Places to stream before buying

edited January 2011 in General
Parallel to the question about radio, I wonder if it's worth sharing/collecting streaming locations. For me, the sad thing about the demise of LaLa was that I was using it in conjunction with emusic to sift my SFL by streaming things once to see if I would really like them, or buying the 10c web only access to the track to see if it survived a few listens. I was able to determine in that way a number of instances where the 30 second samples appealed to me but it turned out the entire tracks held no appeal at all. And more generally, how on earth am I supposed to tell if I want to buy a 25 minute ambient track based on a 30 second sample, especially now that it will cost me $5.99? (Other than the surprisingly plausible strategy of just buying whatever Brighternow recs, that is). I could go on.

One substitute right now is www.we7.com, which allows you to stream full tracks for quite a lot of releases, whether or not you are are in the UK and can actually buy from them. Their catalog could be bigger, and some albums are still sample only.

This board has steered me a little more often than before to Soundcloud. Bandcamp is becoming a habit. But neither is so good for wanting to stream a specific release. I just the other day discovered the Spinner new release full CD listening party, which is fine if you happen to be interested in a release they have.

(It is possible to stream a huge range of stuff at www.mixmenow.net, but 1. the site is certainly as illegal as they come - they are offering free download of any and all music, and 2. the site is mystery to me in that they have this huge catalog and slick interface but are charging no money at all and give no information about themselves - who is paying to run this and why? Are they doing anything to my computer while I stream? I am also a bit mystified as to why it has received no attention, since it is so blatantly giving away copyrighted music and the domain appears to be registered to someone with a fictional name but a New York address.)

What other places are people going to to try before you buy? I am not thinking here of netlabels where you can stream the label's own stuff, (also not places where I have to buy a membership to stream) but rather of places where, if I am thinking of buying a specific pay-for album, I might be able to hear more than 30 seconds of it to help me decide.
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Comments

  • edited April 2011
    Perhaps this is too obvious, but Guvera.

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    Added by Dr. Mutex:
    Guvera tip: When you are viewing tracks from an album, mouse over the buttons on the right. One of them is "Add Album to Playlist". You can then play the whole album from the playlist.
  • NPR's First Listen

    Similar premise as Spinner's Listening Party, however. There's a select number of albums up, and they're generally taken down on the release date.
  • Not sure if they will allow you to download it in the States, but the leader in Western Europe is Spotify - you'll need to go to http://www.spotify.com/uk/new-user/ to start' An enormous choice - virtually everything that is mainstream general release except The Beatles!
  • edited January 2011
    Guvera's a great idea, and I keep forgetting that it can be used for that. Unfortunately Spotify in the US is most likely not going to happen anytime soon (but is obviously a great idea for the rest of you).
  • Guvera would be useful except it has almost none of the labels that I regularly buy from. Last time I got credits I checked 100 albums from my SFL and *one* of them was on Guvera. Another reason why I'm trawling for alternatives. Good suggestion for everyone else though.
  • edited January 2011
    I use $5/month napster for general purposes. Good deal, though napster's software and streaming is a bit flaky. Still, cheap, and decent coverage. I haven't tried Guvera streaming, but man, I hate their interface.

    I don't think we should skip mentions of streaming labels - those are useful to know about. Are there *any* streaming options for (the excellent jazz label) Clean Feed? Lala did, but I can't find any now. That lack negatively affects my buying from them. Even just streaming a couple tunes per album would suffice - stupid not to I think.
  • I use Grooveshark often, but I don't know how useful it'll be for relatively obscure net labels. I looked for some of the artists on Clean Feed, for instance, and didn't find them.
  • Ah, yes, I'd forgotten about Grooveshark. Haven't used it in a while. Must do an artist trawl there and see how much it has.
  • Rdio is what I use now, and they have Clean Feed. MOG also does, though neither site will let you search or sort by label. That's a major drawback to both, and one thing that keeps them from being as good as Lala was.

    Both are $5/month and have a mobile app component that can be used even when you're offline, somehow. MOG is also available on Roku streaming device, and may be available on some others. I don't know if either are available internationally.

