Classical Music Streaming

[Belle]

Ode to Joy for streaming: classical platform is music to the ears
DAVID SANDERSON

Issues arising from streaming services have irked the classical audience.

The rise of music streaming may have brought Rihanna’s oeuvre within easy reach of millions but spare a thought for those wishing to hear Beethoven’s 5th.

That could all change with a new platform promising to surmount the difficulties classical music fans encounter.

Streaming services have raised the hackles of the classical audience and musicians who bemoan their failure to cope with the complexities of naming conventions and the length of the pieces.

Those wishing to listen to Beethoven’s Symphony No 5 will find the top result is his Symphony No 3 because it is opus 55.

Additionally, Rihanna would be in line to receive royalties from 10 of her songs for the time it takes to perform a 30-minute rendition of Beethoven’s Symphony No 9.

This is despite a revival of live classical music that showed Beethoven and Mozart as the most performed composers, followed by Leonard Bernstein.

Thomas Steffens is addressing the streaming problems with his new service Primephonic.

He said research indicated that while classical music accounted for 5 per cent of music consumption, including concerts and CD sales, it accounted for about 1 per cent of streaming and 0.3 per cent of streaming royalties.

This put pressure on contemporary classical composers and labels to change their output.

“They have an incentive, and feel the pressure, to compose shorter works,” he said. “While labels have been cutting classical music works into pieces so they fit better into Spotify, I want composers to compose what they think aesthetically is the most beautiful.”

Primephonic had 1000 music labels on board, was using a pay-per-second model for its royalties, and would allow searches by the recording date, composer, artist, title, opus number and musical key, he said.

Mr Steffens said that Spotify as a company had saved the music industry but its priorities were the much-larger popular music genres with classical music and jazz suffering.

Streaming subscription services have transformed the industry, the revenues of which had been in freefall because of illegal downloads and the drop in sales of CDs and other physical formats.

Recorded music revenues have risen ever since, although there are concerns at how little the artists make compared with the streaming services themselves and the record labels.

Mr Steffens said that the classical music industry was “really missing the boat”. He added: “If classical music does not fix its streaming problem, it will gradually erode and become marginalised.”

Primephonic has a higher resolution after music lovers complained that the “beauty and tranquillity of a soprano going to the highest note, or Beethoven going from very loud to very soft is lost” in streaming quality.

The Times

[John F]

Rihanna would be in line to receive royalties from 10 of her songs for the time it takes to perform a 30-minute rendition of Beethoven’s Symphony No 9.

What a weird sentence. A "rendition" of the 9th doesn't take 30 minutes but well over an hour. And "the time it takes to perform a 30-minute rendition" of anything is, well, 30 minutes.

labels have been cutting classical music works into pieces so they fit better into Spotify

Say what? It used to be that YouTube's time limit for clips made uploaders cut longer works into sections, but that ceased years ago. What Sanderson may be talking about is streaming the movements of a multi-movement piece as "songs," which is how iTunes used to sell classical music and may still. But this hardly equates to cutting the music into pieces.

This put pressure on contemporary classical composers and labels to change their output. “They have an incentive, and feel the pressure, to compose shorter works.”

I've never seen such a thing said of or by any classical composer. They are often commissioned by performers to compose a piece of more or less specified length, but streaming services like Spotify aren't commissioning new classical music, and the amount of contemporary classical music they stream - of whatever length - must be the tiniest fraction of their business.

If classical music does not fix its streaming problem, it will gradually erode and become marginalised.

What world does this man live in? New classical music of whatever length is already marginalized by the tastes of classical music listeners, whose distaste for much modern and contemporary music is an old story. In recent decades, composers have attempted to "fix" this "problem" by writing music that is harmonically more accessible, some of it short and some of it long. If any of them are concerned with their income or lack of it from Spotify, I haven't heard about it.

[Belle]

Yes, it certainly is strange. The piece is obviously written by somebody who only understands streaming from a popular music perspective. Ergo, the language example "rendition". And iTunes never fitted classical music either; I can remember the nightmare several years ago of loading pieces onto my iPod through iTunes and the software not handling much of it adequately. Rather like putting a square peg into a round hole.

[maestrob]

Yes, it certainly is strange. The piece is obviously written by somebody who only understands streaming from a popular music perspective. Ergo, the language example "rendition". And iTunes never fitted classical music either; I can remember the nightmare several years ago of loading pieces onto my iPod through iTunes and the software not handling much of it adequately. Rather like putting a square peg into a round hole.

I agree with both of you. Obviously, the writer has no clue about the difficulties facing classical music streaming, most notably sound quality and search results. Amazon has sort of solved the search problem in a back-handed way, but sound quality is still .mp3 based, and that turns me off immediately. Amazon has the reach to promote and promulgate a high-quality format for all kinds of music, but it hasn't bothered, so neither will I.

