Spotify lowered their playback loudness

Does anyone listen to a complete album on a streaming service? That would be the only time the flow would be messed with.

This sort of thing has already ruined things like songs that cross fade or run into each other. But from here on out, is an album a useful way of putting out music? Streaming revolves around single songs of a certain type, not necessarily from the same artist. It might make more sense to make sure your music fits in with everything else in your catagory.
 
But what about listening to a full album in order like a normal person?

Buy the CD...listen on you stereo. :D

I don't know if anyone's streaming playlist includes full albums start-to-end....I would be surprised to find someone who does that....because the "your playlist" concept is mostly about cherry-picking and sequencing your favorite *songs

. But from here on out, is an album a useful way of putting out music? Streaming revolves around single songs of a certain type, not necessarily from the same artist. It might make more sense to make sure your music fits in with everything else in your catagory.

It's something to consider, for sure.
I don't think the album concept is dead...because you can still pick off 2-3 songs from an album and toss them in a playlist...but playlists don't really imply whole albums.

Considering that the leveling algorithms are for the streaming services and live broadcasts...there's still room to do whole albums how you like.
I mean...old-school radio has been using AGC equipment and comps/limiters for many years back...way before the loudness wars and digital audio...and I remember the FM radio years where entire albums would get played on the air...and it sounded fine. I remember recording a few like that off the air...so we could have them on cassette for the car. :)
 
I don't know if anyone's streaming playlist includes full albums start-to-end....I would be surprised to find someone who does that....because the "your playlist" concept is mostly about cherry-picking and sequencing your favorite *songs

Besides if you're like me and don't want to pay the ten bucks a month for Spotify premium, you can't pick and choose anyway.
Yeah, you can pick genre, artist, and even whole albums, but they determine the order.

On the bigger picture, it seems there's a whole bunch of bitching about nothing.

Back in the heyday of FM radio, I thought it sounded good......until I actually bought the record I'd heard on the radio.

The album played on the very same stereo system I'd first heard the music on via FM radio, now sounded amazing!
It was a night and day difference in fidelity.

Any mass distribution system for music has always processed it for brodcast, whether it is over the airwaves or wifi.
Now isn't any different than before.

The only way for your music to sound exactly as intended is to have the listeners come to your studio. Ain't gonna happen.

So some form of reduced fidelity is the trade-off you make for reaching a wider audience.
:D
 
Back in the heyday of FM radio, I thought it sounded good......until I actually bought the record...
I wasn't actually there, but it was my understanding that FM radio in the states really got off the ground by playing full albums. Wasn't that actually part of what helped drive the popularity of the album as an art form in itself as opposed to just being a collection of songs?

Like I said, I don't really fuck with Spotify or iTunes. I generally just stream from YouTube, and try to find an actual "full album" video when I want the whole thing. I figure these should be normalized based on the overall average across the whole album, with little or nothing changed in the inter-song dynamics. Haven't tested that theory... Most of the rest of my listening is from Bandcamp, which is known to be a fairly low quality stream, but doesn't haven't any kind of normalization applied.

I guess sometimes just babbling about our concerns on a forum like this can make them out like they're bigger than they really are. But then, there sure is a lot of hype and hyperbole around this whole thing. All the headlines shouting about how the war is over and we can all go back to living peacefully in our cul de sacs.
 
If someone uploads an entire album to youtube as a single video, it will adjust the level of the file as a whole. It will not ride the level for each song.

If you upload individual songs, then the individual songs will all end up at the standard volume.

Before fm took off, they would play full albums because they knew no one was listening. That was pretty well over by the mid 70s. There may have been an hour a day where they played an album, but that was mostly so the dj could smoke pot on the roof.
 
In special cases they would play a side or a whole album. But it would be going through multiband compression, enhancement, limiting etc. so it sounded different from the same thing played at home. The song to song dynamics were much reduced.
 
There is a website called Wolfgang's Vault that has all the audio from the King Buscuit concerts and other live radio programs from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

It's amazing how many concerts they have.
 
In special cases they would play a side or a whole album. But it would be going through multiband compression, enhancement, limiting etc. so it sounded different from the same thing played at home. The song to song dynamics were much reduced.



Yeah...but back then we were all high...and it sounded great. :p
 
I call BS. You weren't really there if you remember it. I 'think' I was, but can't be sure. I don't remember shit. But then again, maybe the 60s were just a computer simulation and our hard drives were all wiped. :D


Ok, back onto this loudness business. I listened to some early Soundgarden. Sounded great. I put in the first Audioslave CD and what a difference! Horrible! Squashed all to hell. while individual sounds were well done, it only sounded good when it was a sparse mix. As soon as the mix got a bit dense, it all went to shit.

I certainly hope these new standards will truly eliminate the loudness war disease.
 
I call BS. You weren't really there if you remember it. I 'think' I was, but can't be sure. I don't remember shit.

That just means you were more stoned, most of the time.
I was only a recreational user, I can still remember some stuff...I think. :p
 
I feel like the loudness wars has been shifting in the other direction for some time now. At least 5 years. The loud mixes will be shunned eventually because they sound like shit. :/
 
Well maybe with the passing of Chris Cornell, well get remixed and remastered stuff that actually sounds good.
 
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