This month in digital music libraries - February 2025
February 28, 2025 in digital music by Dan Gravell
In this month’s round-up: old music vs new music; a bold stand on streaming royalties; music setups and data sovereignty.
Music - from mainstream to niche to AI-generated
When we think of ‘catalog’ music crowding out new music we often think of classic rock and the like, but now it’s affecting more recent genres.
The "old music is killing new music" phenomena is now affecting hip-hop and pop
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 26 January 2025 at 16:00
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Maybe it’s inevitable old music is winning out… we sometimes just want to ‘play the hits’. If it’s inevitable, though, maybe there are other ways of compensating newer artists, such as higher royalties per play?
It's good that there are streaming services out there trying to rebalance payments. https://buff.ly/4gl5vmX However... is it just me, or does @prestomusic.bsky.social 's average payment of ~£1 for a full album listen seem almost _too_ high. Is it sustainable?
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 9 February 2025 at 16:00
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Away from the mainstream, it’s always a pleasure to read data archivists recording the most niche releases they can…
Todays #musicbrainz #albumscan: Various - Rest Your Mind to the Music -and let the Maersk Minds work for you! Pretty restful for the most part, apart from dud or two. Makes my top 10 shipping company mixes. Maersk did NONE of my work while I listened to this. beta.musicbrainz.org/release/3829...
— Simon (@aerozol.bsky.social) 22 January 2025 at 04:41
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Music networks
A new music server is in town…
Meelo is an alternative self hosted music server you might like to try... https://buff.ly/4aIVVcr thanks @arthi_chaud
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 3 February 2025 at 16:00
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More broadly, David Pierce aggregates his readers’ music tools:
Hi friends! It's Thursday, which means it's that time again: I'm putting together this week's Installer and want to know everything you're into. What are you listening to / reading / watching / playing / building / baking this week? Tell me so I can tell everyone! (And subscribe to Installer!)
— David Pierce (@davidpierce.xyz) 20 February 2025 at 16:45
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… and let’s not forget Lindy’s Law… some software continues to be used because it’s mature and useful!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwpc... NEW VIDEO OUT AND IT'S ABOUT LOGITECH STUFF YET AGAIN
— f4mi ‼️ (@f4mi.bsky.social) 23 February 2025 at 01:09
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(Audio) data sovereignty
While self hosting gets a lot of buzz, to avoid the streaming services, there might be other ways of freeing yourself from their clutches. Rather than controlling your services, you can control your data, own your library, and potentially use outside services to stream that to you.
You can still own music, you know
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 19 February 2025 at 16:00
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And it goes beyond music into any media…
Amazon are ending download-and-transfer for Kindle eBooks on the Amazon website. https://buff.ly/3QisTHh This doesn't affect sideloading your own ebooks onto the device, or "Send to Kindle". It affects you only if you like to download and manage your own copy of a book.
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 15 February 2025 at 16:01
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More next month!
Photo by Bruno Bučar on Unsplash
