Shawn

I owned most of those albums in the 1980s...and still own quite a few.

Or you can scrobble using LastFM and it will keep track of everything you play in Spotify, iTunes, VLC and a host of other services/programs that they support. I've been using it since 2009 and it offers a really interesting way to see how my listening habits have been over that time frame. http://www.last.fm

Streaming catalogs (both music and movies) are in a constant state of flux, just because something gets added doesn't mean it will be there in 6 months, it may vanish for a while, then come back. Items are licensed for a specific period of time, once that time expires sometimes they get renewed, sometimes they don't. I've been using Netflix streaming since 2009 and I've seen many films and TV shows get added, then get removed, then get re-added. It's all up to the whims of the content owners. The James Bond films have been added and removed so many times I've lost count, on for a few months, then off for a few months, then back again. It's just the nature of the beast.

I used to work for a competing online music store (long gone), for each .99 cent track sold in the iTunes store .74 cents went to the record label (average, it varied a couple pennies here and there depending on the deal). Apple didn't care about the profit margin for song purchases from the iTunes store, it was a marketing tool to sell more iPods. They would have operated the store at a loss if need be, because the profits from hardware sales were much higher. We made even less on per track sales, we had the same basic deal with the record labels but we also paid a third-party that provided the catalog and hosted it. We basically broke even.

Tracks over 12 minutes long generally are only available if you purchase the entire album, they are not available as individual track downloads. ______________________________ Is anyone else getting tired of this endless sniping back and forth going on in this thread? Some of these comments are getting mighty personal.

The reality is that a very small percentage of professional musicians are actually going to be able to support themselves entirely from their music. A lot of people need to face the fact that their day job is going to remain a necessity. While I think the revenue from streaming is ridiculously small, I still think it's an advantage for a smaller artists to at least get their music out there and get some free publicity for it. Maybe some of those people that find your music on Spotify will go see one of your shows, or might buy your album via bandcamp or some other similar site. I know I've discovered quite a few bands via Spotify that I might never have heard otherwise...and I've gone and seen some of thme in concert, sometimes I've also bought t-shirts and LPs or CDs. A minuscule royalty check from a streaming site is still better than receiving nothing from illegal downloads.

Dave Grohl weighs in on the Taylor Swift/Spotify debate: “I don’t fucking care.” “I want people to hear our music, I don’t care if you pay $1 or fucking $20 for it, just listen to the fucking song,” he added. “But I can understand how other people would object to that.” “You want people to fucking listen to your music? Give them your music. And then go play a show,” Grohl said. “They like hearing your music? They’ll go see a show." http://www.avclub.com/article/dave-grohl-enters-spotify-debate-says-he-doesnt-fu-211892?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview:1:Default

I would have to post several thousand albums to answer this question. At one point I ended up with a list of over 100 albums that were released in the year 1970 that I consider essential, can't imagine how long that list would be if I opened it up to all years.

If anything Spotify (and Youtube, etc) has made me more discerning than I was before. It used to be I'd hear a song or listen to an online sample and would think "wow, that's sounds great, I think I'll order it". Then I'd get the album and realize that it wasn't as great as I initially thought and that I probably wouldn't listen to it very often. There goes $12 out the window. Now I listen to EVERY album prior to purchasing. In the end I purchase less albums than I used to, but I'm almost always satisfied with those purchases.

"It's What We Do" by Pink Floyd

Nice to see the mention of Haken, Riverside and Big Big Train.

Billboards were designed to be viewed by people stuck in traffic, last time I checked that still happens on a daily basis in every major metropolitan area in the country.

The purpose of a billboard is not to reach millions of people, it's to reach people in the local market. Different tier of same marketing strategy.

Why are billboards horribly "stone-age"...yet I still see albums advertised on the side of buses to this day? And if you go up on the Sunset Strip (near where those billboard pictures you posted were taken) you'll still find billboards advertising albums.

The Final Cut is so depressing I don't listen to it very often. Your Possible Pasts is a great tune and there's some killer Gilmour guitar solos on a few tracks (Fletcher Memorial Home, the title track) but I really have to be in a very particular mood for that album. I love everything from Piper to The Wall (though I tend to skip around on The Wall these days). I don't like any of Roger Waters solo albums, but I enjoy all of Gilmour and Wright's solo albums.

I've only seen a chorale concert there so far, but the acoustics were just stunning. They used the organ during a couple tracks and the low notes vibrated the entire building, it was awesome.

I think Steven Wilson did it the correct way with The Raven That Refused To Sing. Book a professional studio, hire Alan Parsons as the recording engineer, record all the instrumentals live-in-the-studio in 6 days. Then complete vocals, mixing and mastering at the home studio later. Retain all ownership of masters and license the recording to a label for distribution purposes only.

I'm glad Waters didn't come anywhere near this. Remember, he's the guy that fired Rick Wright from Pink Floyd and then brought him back as a salaried employee for The Wall tour....but did not let him contribute to The Final Cut. This album is a loving tribute to Rick Wright, if Waters had joined I would have found that distasteful considering how he treated Rick.

I do like some of the material on Momentary Lapse and The Division Bell, but I think The Endless River actually sounds more like Pink Floyd than either of those albums.

Hopefully no train tracks, highways or airports are nearby, all the acoustical treatment in the world won't stop vibrations getting into the recording. This is a pointless argument, I think nothing beats a professional recording studio, you think any room (even an outhouse!) can be used for recording. I'm not going to budge on my opinion, you most likely won't either. So this is a useless exercise.

All the software in the world can't approximate the sound of an instrument recorded in a superior physical space. Plugging a guitar into a Marshall Stack, cranking it up and capturing the sound with high-end microphones in a great sounding room does not sound the same as plugging a guitar into a software emulator.

This story is a crock.

It's a wonderful album, especially in headphones. A fitting tribute to the legacy of Rick Wright. The bonus jams on the blu-ray are just as enjoyable as the album itself. The sound of David Gilmour's guitar is one of my favorite things in the universe.

Home studios do not "rival the big boys". Some schmuck recording his album in a 1-bedroom apartment isn't going to get the same quality as going to a professional studio, recording in isolated, acoustically-designed rooms with floating floors, with thousands of dollars of microphones and other gear to use. Not to mention having the expertise of a professional recording engineer available. At the very least you need to book studio time to cut the drum tracks. If you have to you can run everything else direct at home...although that's not my preference.

The witty dialogue is one of the primary reasons I watch The Newsroom...or any Sorkin-penned movie or TV series for that matter. That's also the reason I watch Preston Sturges movies and Joss Whedon TV shows. To me, "quotable dialogue" is one of the highest compliments.