The importance of Owning Media

Lee

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2011
3,210
1,738
1,260
Alpharetta, Georgia
Though it's not the majority of our listening pleasure, we do enjoy streaming. It can be very relaxing. To be clear, in this context what I mean by "streaming" refers to listening to Qobuz and Tidal, etc. I'm not here referring to streaming ripped CDs and Vinyl.

Big surprise a few weeks ago Qobuz removed many albums we really enjoy. These files appear as "greyed out" on your Playlists. I contacted Qobuz and there was no reason given. They said they are waiting on Feedback from someone who controls this area. Since then Crickets!

IMO, the streaming companies need to deal better with this issue. Some suggestions:

(1) A computer program could be written that would automatically notify us when - for whatever reason - they are removing a song or album from our Playlists.

(2) Perhaps the song they are removing is available by the same artist on a different album. IMO, they could supply a link to these other sources in their notification to us. We could press a link in our email and just add it to our Playlist. Or they could make a pop-up on their website to do the same thing.

(3) When deleted (greyed out) songs appear in your Playlists, it can effect playing the entire Playlist. At times, the Playlist goes into kind of a stall and begins repeating songs at random - at least it did for us. To repair this the greyed out songs had to be deleted from our Playlists. On our Nikki Parrot Playlists removing 5 albums of songs took about 20 minutes. Listening time was shortened. I ended just playing CDs.

Why can't this be automated for us? If Qobuz removed a song or album then they should also remove it from all our Playlists. They could transfer all these files automatically into another Non-Playable Playlist of songs. This way we could followup with them later on these songs ... and ask for them back.

This said, IMO there's no substitute for owning media. I own a lots of CDs and have just begun a vinyl collection (only 350-400 so far). While I like the numerous titles and convenience of streaming, owning media is the only way to know we will have music on demand. When we own the media, it can’t be taken away when rights run out or when it becomes unprofitable to keep in circulation. Yes, streaming is the current - ever changing - wave of the future. But we shouldn't throw out the baby with the bath water.

This may just be an age thing; I still like reading a real book too! :)
I think the big issue is that much of that functionality would cost money. There is not a lot of cash left at streaming services. Most are operating are break even or below.
 
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tinkerphile

Member
Nov 27, 2021
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Though it's not the majority of our listening pleasure, we do enjoy streaming. It can be very relaxing. To be clear, in this context what I mean by "streaming" refers to listening to Qobuz and Tidal, etc. I'm not here referring to streaming ripped CDs and Vinyl.

Big surprise a few weeks ago Qobuz removed many albums we really enjoy. These files appear as "greyed out" on your Playlists. I contacted Qobuz and there was no reason given. They said they are waiting on Feedback from someone who controls this area. Since then Crickets!

IMO, the streaming companies need to deal better with this issue. Some suggestions:

(1) A computer program could be written that would automatically notify us when - for whatever reason - they are removing a song or album from our Playlists.

(2) Perhaps the song they are removing is available by the same artist on a different album. IMO, they could supply a link to these other sources in their notification to us. We could press a link in our email and just add it to our Playlist. Or they could make a pop-up on their website to do the same thing.

(3) When deleted (greyed out) songs appear in your Playlists, it can effect playing the entire Playlist. At times, the Playlist goes into kind of a stall and begins repeating songs at random - at least it did for us. To repair this the greyed out songs had to be deleted from our Playlists. On our Nikki Parrot Playlists removing 5 albums of songs took about 20 minutes. Listening time was shortened. I ended just playing CDs.

Why can't this be automated for us? If Qobuz removed a song or album then they should also remove it from all our Playlists. They could transfer all these files automatically into another Non-Playable Playlist of songs. This way we could followup with them later on these songs ... and ask for them back.

This said, IMO there's no substitute for owning media. I own a lots of CDs and have just begun a vinyl collection (only 350-400 so far). While I like the numerous titles and convenience of streaming, owning media is the only way to know we will have music on demand. When we own the media, it can’t be taken away when rights run out or when it becomes unprofitable to keep in circulation. Yes, streaming is the current - ever changing - wave of the future. But we shouldn't throw out the baby with the bath water.

This may just be an age thing; I still like reading a real book too! :)
Qobuz is a little worse than substandard when it comes to customer support/care. Qobuz could be very good for little additional overhead. Too bad Qobuz operates under a parent company. I like physical media, but only have vinyl on that side of the system. I listened to vinyl exclusively for so long, I never accumulated music files. To add the cost of purchase of files/downloads (esp. sweet DSD), storage and retrieval, playback on a digital system is very, very expensive. Otherwise, I'd be all over stored media.
 
