NPR Music Series Examines The Future Of Streaming Music

NPR Explores Streaming Music

With APPLE's new streaming service about to join SPOTIFY, TIDAL and a myriad of others entering the fray, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO MUSIC has launched a series examining how streaming will change music ... and us.

"Streaming At The Tipping Point" will examine the issues raised for music producers and consumers alike, including questions of ownership, history, permanence, taste and ethics.

Through the collection of essays and reports, NPR is examining how streaming music services are changing the experience of listening to music and of being a fan or musician. NPR MUSIC editor JACOB GANZ kicked things off MONDAY with an intro piece, "How Streaming Is Changing Music," while MARC HOGAN surveyed musicians, labels, listeners about what their streaming “utopia” might look in "Streaming Utopia: Imagining Digital Music's Perfect World."

On TUESDAY, JILLIAN MAPES contributed "Would You Like To Hear A Song, DAVE?" a profile of AETHER, a company that makes a streaming music device that learns from your habits and preferences, a story about the rise of the algorithm and what it says about what we want out of our listening experience.

This morning ANN POWERS explores the issue of preservation in "Digital Underground: Who Will Make Sure The Internet's Vast Musical Archive Doesn't Disappear?"  Later today, as a sidebar to that piece, NPR will publish a list of online streaming sites recommended by archivists

"Streaming At The Tipping Point" also includes an interactive element -- an audiophile quiz that tests users’ ability to distinguish different levels of audio quality and learn about how the speakers your listening on -- whether that be earbuds or BOSE -- matters much or more than the quality of the recording.

The series will continue tomorrow with ANASTASIA TSIOULCAS' analysis, "Why Can't Streaming Services Get Classical Metadata Right" tomorrow morning and HAZEL CILLS' story of a streaming music non-fan talking with her peers about how to create a personal library out of the infinite options available in the cloud.

FRIDAY, CHRIS MOLANPHY looks into the definition of a "hit" in the streaming era, what services don't get factored into BILLBOARD's new chart formula and how all these different options have rewired the way a song becomes a hit.

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