Well, now I've confirmed the most crucial answer I needed answering about iOS 17...

...now just to figure out how I'm going to make this happen.

Please note that this was written long before Epic Game's acquisition of Bandcamp, which you can read more about in Pitchfork, The New York Times and/or Bandcamp's own blog post.

Will libraries have the same problems with the digital transition that music and journalism have had?

A few more apps have arrived since this was first published - I thought I would include three I've actually used the most.

• AirScrobble delivers a particularly powerful capability for scrobbling automatically... consecutively... to Last.fm as it identifies tracks playing ambiently. I set it in front of my TV for half of 100 Gecs' recent Boiler Room set and was quite astonished at the result.
• Finale is another Last.fm client which can fundamentally serve as an updated experience from Last.fm's own iOS offering. Its included tools also make pretty collages and can really deliver for those with friends on the service.
• MusicBox is my next favorite of Marcos Tanaka's music apps (behind MusicHarbor.) I've used it in place of the Apple Music API-enabled Siri Shortcuts suite I thought I was going to have to make (and could never figure out.) See Federico Viticci's review for more details.

My (Entirely-Unsolicited) Thoughts on the most Casual Crue™'s 10th:

Ya know, my memory isn't so great anymore, but I remember my then best friend and most respected music authority resting pretty confidently in an argument about this sound, and those who peretuated it: that it was by nature/declaration substanceless, and therefore, those invested in it were either just superficial or.. idek anymore. Ingenuine, maybe?

I don't think I was even placating with him when I mostly went along with it - it did seem important to invest in more abrasive (read: edgy bs) pursuits. I thought I was resisting "nostalgia" and even invested most of my twenties trying to start an online culture/electronic music magazine in direct editorial opposition to regurgitation. Imo, though, any actual exposure to self-described "vaporwave" makes it very plain how utterly useless it is to cry nostalgia because - crucially - whatever form of it that may or may not be an established marker of this voice is completely devoid of the illness that has absolutely pervaded, destructively, throughout all manner of expression and exploitation in the past 10 years.

It is just not a constraining or negative force, here. I would propose, even, that it's been made, here, into the most powerful form of critique there possibly could be.

And the grief!!! and the mania!! In any sort of ... worldly-participatory context, it should not be some gargantuan leap for even the most cynical, repressed, bitter 50-something white music writer army to make the connections, here. Our tears are fucking digital, idiot.

...ANYway, sorry. I don't actually have any business talking about music, but I can express my big, soppy as hell appreciation for the nigh-inconceivable amount of quantitive life force for which this milestone is a handy opportunity to reflect.

I suspect this is due to Apple Classical being based to some degree (entirely supposition, btw) on Primephonic, the service Apple acquired in August of 2021. What do I know, though?

I find it hilariously telling that Spotify's official, very-credentialed own Web API will not retrieve more than 50 fucking tracks from a playlist lmao.

(I lied to you just then. I find it makes me want to commit systematic acts of violence on myself.) - WTF

There are thousands of audio streaming platforms available in the market but only a small number of streaming service providers make their journey to reap a huge revenue. Thus such music streaming applications are built only by reputed audio service providers by implementing next-gen technologies and strategies.

Introducing CONTUS VPlayed, a dominant player in providing customizable music streaming solutions globally. CONTUS VPlayed is known for its advanced technology like microservice architecture that delivers a complete peerless music streaming service.

Important!

I've just come across a recent interview with Ethan Diamond in which so many of the questions which prompted me to write this essay are addressed. (The link includes my annotations.)

In contrast with Spotify's CEO:

“Music is everything we do all day, all night, and that clarity is the difference between the average and the really, really good.”

Source: Spotify’s $30 billion playlist for global domination by Robert Safian

And this is why I felt so compelled - obligated, even - to write my big Bandcamp essay.

Oh my god, this. I have been asking myself this question with increasing intensity for years, now.

How To Create A Music Streaming App?

Now that you know that music apps can make pretty good money for their owners, you are probably dying to make your own app and start making money with it. But it’s not so easy.

Here is a step by step process –

Validating your app idea Understand the target audience Copyright matters to consider Radio or on-demand? Sketch the prototype Creating MVP Choose the features How to make your music app secure The cost to create a music app like Spotify

Sounds both like a relatively large number (given that the service was panned by many people) and a small percentage of Apple’s active userbase.

What Amber explained was exactly what I’d feared: through the Apple Music subscription, which I had, Apple now deletes files from its users’ computers. When I signed up for Apple Music, iTunes evaluated my massive collection of Mp3s and WAV files, scanned Apple’s database for what it considered matches, then removed the original files from my internal hard drive. REMOVED them. Deleted.

This is from 18 August, 2015, so it's possible things have changed. But it's interesting anyway, and many links are given.

Most music streaming services have been paying artists on a per-click basis. So most subscribers' money doesn't go to the artists they are listening to, but rather whichever artists get the most clicks. And this system is extremely vulnerable to click fraud.

The author argues that Subscriber Share is a better system. With that method, your subscription fee is divided among the artists you listen to according to the percentage of time you spend listening to them.

FAQ includes additional links and replies to counter-arguments.