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Kingrex

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Feb 3, 2019
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I stream to hear new music. Music I own I rarely play as I'm tired of it. Streaming is inferior in sound quality to all the other formats. I will listen to a tape or vinyl if I want it to sound its best.

Owning media is nice, but I have maybe 400 records and play 35. I have 2000 cd and don't usually play any. Maybe 10 of them. I have 80 reels of 15 ips tape and play 35 of them.

I know of 2 people who abandoned over 2000 cd each as no one wanted them and they were too heavy to move. I tried to get one of those batch but they had already turned in the keys and I did not know the owner personally. Just the friend who told me about it.

I would be interested to know how much media others own and how much they actually listen too. When I was a kid I played it over and over. Now I don't. I play it a few times and move on. Not sure why.
 
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Kingrex

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Feb 3, 2019
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By the way, I bought an album through Qobus to see how the download compared to streaming. HQPlayer won't recognize the file. I am suspect its a case of I don't own it. Like Apple, like Amazon. I am leasimg it till they revoke the rights. Like books disappearing from your kindle that you bought. I even had a new record that one day lost all its grooves. It was just a smooth plate.:)
 

Rensselaer

VIP/Donor
Mar 23, 2021
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As always, quality gives way to lower costs and higher profits.
 

BlueFox

Member Sponsor
Nov 8, 2013
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I stream to hear new music. Music I own I rarely play as I'm tired of it. Streaming is inferior in sound quality to all the other formats. I will listen to a tape or vinyl if I want it to sound its best.

Owning media is nice, but I have maybe 400 records and play 35. I have 2000 cd and don't usually play any. Maybe 10 of them. I have 80 reels of 15 ips tape and play 35 of them.

I know of 2 people who abandoned over 2000 cd each as no one wanted them and they were too heavy to move. I tried to get one of those batch but they had already turned in the keys and I did not know the owner personally. Just the friend who told me about it.

I would be interested to know how much media others own and how much they actually listen too. When I was a kid I played it over and over. Now I don't. I play it a few times and move on. Not sure why.
I ripped all the CDs I listen to, and buy new music every week from HD Tracks. I haven't turned my CD player on in over a year. I gave away my turntable and records in the early 80s, but that's another story.
 
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Gregm

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2019
525
381
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France
I would be interested to know how much media others own and how much they actually listen too. When I was a kid I played it over and over. Now I don't. I play it a few times and move on. Not sure why.
These days I listen almost exclusively to my digital music library. I still have about 2500 vinyls, 2000 CDs, & about 50 sacd taking up space!
 

microstrip

VIP/Donor
May 30, 2010
20,806
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Portugal
By the way, I bought an album through Qobus to see how the download compared to streaming. HQPlayer won't recognize the file. I am suspect its a case of I don't own it. Like Apple, like Amazon. I am leasimg it till they revoke the rights. Like books disappearing from your kindle that you bought. I even had a new record that one day lost all its grooves. It was just a smooth plate.:)

Well, I have downloaded HiRez music from Qobuz and it plays great in my system. Although I prefer the download to the streamed version, the difference is not huge.

Considering what I pay for the more expensive Qobuz hi-Rez streaming plan I think it is a great deal - I spent a lot more when buying music with the physical support. And we get a large discount when we decide to buy an HiRez file - cheaper than the CD version.
 
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JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
12,308
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Manila, Philippines
Apple did not “kill iTunes on Mac.”

Instead its functionality is now performed by the “Apple Music” and “Apple TV” apps, depending upon whether you want music or video:

What happened to iTunes? - Apple Support
Did you actually read the link you provided? The mere fact that you have to go scuba diving in the menus for basic functionalities is pretty clear to me. DEAD and that's the way they want it because once store sales dips below a certain level they will can the store too. Iovine said so categorically.

The darling model is to have us stream stuff we bought through the cloud. That is why you have to click on the cloud to re-download what should have been automatically transferred when using Time Machine onto the new computer.

This isn't even mentioning the other devices that used iTunes metadata. BRICKED.

At the very least they should allow you to carry over everything from your old computer to your new one where they should be and in the shape they were they used to. So no I didn't subscribe to Apple Music because even Spotify is better. For making playlists I use Engine Prime and may go with Rekord Box again (although that has its own problems with their community too). Playlists? Yeah for the car for example where most new cars will accept a thumb drive. Sounds better than Apple Car Play every time AND won't cut out if you have no signal.
 