    I've used both services in the last year, but I chose rdio over MOG because I have had fewer problems with their player, and the interface is cleaner. Neither are quite as good as I'd like, but I've found it to be worth the $5/month. In fact, I enjoy it so much, I'm finding that I am reluctant to use my eMusic balance to DL something that I can listen to on Rdio (granted, as long as I maintain a subscription and the album doesn't disappear from their catalog). I didn't know I was ready to have my music in "the cloud" but, I apparently I am...
  • edited January 2011
    I enjoy it so much, I'm finding that I am reluctant to use my eMusic balance to DL something that I can listen to on Rdio... I didn't know I was ready to have my music in "the cloud" but, I apparently I am...
    Interesting. I still find the endowment effect has impact for me - I listen more seriously and more often to something I purchased, rather than just having free access to a record from a pool of many thousands also accessible. But there's also definitely the effect of "well, I've heard it, and can hear it again (streaming) - do I 'need' to own this one?" But those are the less convincing ones anyway.

    But thanks for the pointer, I may switch from napster when my annual is up. Does Rdio stay away from samples? One thing that annoys me about napster is that you can't see what albums are full vs sample-only in a listing.
  • Sounds like it's time for me to give either Rdio or MOG a try. I'm just not going to be able to buy as much as I used to, and $5/month is like 1 or 2 albums so that I can actually listen to all of the ones I would have gotten cheaply in the past. Since I've got a Roku, MOG might be better, we'll see.
  • Yeah,this thread's got me strongly considering trying out some sort of streaming service too. I think the breaking point for me was finding myself considering an online storage place for all the music I've aquired. Why not just pay for the cloud instead? Plus I'm getting a smart-phone soon, and most of them have "download to your phone" features. I'll try some free trials and see what I like. Just browsing without signing up, Napster seems to have a lot of 30 second sample only stuff.
  • edited January 2011
    I'm not quite there yet with paying to stream music. There's too much stuff that I return to: the part that puts me off most is the loss of access unless you stay subscribed. With music services going under and morphing on a regular basis, I don't want to spend time organizing a collection (and that is part of the pleasure for me) only to have the service go under (or even a new, much better service come online that I want to switch to) and have to start again and remember all the things I might want to listen to again one day. The whole concept also seems to take all of the fun out of gradually collecting an artist's work - not being able to have it all at once is a part of what makes it special. I will admit that now that they are coming down to $5 a month, it might be a way of having a few listens to albums that I would have downloaded and only wanted to hear once or twice. But as kargatron says above, that seems like paying to stream the ones I like less anyway - I'd still want to buy the ones I really liked. So much of my listening is away from the web that I need to have the MP3s - that and the anxiety about losing access.
  • Gp. I seriously recommend changing your mindset about streaming - look at it primarily as a useful full-sampling service (and not as a "cloud library" or worse, "music rental"). Is that really worth $0 to you? If not, how much? I definitely get 17 cents/day average value out of my napster sub, even with its annoyances. I use it almost entirely for sampling or one-off investigations, and not at all a substitute for ownership.
  • edited January 2011
    Yeah, part of me is starting to realize that could be worth it at some point as a sampling service rather than music substitute. And the renting term was not meant to be derogatory - just looking for a brief designation. There are, however, many days when I would not be near streaming when listening, so I'm still not sure I would use it enough to feel I was getting my money's worth. I am certainly increasingly aware that it could become worth it though.
  • Not to divert from this broader discussion to a something very particular, but HypeMachine is streaming the upcoming releases by Destroyer, which really interests me, and The Go! Team, which interests me little or none, but maybe you feel differently.
  • Does anyone else use Soundcloud ?
    I use it mostly for listening to all things electronic and I'm not sure how well it caters for other genres, but it's great for previewing and finding new stuff (and has the odd free download)
  • I've only ever used Soundcloud when blogs link to it like HypeMachine above. It works well, but I am enamored with the idea of FLAC from Bandcamp.