As for marginalization, classical music has (in recent history) not been over 2% of total sales, so where's the beef?

[absinthe]

My question is 'what's the point' when one can download these longer works to audition at one's leisure? They can almost always be copied into a portable player if one wants them on the go but I can't think of many people I know who could stream an hour-long work without interruption or inconvenience at times other than when they could seriously listen. And those times are usually when they could listen to something downloaded. The quality of a download is usually superior anyway.

The problem I have is that it's difficult to make an occasion out of clicking on a download. Perhaps I'm old fashioned but if wanting to set aside time to listen to a work no matter if I'm doing things other than sitting there, I like to feel I'm at a private concert. Putting on a record has more of a start to it, as does, at the end, getting up to lift the stylus and put the record bback in its sleeve..

Who's Rihanna?

[John F]

While we weren't watching, Rihanna has been a top pop singer for 13 years. Wikipedia: "Rihanna is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with 280 million records sold worldwide." Not counting the downloads. In comparison, classical music recording is not just small potatoes, it's mashed potatoes.

[Holden Fourth]

Has anyone here signed up for Primephonic? They claim to have one million tracks but I suspect that this is quite a lot less than offered by Spotify or Apple Music

[Belle]

Yesterday I contacted my hi fi dealer about a Network Audio Player. He advised the Marantz NA8005. It's all rather confusing, but I need to be able to get the sound down to the other end of the house from this computer - or an App - into my beautiful amplifier and speakers. Then I phoned an online dealer from whom I bought my speakers. He has this:

https://klappav.com.au/collections/all/ ... th-display

When I phoned to ask if it had built-in Chromecast he said, "I don't know". Now I'm more confused than ever and wonder about online shopping!! I want my U-Tube clips to have the sound going through my family room speakers via the hi-fi system, as well as internet radio and, if necessarily, services like Spotify. The online fellow said, "why not a Heos Link, since you already have Heos on your computer"? I don't like the sound of these. So, I'm frozen and unable to do anything because I just don't understand what I'm dealing with.

[maestrob]

Yesterday I contacted my hi fi dealer about a Network Audio Player. He advised the Marantz NA8005. It's all rather confusing, but I need to be able to get the sound down to the other end of the house from this computer - or an App - into my beautiful amplifier and speakers. Then I phoned an online dealer from whom I bought my speakers. He has this:

https://klappav.com.au/collections/all/ ... th-display

When I phoned to ask if it had built-in Chromecast he said, "I don't know". Now I'm more confused than ever and wonder about online shopping!! I want my U-Tube clips to have the sound going through my family room speakers via the hi-fi system, as well as internet radio and, if necessarily, services like Spotify. The online fellow said, "why not a Heos Link, since you already have Heos on your computer"? I don't like the sound of these. So, I'm frozen and unable to do anything because I just don't understand what I'm dealing with.

Time to take a deep breath (maybe several) and step back. I haven't installed wi-fi in my apartment because of security issues, and so I listen to youtube exclusively through headphones attached to my computer. At this point in my life I'm just not interested in complicating my listening further, especially when there are security concerns. Don't forget, 5G is about to be rolled out, which will upgrade video streaming quality enormously and will make much current equipment obsolete. Not that I'm anywhere near an expert (far from it!), but my advice would be to wait a bit before committing to new equipment.

[jserraglio]

When I phoned to ask if it had built-in Chromecast he said, "I don't know". Now I'm more confused than ever

CXN V2 Network Music STREAMER CHROMECAST BUILT-IN

Ultimate digital convenience and quality. CXN (V2) further refines the seamless digital music experience that made the original a What Hi-Fi? award winner, three years running. A faster processor opens up new possibilities, giving you a richer internet radio experience, a greater level of playback control and Chromecast built-in.
https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/usa/en/p ... /cx/cxn-v2

https://www.whathifi.com/news/cambridge ... chromecast Google’s Chomecast has become one of the most prevalent and inclusive media streaming platforms out there, allowing users to stream content from multiple apps directly to their device that either has a Chromecast dongle connected or has Chromecast built-in.

'Chromecast built-in' is what Google calls the streaming abilities of its Chromecast media dongles integrated into a product like a TV, speaker or hi-fi component, negating the need for the dongle.

One of the latest devices to have Chromecast integration is Cambridge Audio’s CXN V2 music streamer, the successor to the original CXN that won three What Hi-Fi? awards in its lifetime. The new version is similar to the old, only with a faster processor... and now Chromecast.

