Arjan BosDec 29
Radio BSOTS

With all the posts on various social platforms about ditching Spotify for musically greener pastures, this Substack article gives us a lot to chew on, particularly music discovery outside of the algorithm's influence, offline listening, owning music files rather than streaming, and lots more.

As an analog child dragged kicking and screaming into an increasingly digital world, this article warms my heart. A number of great points made in this one.

https://vinterkarusell.substack.com/p/the-great-streaming-exodus

#musicdiscovery

The Great Streaming Exodus

Why 2026 Might Be the Year We Take Music Back

Vinterkarusell
Dec 22 at 4:14amWeb
Show threadwilliam.maggosDec 24

@bsots

I don't think the problem is streaming but basically that it's not decentralized or social. Also that our money isn't going to who we listen to, minus a reasonable amount for running the service.

@fluffy and @lorenzosmusic talk about building this about 38m in.

https://youtu.be/ljkWycR8tMY?si=s95Dv2_o7JeK0w75

fluffy of Sockpuppet - Virtual Music Experience - The Lorenzo's Music Podcast

YouTube
Show threadfluffy 💜Dec 24

@wjmaggos @bsots @lorenzosmusic I mean there’s a lot of problems with streaming and IMO people should own their own collections. A thing I didn’t get a chance to talk about in that interview is how a big push of the idea is to make it easy to own your collection while also getting the benefits of streaming.

From the musician’s perspective it’s also about removing the need for distributors and having to reupload your music a billion times.

Show threadwilliam.maggosDec 24

@fluffy @bsots @lorenzosmusic

IMO owning makes sense when we're reliant on corporate middlemen to ensure continued access and when buying is the best way to pay musicians. that changes if a system/norm develops of everything being available open access on creators' sites BECAUSE people are paying them well directly for time listened. I think this will happen to video and everything else too. people will be much happier to pay if they know it's going to the creators of what they actually enjoy.

Show threadfluffy 💜Dec 24

@wjmaggos @bsots @lorenzosmusic Even in a Canimus future I think it's super important for people to own their collections. Musicians die or lose interest, websites go down, things erode and succumb to entropy.

My music collection is full of albums from obscure bands that put 1-2 releases out in the early 2000s and have never been subject to a world of streaming, and it's not documented, much less listenable, *anywhere*.

Show threadfluffy 💜Dec 24
@wjmaggos @bsots @lorenzosmusic A big goal of the Canimus design is to make an easy path from streaming to ownership, inspired somewhat by how Apple Music works in that regard, although the details are very different of course.
Show threadfluffy 💜Dec 24
@wjmaggos @bsots @lorenzosmusic Not to mention that nothing in the Canimus design requires payment to continue to listen; it's all about encouraging listeners to make the right decisions based on what they're willing and able to pay.
Show threadfluffy 💜Dec 24
@wjmaggos @bsots @lorenzosmusic (side note, I really need to get back on my task of reripping said obscure bands' forgotten albums to FLAC and uploading to Internet Archive. a lot of it deserves a LOT more than just being medium-bitrate mp3s living in my collection for perpetuity.)
Show threadwilliam.maggosDec 24

@fluffy @bsots @lorenzosmusic

yea my idea is not paywalls but that a system that makes decentralized streaming work well plus lots of people giving money in a simple, direct and automatic manner would encourage more work to be made available in that structure.

Show threadfluffy 💜Dec 24
@wjmaggos @bsots @lorenzosmusic Yep, and I have a couple of rough ideas for how that would work in Canimus in the "payments" document. Both of them rely heavily on the honor system but one of them at least scales up to the level of having a shared player instance.
Show threadRadio BSOTSDec 25

@fluffy @wjmaggos @lorenzosmusic Loving this back and forth. Clearly I need to check out this Lorenzo's Music episode after Christmas.

I think about the music released in the early 2000s a lot. The fact that a lot of it was strictly in the digital realm and never made it to a physical format. A quarter of a century later, my question remains the same: who's curating this stuff? The ones who choose to own are the keepers of certain sectors of indie music history, unbeknownst to some.

Show threadRadio BSOTSDec 25
@fluffy @wjmaggos @lorenzosmusic Streaming ought to be a part of the way that we experience music, just not in the "everything everywhere all the time" myth that was sold to so many of us because clearly that's not true. Not with music, films, or books in the digital realm. But it certainly doesn't help when a tech platform dealing in various forms of digital media for sale (or rent) is run by those who care far more for the tech that powers said platform than for the media or its creators.