just ran both back rn and this is exactly what i mean. Another good example is all of keefs tapes that made it to streaming had the exact same thing happen

can honestly say I never got a cd at a record store

when the album would leak and you were the cool kid with it a week early

I think it’s cause when you seen your fav song on radio or fav video it’s that,it felt apart of culture and real life. Seeing Day N Nite by Cudi make it on to MTV felt so cool and special as an early fan. You don’t get that anymore

how old are u g? You never got any cd's as a kid at all?

F***...you're bringing back memories I forgot about. That s*** was special

Did shake some trees and as a result music is more accessible which is great for us as listeners and artists because downloading declined. On the other hand that accessibility made streaming services (and labels) more powerful. Thus they have more control and have a monopoly over what's really played. Feels similar as with the internet. We have access to tons of information but if Googles the one directing the access to that information how accessible is everything really? Quality wise you could argue that every timespan has its rock bottom. The difference now is it's getting more difficult to get attention solely based on the quality of your music. So at the end of the day I don't think it really did more for artists and music as an artform.

for me it was just buy it off iTunes

Will never forget Rocky’s whole album leaking like a month in advance

S*** like that don’t happen anymore that much now songs get leaked over the course of a year leading up to projects

So much s*** is just shoved in our faces these days man. Everything back then felt way more organic,you know how f***ing cool it was to see Black Mags by The Cool Kids get play on Rap City and MTV. It made acts like that hype feel real.

I was the exact opposite. Preferred physical rather than digital

Now physical barely exists

its a whole new world, just do it off the phone

Man, shut up. I know times have changed

didn't mean it like that at all, but it's fine

I’ll say the most positive is that it made Alotta albums more accessible to find and listen to and you can research albums more easier. But the negative would be that most people don’t listen to full albums as much and the consuming of music changed which most people got short attention spans

And artists felt like super stars back then. People you really wanted to watch grow and see how their careers developed. There were f***ing ERAS for each of them. Now they're so easily accessible through social media and it's just oh yeah I'm dropping this album next week make sure to stream it as much as possible

For somewhat who still downloads music and puts it on their phone (along with having a streaming subscription), I would say for my ultimate enjoyment of music in general it has been a net negative.

The convenience of having an exorbitant amount of music readily available at all times is obviously a huge positive but how it has influenced artists to start making their projects is the biggest failure of this whole deal.

How many bloated projects have artists released in the last few years because they need more chances for a song to blow up and for their project to count for more than 1 album stream per stream of the album? How many artists are making charting a gimmick (or their whole persona) and get their stans to push mediocre songs instead of just making music that resonates with people? How many double albums (full of filler) have we been given due to this revamped "Deluxe" album trend instead of an artist finishing a work and moving onto the next creative effort?

In my opinion, all these things have reduced the quality of music overall and more than ever, quantity seems to be getting pushed over quality. Streaming has also made fans more entitled than ever (this is also heavily linked with social media but streaming plays a part here too), where artists could wait two years + to drop a quality project, the expectation has basically moved to 1 year for a new project. I would say that those who wait are basically punished unless they get chosen as one of the select few who get a pass (i.e. Frank Ocean).

Playlists by these streaming platforms are controlling a lot of what is popular but this, much like radio, has always been a way for artists to buy influence but its never been more apparent than now.

Overall, I think this has killed the ability for good music to actually last and be commercially successful (obvious exceptions I'm just saying on the whole). It has also created the culture of quantity over quality, and gimmicks for streaming which ends up negatively affecting artist's projects.

I miss the simpler times but understand why it is the way it is.

Yep,albums back then had real buildup and felt meaningful,especially when it was artist up and coming and going through label bs. It most definitely felt like something for the actual artist going through so much s*** and at the end of it all,they were able to hold their debut in their hands in physical form.

Now rap is just marketing now,everything is marketing

More 2 minute songs

Hook verse hook fin

One thing is the lower attention spans, less worth on music so niggas be skippin more. Music treated less like a an art and spectacle by casual listeners

But for the music lover its a godsend due to the fact that we have never had this much content readily available for 10 dollars a month.

Artists arrive on the scene damn near fully formed.

There is no artist development.

Labels wanna capitalize on buzz immediately.

2 min songs been here forever tho look at motown its just that mid artists make em now

I said MORE 2 minute songs.

Streaming has made it so it behooves the artist to make shorter songs so they get more streams

U right but that aint that bad imo. we just need more quality short songs

The 3rd verse is all but dead