Classical music streaming services: How Richard Morrison went from streaming sceptic to acolyte in a month

[lennygoran]

A friend sent me this. Regards, Len


First, a confession. I came to streaming (and much else in the 21st-century world) rather as a Viking warrior might have come to psychotherapy counselling. Everyone told me I needed it, but until recently — in fact, last month — I couldn’t see why.

That is because I grew up in an age that wasn’t just pre-streaming. It was pre-downloads, pre-CDs, pre-cassettes and, even, in my family, pre-LPs. My first experience of recorded sound came from my dad’s 78s, which, for the benefit of readers under 80, were thick black plates that played all of five minutes of music before you had to turn them over. Listening to a Beethoven symphony took most of an evening. In fact, as I’ve just discovered, it is rather the same using Spotify or Apple Music to stream a complete Beethoven symphony with all its movements played by the same orchestra and conductor. Such is progress. However, more of that later.

During my first 30-odd years as a classical music fan, I felt certain of one thing: the quality of recorded sound would get better and better. Stereo came along in the late 1950s. Then, in the 1980s, the arrival of digitally recorded sound — captured on smart, silver “compact discs” — opened up a new world in which every tiny nuance of a vast orchestral work could be perfectly reproduced. The CD often came packaged with superb essays explaining every facet of the music’s history.. To classical nerds these things matter.

So imagine the shock when the music industry moved towards putting out recordings not as attractive objects that you could stack like a library of books, but as MP3 computer files that hugely compressed the sonic quality and barely told you who was playing what. That happened about 20 years ago, at which point I think millions of classical music fans decided that, as far as we were concerned, the history of recorded music would be frozen at 1995. We would not buy downloads or stream from websites. We would continue to buy our lovely CDs, with their perfect sound and encyclopaedic booklets.

There was only one problem. One by one, the shops selling CDs went out of business. As Thomas Steffens puts it: “We are moving towards a streaming-only musical world. A world without record stores and indeed online stores, and with a decreasing number of classical radio stations.”

Steffens, a bright, youngish Dutchman, is one of those people determined to make streaming work for classical nerds like me. And, indeed, like him. “My company, Primephonic, started in 2017 when three of us, classical music lovers in our thirties, shared our feelings that although we loved Spotify for rock and pop music, we disliked it so much for classical,” he says. “Then we realised that this was not just a problem for us, but an existential problem for the genre itself. We decided we needed to save classical music from digital death.”

Digital death? Isn’t that rather overstating the case? Not according to Steffens. He argues that although classical represents about 5 per cent of sales across the music sector, on Spotify it accounts for less than 1 per cent of streams. Since Spotify is — overwhelmingly — the gateway to music for most people under 40, classical music is virtually invisible to younger generations.

What’s more, Steffens says, the classical music world is tying itself in undignified knots trying to fit in with Spotify’s ways of working. One method involves paying royalties per track, rather than per minute, which is a huge disadvantage for classical music, where a single symphonic movement can often be four or five times as long as a pop song. “We now see some classical labels cutting longer movements in half, which I hate, and some star performers recording only shorter works,” he says. It really is like a return to the 1920s heyday of 78s.

Primephonic’s riposte has not come cheap. Improving the sound quality of streaming (it offers 24 bit, the same as CDs) costs a lot of money and paying royalties per minute is obviously more expensive if you are going to offer entire Bruckner symphonies or Wagner operas.

Then there is the metadata problem. Whereas pop fans need only a performer’s name or song title to locate the track they want on Spotify, a classical concerto can be identified by key, number or maybe nickname, its individual movements by tempo marking and its performers by orchestra, conductor or soloist. Again, the kerfuffle involved in assembling a complete performance is much like changing those old 78s. Classical connoisseurs expect to find the music that they want by any of those routes and Primephonic has employed dozens of young researchers to input all this information for a repertoire that stretches across eight centuries.

Primephonic is not the only player in the field. One significant competitor is Idagio, which was co-founded in 2015 by Till Janczukowicz, a former Columbia Artists agent. Idagio carries exclusive recordings by the Vienna Philharmonic and offers more than two million classical tracks on an app that has been downloaded nearly 1.8 million times. Idagio streams to subscribers in 190 countries and two months ago launched an “Idagio Free” offer to convince more classical fans to try tailor-made classical streaming.

