Digital Music Downloads, Bandcamp and Spotify

 

Advent "hi-res" track playing on a HiBy R3 Pro Saber DAP

Music has always been at the very core of my life. In addition to being a lifelong player (guitarist/multi-instrumentalist and composer), collecting my favorite recorded music has been a passion for as long as I can remember. I’ve always taken great pleasure and comfort in knowing that I can pull out just about any album (or song) I love and play it anytime—and it’s also a privilege to have provided support to the corresponding artists via the act of the music having been purchased.

As a youngster, I started by buying vinyl (initially a few 45s but soon transitioning to picking up virtually everything on album) and, after accruing a fairly nice record library by the mid-1980s, ended up migrating to compact discs as the primary media of choice—and that continued for a few decades as well, amassing approximately three times as many titles on CD (than LP). Being a budget-conscious audiophile as well, I also invested in the best stereo equipment I could afford along the way, in order to enjoy this collection with the highest possible audio fidelity.

Though vinyl certainly has inherent drawbacks (including pops, crackles, and frequency-response limitations), there was also something a bit discouraging about the fact that each play of a record ever so slightly wears down its grooves—even with a high-quality turntable that has a light tracking weight on its tonearm/stylus. Additionally, while CDs initially instilled the hope of being able to reproduce flawless playback for a lifetime, the manufacturing process wasn’t always perfect and some discs would start to suffer from their own integrity-oriented issues such as substrate oxidation and surface damage (primarily scratches) that might hinder error-free listening. On top of this, CD players also have fairly delicate laser-tracking mechanisms that can eventually be prone to difficulties—or even immediate sensitivities when being used in a mobile setting such as a car stereo or with a Discman-style portable player (as a result of being bounced around).

When digital downloads first gained popularity (with the first iPod and subsequent MP3 players), audiophiles largely dismissed them due to the use of lossy audio compression—and, in my opinion, with good reason. To be fair, though, why would anyone really require pristine musical source files when listening in earbuds while walking, running, or otherwise moving about? Though a much less mainstream phenomenon, the advent of lossless audio compression formats, like FLAC and ALAC, not only enabled reliable music playback at CD quality but potentially even better (higher resolution and/or bit depths) as well—and in a format that was easily transportable, facilitated easy backups (local and remote), and could theoretically play perfectly each time for the remainder of eternity.

Prior to 2015, I still purchased virtually all new music on CD—primarily because I was used to buying physical media and also wasn’t really aware of hardware that was optimized for “lossless” file playback (though these files could always be played on a computer if desired). Things changed significantly that year, however, as we’d hired (the world-class mastering engineer) Bob Katz, once again—this time to master Advent’s third album, Silent Sentinel, and negotiated the inclusion of a high-resolution “2496” (24-bit resolution sampled at 96 kHz) version for the audiophile market. Quickly realizing that I needed a way to showcase this “hi-res” master of the album, I went out and bought my first lossless DAP (digital audio player). Armed with a device that could now easily play lossless/hi-res FLAC files with appropriate fidelity—through the home stereo, in the car, or through headphones—the time had come to start shifting my own purchase of new music toward digital downloads.

Fortunately, I’d already launched a Bandcamp page in support of Advent’s previous release (Cantus Firmus) and knew that all music purchased there could be downloaded in multiple formats—including lossless options such as FLAC. This quickly led to a shift in preference for buying music from Bandcamp whenever practical, with the fringe benefit that purchasing the occasional CD there also included immediate access to the corresponding album/EP in download form. On the downside, if a release wasn’t available for sale on Bandcamp, it was almost impossible to find another place that offered digital downloads for purchase that weren’t compressed with a lossy codec (MP3 or AAC)—and, since this meant inferior sound quality, that generally warranted a search for the title on CD instead.

Over the past decade and a half, CD sales have largely withered and many independent artists are starting to release albums in digital form only (with no physical media option). As a result, I find it particularly disheartening when I find a new album that’s worth buying and isn’t offered on Bandcamp (or directly from the artist in lossless download form, which is increasingly rare). In these cases, it forces a decision on whether the release is worth buying in compromised “lossy” form or not. (As a brief aside, when push came to shove, I used to prefer buying lossy downloads from Google Play as they offered the highest-quality 320k MP3 downloads, but they have since abandoned this service in favor of YouTube Music streaming.)

In addition to the all the advantages already noted, Bandcamp also offers additional benefits such as:

• Allowing a prospective buyer to hear the album, EP, or single (usually the entire thing) via direct streaming—without ads—before making a purchase.
• Offering high-resolution lossless downloads when the artist had decided to make them available (something that seems to be increasingly common with newer releases, though often undocumented as such).
• Providing a social component where you can find others with similar tastes to help share and discover more new music.
• Taking a comparatively modest cut of all sales, thus passing the majority of all proceeds on to the artists. (They’ve even been hosting “Bandcamp Friday” events, over the past year or so, when Bandcamp will waive their cut entirely.)

With this in mind, I would implore that all musical artists consider releasing their music on Bandcamp. Whether you’ve got some old gems laying around that are long out-of-print or possibly never even released, or distributing new music through more mainstream channels like CD Baby or DistroKid, why not add it to Bandcamp as well (as long as contractual obligations allow)? Some of the more forward-looking record labels—including big names like Nonesuch—are also starting to leverage Bandcamp as an alternate outlet for selling their releases, by the way.

Lastly, I’d like to share my thoughts on how best to use streaming services like Spotify. As you probably know, these services barely pay anything to the artists (generally less than US $0.02 per stream with Spotify averaging around $0.004 the last I checked)—and, quite often, Spotify is particularly vilified by both independent artists and fans alike for this very reason. That being said, I highly recommend leveraging Spotify (and other comparable streaming services) in a less conventional way—as a “virtual listening booth.” Check out all the music you think you might like, but purchase anything you really enjoy. As most streaming services don’t actually sell music directly, hunt down the CD, vinyl, or digital download elsewhere—or, if the artist is savvy enough to sell it on Bandcamp, please consider buying it there.

Though I arrived at this system of finding, evaluating, and buying music rather organically (over time), I wanted to share these details here in hopes that it may inspire others to follow (or at least consider following) a similar path—even if only as an alternate or supplemental solution to expanding your own music library. Thanks a lot for reading and happy listening!

P.S. I still find much pleasure in owning physical media as well and this article is not intended to minimize the benefits of collecting CDs or vinyl—something I still do, though on a much more limited basis than before—but to highlight the viability of high-quality digital downloads as a meaningful way to expand one’s musical library and sharing my own preferred methodology for doing so.