal

Can’t confirm, it’s worse than spotify for me, as I get an unclosable modal that asks me to sign up or login.

I've had to get friends to share the titles manually, before I found Odesli to be able to convert them.

Huh? What linux device might only have access to spotify? Pretty much every Linux distribution (with the possible exception of Linux From Scratch[0]) has multiple local apps to play music, both from the command line and via a gui in their standard package repositories.

Not to mention dozens of sites (if you can get to spotify you can get to them) that perform the same function.

Please do explain, as I'm pretty confused.

[0] https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

Apple, Google and Meta are Data Transfer Initiative members. I hope Spotify joins soon.

So, y'know, might be coming.

But you can't skip to the next tune so you need to skip to the next webradio instead ;)

Of course, Apple still pushes its overpriced Macs, but the focus there seems to be on developers (for the more expensive stuff--big monitors, workstations, etc.) or people (probably corporate workers, developers, etc.) using MacBooks. In both cases, the focus seems to be on machines used for doing work. I'm just guessing, but I would guess that most MacOS users who want to listen to (Apple) music would do so on their personal device, i.e. their iPhone, rather than their MacOS device which is probably owned and managed by their employer.

This is crazy. Not sure how they expect anyone to keep using their service with such attitude.

Perhaps it is a lock-in strategy: don’t leave or you lose months or even years of your music habits.

At the same time, both Spotify and YouTube Music keep all the data to this day.

One might argue that they free plans, so they have to keep it. And I would say “I don’t care”. If I can’t rely on your service to keep a list of songs - I am not using it.

Damn, they could utilize my iCloud account. Or allow me to export a text file with that data, so I could import it back later. But no. No money - you are screwed.

Some items now stay greyed out because they don’t have a license. And some versions got replaced (eg, to the remastered ones).

https://www.godaddy.com/forsale/mbid.org

Free, still maintained, and supports every format around.

Found this out when I was adding Johnny Winter / Guitar Slinger to the collection and noticed it was blocked for sale. https://www.discogs.com/release/3318469-Johnny-Winter-Guitar...

Realistically, Wikidata may not have enough of this data populated, but it is nice to dream. And it seems plausible that MusicBrainz or similar might have enough data.

[0] https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P1902

[1] https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4576

Edit: P1902 has 57000 uses and P4576 has 7000. So YMMV big time.

Also discrot is only a problem if you don't keep your CDs in a case, or if the case is made entirely of transparent acrylic and you lost the labels and teh little booklet. They're very reliable when properly protected from scratches and radiation.

Vinyl does theoretically have a better s/n ratio, but you can only see this in perfect setups, including a new needle in your player. Even then after just a handful of plays and vinyl is worn enough to be worse (I've heard of laser based vinyl plays which don't wear the media - I have no idea if they are real or how they compare to CDs, but I need to acknowledge them because they might be different enough to matter)

Too much inside baseball experience with the data the studios/labels believe is perfect that when received is far from perfect leaving the individual platforms to deal with it.

Another source are good ol' CDs. If you know where to look you can get them cheap too. Specialist charity shops that specialise in records and CDs in student or wealthy areas are good, as are second hand stores online.

An alternative to self hosting is to use an online music locker. I wrote up a bunch here: https://www.blisshq.com/music-library-management-blog/2021/0... and (disclaimer) operate one myself: https://asti.ga

I made this to help though https://github.com/meeb/bandcampsync

Bandcamp is the only place to sensibly buy music you can own these days which is pretty depressing.

That doesn't happen on other platforms?

I had two albums of a band who's front man died and they disbanded. The albums were removed but I still have them in my collection. You cant find it on the site anymore but I can still download and play them.

And you can even send a mail to the artist to ask them why they removed old albums and if they can provide you a copy.

So, we really have not made any forward progress here

cds are both younger and built better, so they will not only last to a later absolute date, they will last longer relative to their manufacturing date, but cds have a few other things that mask rot even when it starts, which is both that they are digital and the player has buffering and interpolation, and also that the data format includes redundant data for error correction. (ld is analog and has neither, later better players do add some digital processing but it can't do the kind of good job with a 6mhz analog fm ntsc video signal that a cd player can with a simple audio bitstream)

A cd with the same rot that is visible on a ld (visible in the output not visible to the eye on the physical disc) will appear to play perfectly even in the cheapest junk player.

So, it will take longer, but I see no reason to treat "longer" as "indefinite".

There is no specific time, but it is inevitable and I don't think it's in the 100's of years but in the 10's of years, and the 10's of years, especially when many are already 30 years old, is not very many more 10's of years left.

And if that turns out to be pessimistic and they last another 50 or more? That's just a bonus. Lucky future rippers who get a chance to rip with even better tech later.

Tangentially I do also assume that some day long before the polycarbonate disintigrates, there will be a practical way to read even fully oxidized discs with a different frequency laser or even a camera or microscope-based head, or even a bulk scanner that just rasterizes the whole surface without even bothering to read the track in a spiral until after the fact purely in software.

As time goes on, tools get both better and more accessible, so in 1995 it would not be possible for a person to make their own laser head, but today it probably is, and in only a few more years will just get easier and easier, and probably at a rate that outruns the rate at which the discs fully degrade.