SOUND ON SOUND

[TimFin]

Hello everyone,

I have recently been considering switching from Spotify to Apple Music mainly because I just purchased a HomePod and because of the larger libraries and more recently the fact that Apple Music now has a larger subscriber base than Spotify in the US. Ideally I would be able to use Apple Music for both personal listening, and for playing music before and after live events. While researching this issue I realized that I have never seen a live engineer using Apple Music. I have seen plenty of engineers using Spotify, but never once have I seen someone using Apple Music in a live setting. Is there some sort of reliability issue, or just a general disliking of the Apple Music service that I should know about? At this point I would like to switch, but whether or not I should be using it for live events is kind of a deal breaker for me. I’d be happy to hear what all of you think, or are using personally.

[Dave Rowles]

A quick search seems to suggest that Apple Music pays more per stream than Spotify, but it’s still an appalling pittance.

I buy all my music outright, and store it on my Mac. I wouldn’t use a steaming service unless there was no alternative because the song doesn’t exist anywhere else.

That said, when I do stream my iTunes purchases on my phone I’ve never had a problem that can’t be explained by poor connection. That’s always the downside to streaming. It assumes you have an internet connection. In a lot of venues I’ve been in over the years, there’s either poor or non existent WiFi, and phone signal is rubbish.

I’m not a fan of streaming so I don’t use it.

[djangodeadman]

I generally use my iPod, but I do have access to Spotify on my phone and use that if an act or promoter requests something that I don’t have on the iPod, but which they haven’t brought on their own device. Sometimes they will give me a link to a Spotify playlist. No one has ever asked me to use an Apple Music playlist, but if that started to happen often enough, I guess I would have to subscribe.

Dave’s comments regarding internet access are relevant, of course, and the iPod overcomes those issues. Young people are also generally amused to see something so quaintly ancient as an iPod Classic, which adds to the fun!

All of this depends on there ever being gigs again, obviously.

[Dave Rowles]

I know that you can store spotify stuff offline, but as I've never downloaded or opened the app it's a bit of a mystery to me.

I've also had the hassle with international touring and data usage, although venue WiFi tends to be more consistently better outside of the UK.

[ben howes]

Are there any legal issues regarding broadcasting your chosen streaming service at public events?
I imagine Apple or Spotify might require you to have a license.

[blinddrew]

This is covered by PRS. Basically it's down to whether the venue has the licence. If they do (most pubs, clubs etc will) then you're fine. If they don't (i.e. the event is a festival in a field that doesn't normally have anything there) then the event organiser will need to get the relevant licence.
The actual mechanism you use to broadcast the music doesn't matter.

All this is as I understand it but, thankfully, I am not a lawyer. :)

[mint]

I don’t know if this is any help regarding legalities.

https://support.spotify.com/uk/article/ ... chool-etc/

[blinddrew]

I stand corrected, but I think technically what we'd be looking at there is a EULA violation rather than a legal one though.