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Complete absence of ECM recordings unacceptable

Solved!

Complete absence of ECM recordings unacceptable

I am a paying subscriber and am on the whole very pleased with the offering in most genres (clasical, country, folk, pop) and the quality is pretty good too. But as the header saysI am very unhappy with thecomplete absence of the ECM label. That just will not do. Please do something about this!

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Google cross subsidises it propertie and the Google Play offering that thetricordist was documenting is a fully paid streaming service. But hey if Manfred cut an 8.8x deal why would he cut a lower one?

 

Google cross subsidises it propertie

 

Maybe. What does that have to do with this discussion?

 

the Google Play offering that thetricordist was documenting is a fully paid streaming service

 

Mostly, yes, although streaming radio on mobile is free I believe. So it probably makes sense for Google to pay out differently given their different revenue model. How does that change the point that Manfred Eicher thinks Spotify doesn't makes sense for him but Google Play does?

 

 

But hey if Manfred cut an 8.8x deal why would he cut a lower one?

 

I don't know, but it sounds like you finally agree that this is the crux of the issue.

What can we do? iF ECM catalogue will not be part of Spotify offer I will move to Apple Music. 


@akira wrote:

I am a paying subscriber and am on the whole very pleased with the offering in most genres (clasical, country, folk, pop) and the quality is pretty good too. But as the header saysI am very unhappy with thecomplete absence of the ECM label. That just will not do. Please do something about this!




 For most of 2016, ECM albums were available in the U.S. on a seemingly semi-legal service called tidido.com. I believe it has Russian origins, but its servers may be located in Western Europe. This website had all kinds of material that was unavailable at other sites, such as most of King Crimson stuff. I knew that it couldn't last long because it was too good to be true, and alas, I tried to access it today only to get a message, "You can listen to this music in your country on deezer.com." That in itself wouldn't be bad if I didn't know that Deezer probably doesn't have all that good stuff that Tidido does and is probably less well-supplied than Spotify. Alas, such is life. 

I am the founder and owner of an independent record label that has been in business for over 15 years and I have a very personal and interesting take on this subject.

 

The main reason that ECM and many other labels are not on spotify is simple...  Record labels and musicians are being paid less than peanuts from services that stream audio.

 

Example...  Most people do not know this but labels and artists only receive $.006 per stream!!  So that works out to a mere $6 in revenue for every 1,000 streams!  Record labels and artists can not survive on this revenue and in the end labels will stop producing music due to the costs involved and artists will then have to foot the bill to pay for all of the recording costs and production costs themselves...

 

Personally, I use Spotify in a way that many of you that have commented here do which is to listen to an album before I decide to purchase it.  I always buy the album on CD when possible and if only available as an download then I buy the album in that format.

 

My plea to everyone that uses Spotify is to please support your favorite recording artists by purchasing their music and not just streaming it because if this continues one day there will be no more new music.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

 

 

While I appreciate that the per stream payout is very low, Spotify also serves as an introduction to artists.  If I have never heard of any artist (because they are not on Spotify) then I won't go see them when they are in town and I wouldn't buy their album.  Think of it as advertising, if you will.  

Marked as solution

I’m not sure how long this has been the case, but there are now dozens of ECM Records albums on Spotify (and Amazon Music, I would assume Apple Music). Certainly not the entire catalog but representation of most if not all of the ECM artists I follow. I’d guess about 20-25% is there. I hope eventually to see more, but for now I have a lot to catch up with!

Spoiler
 

Is it back or just dreaming?

*Finally!!!*  Thank you Manfred!

Hallelujas and hosannas! Manfred has finally seen the light.

My excitement about ECM streaming on Spotify was dampened when I discovered that they pick and choose the albums they upload to this site and others. For example, I started checking on Pat Metheny's albums and realized that missing are some Pat's staples, such as First Circle, or Off Ramp, and others. Let's hope that these omissions are a matter of having too many albums to upload early and that there'll be a second dumping onto Spotify some time soon, but I wouldn't be surprised if Manfred has retained at least some of his **bleep** attitudes towards unlimited streaming.

THIS, is the single, best thing Spotify has ever happened to Spotify & it's about time!  The value of our Spotify subscriptions just easily doubled!


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