BillK

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2015
280
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273
Everything does carry over.

I have tens of thousands of ripped and purchased tracks and they are all displayed in Apple Music exactly as they were in iTunes.

You don't need to redownload anything, it's all there.

The only difference is you now need to use the AppleTV app rather than iTunes to watch movies.
 

dan31

Well-Known Member
Jul 22, 2010
1,016
365
1,153
SF Bay
Moving to Foobar2000 on my MS Surface tablet for any streaming or file playback. Apple knows how to move the masses.
 
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Rensselaer

VIP/Donor
Mar 23, 2021
572
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Everything does carry over.

I have tens of thousands of ripped and purchased tracks and they are all displayed in Apple Music exactly as they were in iTunes.

You don't need to redownload anything, it's all there.

The only difference is you now need to use the AppleTV app rather than iTunes to watch movies.
How does one transfer songs (mixed, some purchased from Apple, some recorded from CD and some off websites ) from iPod to iMac?
 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
12,308
1,425
1,820
Manila, Philippines
Everything does carry over.

I have tens of thousands of ripped and purchased tracks and they are all displayed in Apple Music exactly as they were in iTunes.

You don't need to redownload anything, it's all there.

The only difference is you now need to use the AppleTV app rather than iTunes to watch movies.
Please, please tell me how you did it. I followed the Apple Rep's instructions to the letter - moving over from one MBP to another using Time Machine.
 

dhrf

New Member
Feb 6, 2022
2
0
1
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I have all my media in movil storage, I was looking to buy a media player since I use a sony 6700 for my 3tb of movies. But the prices are crazy and you always can have codec problems. I start with a media center extencion in 2005, later a htpc. So I am thinking of building small pc for movie play, just reaeching the sound card.
Solved, AMD GPU using their HDMI and GPU based souncard support Atmos.Also the onboard video mothers also support atmos.
 
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BillK

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2015
280
193
273
Please, please tell me how you did it. I followed the Apple Rep's instructions to the letter - moving over from one MBP to another using Time Machine.

If your music files were stored locally and your directory was backed up by Time Machine, when your files are restored your music files should be restored.

When you launch Apple Music it should find your existing Library and open it, otherwise you may need to tell it where it is.

 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
12,308
1,425
1,820
Manila, Philippines
Thank you Bill. Unfortunately my current situation is this. Metadata was transferred but the files were not. They require to be downloaded otherwise content will be streamed by Apple Music. I have about a thousand files purchased from Beatport Plus many of which have no counterparts in the Apple Store being club and extended versions. The master folder for the Beatport purchases were not transferred and remains empty, totally empty. There was a hint to the coming of this as in my last version of iTunes it would prompt that these newly important files were not Apple Cloud ready and thus the entire playlist would be flagged. It just appears that Apple has simply just chosen a fully closed ecosystem.

It is just frustrating that since the birth of iTunes and the original 5GB iPod, I've been supporting them. It might have been even before the store itself. I've been using MBs since they were black LOL That was Carrie Bradshaws MB and the Sex in the City girls are mostly back in a new show with them in their 50s! I feel old,

Anyway, back on topic, importance of owning the media is that you can take it with you instead of having to tap into the cloud. The latter surely has advantages for the memory challenged but for those of us that do spend a lot of time traveling for example, having to spend on data or if on the cheap be limited to free wifi range is just a hassle ESPECIALLY if you'd already purchased the files and downloaded them before.

I still have all my files unfortunately they saw fit to say, hey dude, this is the way we want it to go so we aren't going to give you a simple device transition like we used to. When it comes to your entertainment media, go put some sweat in if you don't go with the flow. For 4 Grand for a new device and accessories, I expected more. This is the dongle berry but in software form.
 

Don C

Well-Known Member
Jul 20, 2013
208
35
333
USA
Anyone that bought old iTunes low rez albums, or listens to low rez playback on Spotify, or YouTube, is not an audiophile.

Every album on iTunes today is CD or higher quality .

There are luddites even on WBF.
 

BillK

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2015
280
193
273
The thing is, Time Machine doesn’t care whether a file is playable by iTunes or not, it just backs up files.

If a file was on the drive being backed up it would get backed up.

However if you kept your iTunes Library on another drive, it would not be.
 

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