Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Friday Music: About Apple Music

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  • bob daktari,

    I'm sure due to the size of Apple this foray into streaming will be successful, mainly for the fact they have an established client base... I'd wager the not so young more conservative members of the iTunes/apple community will love streaming via apple, for most others I'm not so sure - this isn't a new tech thang or device you gotta have, its a service that many have already decided they like or not... youtube will not be worried and thats the service the next big music thang has to dethrone not spotify

    Connect just sounds stupid , was it a leftover idea from iTunes initial launch, cause it sounds old and dated - you'd think a music person who lives in the modern world would have pointed that out... if I want that sort of interaction with an artist I want to do it in their space, not Apples, this is why artists have (or should have) their own websites - don't give up everything to a corporate cause they don't care about you or your fans

    Don't expect much on the radio front, radio works best on a local community driven level... curious to see how it works though, especially given the addition of a Rinse FM person into the mix

    things apple will never serve ya

    Heidi- Carl Craig Remixathon- Mix https://soundcloud.com/heidi-dj/heidi-carl-craig-remixathon-mix hell yeah!

    25 Years of Fabio & Grooverider https://soundcloud.com/djfabiodnb/25-years-of-fabio-grooverider-shouts-respect-from-the-scene 3 hours of solid beats and giggling

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 540 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    I'm not an Apple customer, they don't have an iTunes that runs on any platform I use day to day, they're sort of a foreign country to me. I used to be a fan, even a developer, but they've closed off their world from the rest of us.

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Alan Perrott,

    it's been a particularly crap week for my icons - first John Keating, one the great English big band leaders/ arrangers and such. like many of those guys (Geoff Love, John Gregory, Alan Tew, Keith Mansfield etc and so on) he was always willing to experiment with odd ideas and (then) new technology, often to the point where you have to wonder who he thought his audience was.
    anyway, this is my fave...synths/ harmonica/ kitchen sink, it's all here

    then of course Hansi. he isn't a particular favourite - Bert Kaempfert is the German for me - but it was James Last's music that first got me interested in exploring the mad world of Schlager and easy listening - the strangest stuff has been recorded for the straightest audiences.
    it was a job of work but I finally tracked down his big three albums Hair, Voodoo Party and Well Kept Secret - for anyone interested the latter boasts some big hitters of the US West Coast jazz scene. for instance...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 438 posts Report Reply

  • SomeGuy,

    If the indicated pricing is right, and the android app appears soon, Apple Music will be enormously successful. For the simple reason that if you're a family of 4-5 listeners it's roughly half the price of Spotify ($20NZD vs $39NZD for 5).

    Since Jun 2015 • 1 posts Report Reply

  • bob daktari, in reply to SomeGuy,

    a nuclear family of three can use one spotify account on 3 devices for the single price - zero dollars if on one of the spark plans

    streaming mobile families need to factor in data charges on each individual account as well as subscription is only one part of the potential equation - leading to... I wonder if the data usage will differ by platform, as in which is the more efficient

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 540 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Paul Campbell,

    I’m not an Apple customer, they don’t have an iTunes that runs on any platform I use day to day, they’re sort of a foreign country to me. I used to be a fan, even a developer, but they’ve closed off their world from the rest of us.

    To be fair, they'll launch Apple Music on MacOS, Windows and iOS and will have an Android client in a couple of months. That's a lot of people covered.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to bob daktari,

    Don’t expect much on the radio front, radio works best on a local community driven level… curious to see how it works though, especially given the addition of a Rinse FM person into the mix

    I'm prepared to add it to my radio diet and see if I like the taste, put it that way.

    things apple will never serve ya

    Exactly.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Mikee Loop,

    The Apple Music royalty pay out comparison to Spotify in the DMN article is flawed. The leaked Apple split is the master tape share only and they have compared that with the overall Spotify royalty share of master and copyright! Not to mention the gross verse net definitions which differ for both. Plus they are comparing the USA only versions of the contracts which is far more complex than any other territory (it gets interesting in NZ). Plus Apple & Spotify have different minimum payouts! It’s super confusing to compare them as the variables are massive. One thing that is for sure is that the indie labels & artists are not on the same playing field as the big boys which – SUX! Lets review this shinozzle when we have some statements to look at in 5 months!

    Auckland • Since Jun 2015 • 4 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell, in reply to Russell Brown,

    To be fair, they’ll launch Apple Music on MacOS, Windows and iOS and will have an Android client in a couple of months. That’s a lot of people covered.

    but still no Linux support I guess - no music for me I can't buy on CDs I guess

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Graham Dunster,

    Auckland • Since Nov 2009 • 184 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Paul Campbell,

    but still no Linux support I guess – no music for me I can’t buy on CDs I guess

    You don't really want to be buying 256k AAC files anyway :-)

    There's always Spotify for Linux.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Graham Dunster,

    Real Groovy? Brian Rudman has a plan –

    That's a weird column. He proposes an "arts precinct" in the old admin building and concludes by explaining why it's a non-starter.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • 81stcolumn,

    And a gratuitous vaguely connected favourite of mine.

    I wonder what Dave Brock makes of it all.

