ECM Records streaming?

[MikeJazz]

If his artists end up not selling any recordings because nobody has a clue who they are because they are not in front of the public I don't see how that's taking care of them. If I was one of them I'd look for another label.

 

Streaming is being great to us consumers but bad for most artists due the extremely low income they get from streaming...Many artists have been looking for alternative ways of distributing their music, some going direct ways, some just focusing on live performances.

 

I would love to have ECM streamed to me as is maybe the most important record label for the jazz I ear; but for those kind of artist that are already a niche inside jazz, streaming would pay maybe a lunch from time to time. Makes no sense...

[MikeJazz]

I only partially agree. It is pretty obvious no Jazz artist will ever live on streaming revenues.

 

However, I believe that the Jazz audience is actually one of the few customer groups who is actually still buying albums. I often use streaming like I used to use a record shop: to sample an album.

 

The beauty of streaming is you really only have to buy an album if you really like it. For me, if there's an album I like, I usually buy it.

 

These days, if an album is not available for streaming, I'm actually less likely to buy it as 30 second samples really don't mean anything for 5min+ jazz tracks, and unless I love the artist, I hate buying blindly (and there simply aren't any record stores out there any more).

 

I have no idea how many people are out there like me crazy enough to pay for both streaming and downloads. But I hope Manfred Eicher has done this assessment properly before making his decision.

 

Maybe Manfred is listening to you and create a streaming service in ECM...or something like linn radio would be nice. Good enough for sampling...

 

I can only guess what happens with ECM if they start streaming...

In last year I only bought 2 albums from ECM (and it was high-res downloads).

That was a marked decrease from previous years and it happened because my limited time was more taken by streaming...Not to imply that the rest of the folks are like me, but there is a big loss of market share (for CD and downloads) when one starts to stream a lot... There is simply less time available to enjoy your collection...

 

So If ECM could offer a own streaming solution, it could be a good future solution, because they would still retain their earnings. Their catalog is deep and rich enought to make it work...