What is Google Chromecast? Which speakers and TVs are supported?
Cambridge CXN vs Chord Poly - which music streamer is best?
The CXN V2’s newfound Google Chromecast support means that its users can now ‘cast’ content from compatible apps (such as Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, Deezer and TuneIn radio) directly to the streamer.

In addition to Chromecast, the CXN V2 boasts all the connectivity that made the original such an appealing option, including USB type B, optical and coaxial inputs, DLNA compatibility and Spotify Connect.

[Belle]

Thanks to both of you for your input (cough)!! We cannot have 5G connected up here through our landline as our government rolled out at huge taxpayer expense a national broadband service with fibre to the node and we were all told we had to have it. Problems galore with service interruptions and speed. 5G will be available on iPhones however, and I can Chromecast from my phone because I had it here already on my PC. I remains unclear from the link whether I can 'cast' U-Tube links (like many of those discussed here on this board) to my hi-fi at the other end of the house. And then it would be useful to have gear with inbuilt DAC as they lift the quality; we have one at our music group and it's absolutely excellent.

(Isn't it strange how we've turned common and proper nouns into verbs with regards to technology!!!)

[Rach3]

Ode to Joy for streaming: classical platform is music to the ears
DAVID SANDERSON
The Times

Thanks. Do you have a link to the article? TIA.

[Lance]

Streaming is something I have not taken too - as yet, and probably won't. I guess I'm too old fashioned. I still want the CD (or LP, now rarely), the artwork, notes, etc. Maybe I am missing something, but as interested as I am in historical performing artists and repertoire (and current performing artists as well), it doesn't seem to bother me not to be "streaming."

[Modernistfan]

I do some downloading, always in CD-quality FLAC or better; I generally then burn the downloads to a CD for playing in my system. (I downloaded the entire Harbison symphony cycle from the Boston Symphony website; most of these works do not yet have a commercial recording on CD available.) I have no interest in streaming.

[maestrob]

I do some downloading, always in CD-quality FLAC or better; I generally then burn the downloads to a CD for playing in my system. (I downloaded the entire Harbison symphony cycle from the Boston Symphony website; most of these works do not yet have a commercial recording on CD available.) I have no interest in streaming.

That sounds sensible to me. I'm hooked on CDs as well, since they are the best quality sound available. 5G may change my mind, however, especially for video. We'll see what develops.

[Belle]

Ode to Joy for streaming: classical platform is music to the ears
DAVID SANDERSON
The Times

Thanks. Do you have a link to the article? TIA.

No; it was published in "The Australian" but taken from "The Times" of London. I'm sure it's behind a paywall as is "The Australian". As a subscriber to the latter, I was able to cut and paste.

[Belle]

Streaming is something I have not taken too - as yet, and probably won't. I guess I'm too old fashioned. I still want the CD (or LP, now rarely), the artwork, notes, etc. Maybe I am missing something, but as interested as I am in historical performing artists and repertoire (and current performing artists as well), it doesn't seem to bother me not to be "streaming."

I get that!! My CD collection is separate to streaming which I'd want to use for internet radio and possibly services like MediciTV (audio only, of course). Also U-Tube performances, and this is where a built in DAC and Chromecast would be useful. But I'm unsure about the performance capabilities of the equipment. As I said earlier, my sister has a Network Audio player (with inbuilt CD player) but she only uses it for internet radio and jazz performances. I'm asking for a broader sweep on anything I might buy. All very annoying because the technology is becoming less user friendly and not more so. And then there's the language; I'm feeling more defeated by the jargon every day. (When I bought my new car 2 years ago I wasn't having to deal with jargon like 'ventilated discs' and 'auto correction pilot' because the car is still going to drive and take me to where I'm going - just as all the previous cars I've owned could do!!)

[barney]

Streaming is something I have not taken too - as yet, and probably won't. I guess I'm too old fashioned. I still want the CD (or LP, now rarely), the artwork, notes, etc. Maybe I am missing something, but as interested as I am in historical performing artists and repertoire (and current performing artists as well), it doesn't seem to bother me not to be "streaming."

That perfectly expresses my own position, Lance. But younger friends have no CDs. Mind you, the ones I am thinking of tend to load a Spotify playlist and don't really care what they get. Would not do for CMG members!

[Lance]

Barney, first of all, I am sad about the loss of two of your children as described in the other thread. So many sentimental issues with that in attempting to unload stuff we collect over life. I cannot imagine such a situation as that. Absolutely, veteran collectors would not "do" with Spotify. Right on!

That perfectly expresses my own position, Lance. But younger friends have no CDs. Mind you, the ones I am thinking of tend to load a Spotify playlist and don't really care what they get. Would not do for CMG members!
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