    Nawthshaw • Since Nov 2006 • 790 posts Report Reply

  • Stupid,

    Great to see you're getting out DJing Russell, sadly I won't be able to catch your Saturday 27 June 7-11pm set at Golden Dawn as I'll be checking out Sam Hunt with David Kilgour & The Heavy Eights at the Kings Arms. I look forward to hearing how it goes at Sherwood too, heard good things about that place.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 75 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    St Kevin’s Arcade update: I’m told Paul Reid has said he definitely doesn’t want to turn the arcade into Ponsonby Central, just to refurbish and restore it, and more particularly he has no plans to do anything to Wine Cellar/Whammy. Benefit of the doubt, I reckon.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Stupid, in reply to Russell Brown,

    One word: Asbestos :-(

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 75 posts Report Reply

  • Clarke,

    What you need is Roon - once you've used this little puppy with a TIDAL account, you'll never bother with iTunes or the Apple ecosystem ever again.

    Things to like include a user interface that actually provides the artist and music discovery experience that everyone's been blathering about for the last 15 years but not actually delivering, plus brilliant audio quality. It hoovers up your current iTunes library, works with FLAC, the TIDAL streaming is lossless, and the audio codecs are first rate - so it's worthwhile actually connecting up a proper DAC and a decent stereo if you're an audio geek (and it works plenty fine through your Mac and/or AppleTV as well).

    Downsides: it's version 1.0 or thereabouts, so there are some evolving features and rough edges. But there's sure a lot to like, and in 12 months this will be the gold standard for playing computer-based audio.

    And on the streaming side, my vote is firmly for TIDAL. Yes, it costs more than Spotify, but the quality is vastly better and they reputedly return more to the artist - which I care about a lot. And in the context of someone who has got used to buying an album/CD a week for too many decades, the cost of TIDAL is a mere rounding error.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 85 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Clarke,

    What you need is Roon - once you've used this little puppy with a TIDAL account, you'll never bother with iTunes or the Apple ecosystem ever again.

    While Tidal might offer something, as a paid app Roon by itself makes some dubious "audiophile" claims while barely matching the features of totally free players such as Media Monkey and Music Bee.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Clarke,

    While Tidal might offer something, as a paid app Roon by itself makes some dubious "audiophile" claims while barely matching the features of totally free players such as Media Monkey and Music Bee.

    Both the apps you've referenced are still using metadata tagging as the mechanism for arranging and relating music, which is a bit like persisting with AltaVista well into the age of Google. Having used a great many of the players out there, I can honestly say that Roon allows me an ease of discovery - transparently, across my own library and into TIDAL - that no other music sorting and playing software gets close to. YMMV, of course, as "free" may well carry much greater weight than the quality of the experience for a whole bunch of people. I just don't happen to be one of them - I'm actually prepared to pay for better software.

    And I fully get that better quality music doesn't jerk everyone's chain, either - which is why Apple can still get away with 256/AAC long after the point that the growth in bandwidth and storage should have made lossless the default in both downloads and streaming.

    To my ears, nothing sounds worse than a 128K rip of of a favourite track - it's like nails across the blackboard. But given the number of people listening to exactly that format through the default Apple iBuds they got with their phone, I'm absolutely prepared to admit that I'm in a minority, and that audio quality simply doesn't matter to the vast majority of people - which is why the price differential between Spotify and TIDAL matters to a whole bunch of folk. After all, if you can't hear or aren't bothered by the quality difference, why would you pay the premium for TIDAL?

    So when someone says "dubious audiophile claims" I tend to hear "audio quality isn't one of the things in life that matters to me" - which is a view I can respect, even if the audiophile claims are anything but dubious. :-)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 85 posts Report Reply

  • Grant McDougall,

    The relationship between me, music and Apple is … complicated.

    So, not a Beatles' fan, then ? Don't worry, I'll get me coat...

    So, no Adele, Arctic Monkeys or The Prodigy.

    You say that like that's a bad thing. Putting me coat on now...

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2006 • 760 posts Report Reply

  • Grant McDougall,

    RIP jazz giant Ornette Coleman, too.

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2006 • 760 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Clarke,

    To my ears, nothing sounds worse than a 128K rip of of a favourite track - it's like nails across the blackboard.

    No argument there. Given the option to pay a premium for FLAC over high-bitrate MP3 I'll usually take it. But it has nothing to do with with Roon's claims of inherently superior playback quality.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Murray Hewitt,

    Okay it's a crappy mp3, but you'll still get the power of that baseline (and the voice). My daughter, Avalon, today won The Edge acapella (A capella? a'capella? - it's a bloody cover, alright?) competition with this version of "Take Me To Church"

    Wainui • Since Jan 2008 • 21 posts Report Reply

  • David Bishop,

    Re: James Last - when New Order toured NZ in the late 80s, they said Last had expressed interest in covering Blue Monday with his orchestra. Sadly, I don't think this ever came to pass...

    Scotland • Since Jun 2015 • 3 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    The quiet impending giant in the Asian music streaming market is Line. It exists on just about every smartphone in the region as the dominant messaging service and launched its music service in Japan and Thailand in May. A month in it has 58m subscribers and is soon to launch across East and SE Asia.

    Oh, and it offers a food delivery service and an Uber type service as part of the package.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

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