    I just started my trial with MOG (apparently I already wasted my one on Rdio without ever even using it). I'm ecstatic that, not only do I get to listen to new releases in their entirety, but it scrobbles those listens! Yes, I am a stats geek. I'm torn on doing the full $9.99/month so that I can have access on my phone. If I get a new stereo for my car so that I can plug it in while driving I think I will.

    For 5 (or 10) bucks a month I'll be able to listen to every new release that interests me at least once. Would I rather it be free? Sure, but it's cheap enough, plus I won't have to worry about a one time restriction like on Lala.
  • Totally awesome thing I just figured out about MOG: If you pick a single album to listen to, once it's over it switches over to radio mode. By default it will just play more songs by that artist, but you can move a slider to incorporate more and more "similar artists". Currently listening to the new Cold War Kids, once it's over I see The Airborne Toxic Event, Fleet Foxes, Tapes 'n Tapes, and Maximo Park are all in the playlist. Very cool for someone like me that doesn't necessarily line up music more than one album at a time.

    Already on my 3rd album I'm really loving this service. It'll let me wait until things are on sale to pick up things that aren't "must play constantly" worthy.
  • edited January 2011
    If you pick a single album to listen to, once it's over it switches over to radio mode.

    We7 has that too. And is free but with less comprehensive selection.
  • Tried to use MOG on my Droid while shoveling today. When it worked, it was great. Got to really listen to some Soundway comps that were on my radar (will be skipping the Siam one, but that Guitar-Boy Superstar is fantastic). Unfortunately I kept losing connectivity. Don't know if it was the network, my phone, or MOG, but it makes me think the extra 5 bucks for mobile access may not be worth it.
  • some of the places allow you to download to your mobile device - not sure which/how much you can download, but I know I saw it on at least a couple of them.
  • Me and the family drove down to Florida. To keep me awake while the two ladies slept, I had to switch off the nonstop Music Together and Billy Joel CDs. After the wife made fun of using Four Tet to keep me awake, I tried hooking my Droid Inc up to the car stereo and take advantage of an almost unlimited selection of MOG.

    The problems I had still seem to be MOG's flaky connection over 3G. Driving in some areas rendered it useless. But I tried out the d/l option and grabbed a bunch of albums overnight to bring with me on the next day of the drive. That was awesome.

    It seems like I'll probably go to the basic subscription for most months and then do the mobile add-on for times when I'll be travelling a lot.
  • I just recently got my first smartphone, and have been enjoying Pandora a lot. It's useless for on demand type streaming, but if you plug in an artist in a limited niche genre, it makes for very nice listening. So far I've enjoyed Sol Hoopi radio, Carter Family radio, Pole radio, James Blake radio (which plays a lot of James Blake, being I guess a very narrow niche), and, for the kids, a station based on "You are my Sunshine" by Elizabeth Mitchell. Best of all it's free, with the very occasional and very short advertising. Free low-quality audio supported by ads. Reminds me of something...
  • edited March 2011
    @amclark2: I remember there was something roughly the size of a juice box. You stuck a 9-volt battery in it and twisted the knobs and music came out, along with some ads. Great music too: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Dave Clark 5, The Who, and The Byrds just to name a few. I was so much older then. I guess the magic wore off over the years from disuse because when I recently tried one I'd saved, all it played was people talking, mostly in Spanish.
    266051450_6d8a3c0020.jpg
    Radio restauration by Angatuba - Legionaire, on Flickr
  • Not yet avail, but here's something interesting: Psonar to Offer 'Pay As You Go' Music Service. A penny per stream, and you can make playlists for friends. I would think this would be popular with the eMusers crowd! Not sure about anybody else...
  • @Doofy

    That's something I intend to keep my eye on. And by securing a deal with Orchard, does that mean that I would have access to a lot of my unsigned jazz acts? I'm still a little shaky on exactly what that indicates, but I notice The Orchard popping up on a lot of stuff I buy.
  • Stream Mother Mother's new album in full:

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  • edited April 2011
    The excellent experimental electronica artist Ben Frost has his discography available for streaming. Thanks to brighternow for introducing me to him - his records Theory of Machines and By the Throat are really incredible (available at eMusic).
  • - Thanks Karg. . . He has been more productive than I knew of.
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