I have experimented with Primephonic and Idagio in the past couple of weeks and was impressed by both. The sound quality is a considerable step up from Spotify — although not quite as rich in overtones and bass resonance as on my treasured CDs — and both services responded well to my esoteric demands. Idagio, for instance, came up with more than 20 recordings of music by Pérotin, the 13th-century French composer, and an extraordinary 1913 recording of Beethoven’s Fifth (with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Arthur Nikisch). It allowed me to waste an entire day – no, not waste, revel in ecstatic nostalgia – simply by typing the magic words “Leontyne Price” into its search engine to rediscover some of the greatest opera recordings of the 1960s. Meanwhile, Primephonic came up trumps with recordings ranging from the almost unknown Nicholas Ludford (early 16th century) to Tansy Davies, the present-day British composer.

So, yes, this dinosaur has been coaxed, almost willingly, into the brave new world of streaming. Yet, as Steffens admits, large swathes of the classical music business remain unconvinced that “niche” streaming is the way forward. “Enlightened orchestras such as the LSO and Philharmonia in London and the New York Philharmonic are providing us with content, and bringing our service to the attention of their audiences,” Steffens says. “On the other hand, there’s a substantial part of the industry that’s very conservative, very focused on immediate survival and can’t see the potential of streaming. There are some labels that won’t allow their content to be streamed at all and others that have started their own streaming service — as if expecting classical music fans to confine their choices just to what one label offers. I don’t understand this mentality.”

Isn’t the problem that niche classical streaming services don’t yet have enough subscribers to be regarded as serious sources of income for performers and record labels? “True, but those performers need to take a long-term view, ten years at least,” Steffens says. “Look at pop music. Its income from recordings declined 13 years in a row, from 2000 to 2012, because of illegal downloading — but since 2013, when streaming really took off, the figure has increased year on year and now pop performers make 60 to 70 per cent of their income from streaming.”

If we are talking about “existential” threats to classical music, a bigger problem, surely, is that, by definition, anything that is niche appeals to those who are already converted. In other words, Primephonic and Idagio may be very successful at attracting people like me, but do little to address the deeper malaise, which is that millions of young people have had no exposure to, or education in, classical music.

Paradoxically, then, Spotify may have a better chance of attracting those younger listeners to classical simply because they are streaming on Spotify already. Spotify’s classical editor, Kelly Harlock, certainly thinks so. “Spotify is a friendly, familiar place to take those first important steps into classical music,” she says. “Our classical hub is filled with curated playlists covering accessible genres, moods and moments — ranging from classical yoga, to minimalism, to video-game soundtracks.” Significantly, she adds: “The majority of classical listeners on Spotify are aged 18 to 34.” The phrase “classical yoga” may sound superficial, but Spotify’s playlist on the theme ranges from Bach and Gluck to contemporary composers such as Max Richter and Rebecca Dale.

Surprisingly, perhaps, the founder of Primephonic doesn’t deny that Spotify, with its 250 million users, could turn out to be classical music’s salvation after all. “I’m not sure that a small company such as Primephonic has the capacity to do all of classical music’s missionary work,” Steffens says. “Our real aim is to show big companies that, if you make a real effort, it is possible to get the sound quality and metadata requirements for classical music right. We are willing to partner Spotify. In fact, they could even buy us. I wouldn’t mind, if it means that future generations keep on discovering the great music of the past.”

The platforms for classical

Primephonic
£9.99 a month for MP3 service
£14.99 a month for 24-bit premium service

Idagio
£9.99 a month for 16-bit service

Spotify
Free with adverts, or...
£9.99 a month for individual
£14.99 a month for family (up to six people)
£4.99 a month for students

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/clas ... -fjp9s8g2x

[maestrob]

Fascinating, Len, but I'm still not interested in streaming. Besides, with my collection of CDs & DVDs, I'll never run out of music I want to hear. For the cost of joining the three streaming services, I can buy at least 4 CDs/month, which is about my limit anyway for new issues of high quality. And, I'm guaranteed the best sound quality from a collection that I OWN, which is vital to my psyche.

Besides, how would I hook up a streaming service to my stereo without installing wi-fi, with all its glitches and security problems? AND, where does streaming offer booklets with information on the performers and recordings?

No, I'm still not persuaded. Thanks, anyway!

Signed,

Your friendly dinosaur

[barney]

Brontosaurus Barney is on the same page as Megalosaurus Maestrob.
I really hope streaming works, so that young people can get classical, as the article says, but I have zero interest for myself.
Still, I find that the big companies - Universal, Sony, Warners - are offering ever fewer CDs for review, with the majority of releases available only on download. Very, very annoying for me.

