Places to stream before buying
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.
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.
Comments
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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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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 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.
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.
We7 has that too. And is free but with less comprehensive selection.
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.
Radio restauration by Angatuba - Legionaire, on Flickr
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.