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Music Piracy Is Back, Baby (gizmodo.com)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by flintheart_glomgold@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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"Muso, a research firm that studies piracy, concluded that the high prices of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music are pushing people back towards illegal downloads. Spotify raised its prices by one dollar last year to $10.99 a month, the same price as Apple Music. Instead of coughing up $132 a year, more consumers are using websites that rip audio straight out of YouTube videos, and convert them into downloadable MP3 or .wav files.

Roughly 40% of the music piracy Muso tracked was from these “YouTube-to-MP3” sites. The original YouTube-to-MP3 site died from a record label lawsuit, but other copycats do the same thing. A simple Google search yields dozens of blue links to these sites, and they’re, by far, the largest form of audio piracy on the internet."

The problem isn't price. People just don't want to pay for a bad experience. What Apple Music and Spotify have in common is that their software is bloated with useless shit and endlessly annoying user-hostile design. Plus Steve Jobs himself said it back in 2007: "people want to own their music." Having it, organizing it, curating it is half the fun. Not fun is pressing play one day and finding a big chunk of your carefully constructed playlist is "no longer in your library." Screw that.

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[–] NotPersonal@lemmy.world 46 points 10 months ago (6 children)

but yt audio quality is terrible.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 43 points 10 months ago (4 children)

but yt audio quality is terrible.

So are the bluetooth speakers and ear buds that most people use to listen to music these days.

[–] filcuk@lemmy.zip 6 points 10 months ago

LDAC codec seems enough for me to tell the difference for music i know in high-rez, and I don't like it.
I do have good quality android player and wired, but pointless to use with Spotify.

[–] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

So are the bluetooth speakers and ear buds that most people use to listen to music these days.

Heretic! Nothing that my Lord and Savior Apple bestows upon the unwashed is less than divine!

[–] Mango@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's why we gotta give them the chance for good audio!

[–] Bonesince1997@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago

I have a dream...

[–] NotPersonal@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

fair point.

[–] scarilog@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Most people can't tell the difference between low bitrate vs high bitrate. Usually just confirmation bias.

Have you truly tested whether you can? I don't mean playing each side by side and seeing whether you can tell the difference, but actually testing yourself in a way that you don't know which is being played (like having someone else play it for you).

[–] Trollception@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Maybe you can't, what headphones/avr setup do you have?

[–] Octopus1348@lemy.lol 2 points 10 months ago

Then use a Spotify downloader. I had one but forgot the name of it.

[–] turkalino@lemmy.yachts 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

- typed on a vacuum tube keyboard

[–] FrameXX@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

It's very fine unless you decide you just must and have to convert that audio to MP3 (the audio loses quality with every lossy compression), because you are an old boomer and other formats scare you even though almost all modern device can play OPUS or at least M4A or you are one of those people who call themselves "Audiophiles" to feel more special, but wouldn't recognize a shit if I played OPUS 192kbps on their 2000$ home audio setup instead of the 24 bit uncompressed FLAC that has over 30MB in size each. I have most of my library from YT Music which is ~128kbps OPUS and it has been transparent on all audio devices I have played it till now.

[–] NotPersonal@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Look, we all have bad days, but there's no need to be so aggressive to random people online. Everyone's hearing is different. Some people are more sensitive to certain sounds than others. I tried youtube, spotify and tidal. And youtube is the audio quality I disliked the most. Just for clarification. I'm not a boomer, I'm a millenial, I work in computer science so I enjoy testing new formats. I have tried everything from atrac (sony) to DSD, I don't have a $2000 home audio setup but I have a couple of decent pairs of cans, with mid-range DAC and amps. And I have tested multiple audio formats at different levels of compression and bitrate to find what I like the most. To me 128kbps feels like listening to the radio over the phone. If that's enough for you, then great, more power to you. No need to be disrespectful.

[–] FrameXX@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I am sorry. I went to a little rant, but I meant it rather funny even though I realize it feels aggressive 🤣. I am just enthusiastic about this topic even though I don't know that much.