[lennygoran]

Fascinating, Len, but I'm still not interested in streaming. Besides, with my collection of CDs & DVDs, I'll never run out of music I want to hear.

Brian I'm interested in both hearing and seeing--it's opera that I want most-technologically I admit I'm way behind. As for getting info there is so much out there like wiki for example. Regards, Len

[barney]

Fascinating, Len, but I'm still not interested in streaming. Besides, with my collection of CDs & DVDs, I'll never run out of music I want to hear. For the cost of joining the three streaming services, I can buy at least 4 CDs/month, which is about my limit anyway for new issues of high quality. And, I'm guaranteed the best sound quality from a collection that I OWN, which is vital to my psyche.

Besides, how would I hook up a streaming service to my stereo without installing wi-fi, with all its glitches and security problems? AND, where does streaming offer booklets with information on the performers and recordings?

No, I'm still not persuaded. Thanks, anyway!

Signed,

Your friendly dinosaur

Re wifi, that's not essential, I believe. A cable connection is fine.

[lennygoran]

Re wifi, that's not essential, I believe. A cable connection is fine.

Barney but what if the cable connection is far away from the TV you want to watch something on. Regards, Len [fellow dinosaur]

[barney]

Now, Len, don't get technical on me!
I have wifi in my house - it's how visitors use the internet here, and my wife's computer etc, but the cable is directly connected to my computer because that's where it comes out. I thus use an ethernet connection to power my hifi. My TV is about 15 years old, so I can't use it for internet stuff, thus I am unable to be helpful (as usual).

[lennygoran]

Now, Len, don't get technical on me!

Barney don't worry about that-I'm a dinosaur on these things as opposed to a John F. OTOH I will say this-my TV while newer than yours doesn't connect directly to the computer upstairs-we use the ethernet and Verizon for the computer connections-still with the Roku attached to the TV I can get the wifi and watch TV stations like Youtube, Amazon Prime,many other stations-the Roku cost me about $30 and has proved to be wonderful. I wish I could explain it better. Regards, Len

[maestrob]

Len, you and Barney are ahead of me in the technical department. My computer is in another part of my apartment from the stereo, so a cable connection is not possible. Installing Roku would disrupt my ability to record off-the-air DVDs on my still-working but ancient DVD recorder that I use to record PBS and other channels. So, I'm happy with what I have now for the time being.

[barney]

So, I'm happy with what I have now for the time being.

An enviable state in which you should remain. I am too, really.

[lennygoran]

Installing Roku would disrupt my ability to record off-the-air DVDs on my still-working but ancient DVD recorder that I use to record PBS and other channels. So, I'm happy with what I have now for the time being.

Brian I wonder about this-I have my TV, roku, VCR and DVD player all hooked up together-my DVR from Comcast can record a Met opera-then I can copy it to a VCR tape from the DVR box-the Roku doesn't get in the way-maybe your system is set up a little differently? Regards, Len

[maestrob]

Installing Roku would disrupt my ability to record off-the-air DVDs on my still-working but ancient DVD recorder that I use to record PBS and other channels. So, I'm happy with what I have now for the time being.

Brian I wonder about this-I have my TV, roku, VCR and DVD player all hooked up together-my DVR from Comcast can record a Met opera-then I can copy it to a VCR tape from the DVR box-the Roku doesn't get in the way-maybe your system is set up a little differently? Regards, Len

Yes, I think things are different for me. My DVD/VCR combo recorder's sound output is plugged into my stereo, rather than into my TV: that's where I get high fidelity sound. There's just no way for me to plug in all those gadgets and record from my cable box. It's a conundrum, for sure, but one I've lived with happily for years. It was set up for me by the Geek Squad in just about 20 minutes or so. I should warn you that VCR tapes are now officially obsolete: the last factory that made parts for VCR assembly closed last year, so you'd better buy a spare!

[lennygoran]

It was set up for me by the Geek Squad in just about 20 minutes or so. I should warn you that VCR tapes are now officially obsolete: the last factory that made parts for VCR assembly closed last year, so you'd better buy a spare!

Brian thanks-I've been tempted to use the geek squad a few times. And yes I'm nervous about when the VCR will break-they're not so easy to buy now and when a few broke on me over the last several years I couldn't find anyone to repair them. I should have bought about 6 of them when they were the rage and prices were low! Regards, len