Does anyone know of a way to record streaming music with good quality into an audio file, like an mp3 or wav or flac or an audio file that can be converted into one of those types of files. Also what is the best program to rip cds into FLAC or mp3.

Most streaming music can also be downloaded. Sometimes you have to pay separately for the download, depending on where you get it from. Downloading music is real cheap and easy these days. Most places have made it quite painless and inexpensive to do so, frequently costing much less than the audio CD version would cost.

Since some of my friends earn their livings via music sales, I tend to advocate buying it, instead of trying to lift the audio from a stream. Also, most streaming services run at a lower bitrate for the audio data than you'd get from downloading a purchased MP3 from like Amazon or Bandcamp or whatnot. If, as you've said, you're interested in the quality level of lossless FLAC, then, if you try to lift those streams from streaming services, you're unlikely to be happy with the audio data bitrate that streaming services fed you.

Regarding ripping, here is a thread on this topic from a couple of years ago, since I was asking the same question: https://empegbbs.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/367907

These days, most programs which will do CD ripping do a decent job as long as you turn on error correction for the rip. Many programs have error correction turned off by default. If you don't turn on error correction, you'll get a faster rip but it will get glitches in the files. On Mac, iTunes works just fine to rip to MP3, and on Windows, the built in Windows Media Player does a perfectly good job of ripping to MP3. I don't rip straight to FLAC though, so I don't have a suggestion there, but DBPowerAmp, suggested in that other thread, seems to do it.

I like the Audials stuff, specifically TuneBite. I use it to record lectures for school and it works great.

It also works for music streams.

well I have an account for a music streaming service(spotify), which you are able to download so you can listen to it when you are offline. The problem is you cant go copy the music to your favorite music player(empeg). I would like to get music that is hard to find, because of my unique taste in music besides some popular stuff as well, but besides some of these large streaming services I don't know where to get it and be able to download it onto my computer so I can copy it onto my empeg player. I have used torrents to get some music. Dont hate me. I also would check out CDs from the library and rip them. Some problems you would encounter was the CD was scratched. So I guess my first question is where can a find rare music that I can stream or download. Second what are some good music streaming services that have a large amount of music. Are there services where I can buy songs or albums much cheaper than going and buying a CD.

Thanks

As a musician, I would greatly recommend you buy the CDs - streaming services pay artists a miniscule percentage. I make about 80% more from a CD than from a Spotify play.

That is all, not even twice as much as Spotify pays?

The economics of music baffles me nowadays. Even live music, there are so many small venues around that even with a full house there can't be much in it for the band.

I agree that economics of music is a mess these days. The technology to make and distribute high quality music is no longer solely in the hands of a few megacorporations. Personally, I love it for a lot of reasons (after all, our beloved empeg is one small part of that technology wave). There are the obvious reasons to love it as a consumer, in terms of the variety and the availability of music. But as a musician, I love it because me, my friends, and a lot of other independent musicians, can find and connect with a worldwide audience that we wouldn't otherwise have had. There are so many amazing musicians who I've gotten to hear because of it, people whose music would never have gotten out of their living rooms if it weren't for this revolution. The old days of requiring "one big hit" with a record label in order for your music to find an audience are gone.

But yeah, there's a dark side to it. I know a few professional independent musicians pretty well. By professional, I mean that music is their only source of income. The only way they are able to stay alive is by working very hard, constantly doing every little gig they can, and traveling a lot so that they can find new audiences. They mostly live below the poverty line, and depend on friends and fans for a lot of little things, like couch surfing when they travel. The only ones who make enough money to live comfortably are the ones who have managed to nail the "big viral hit". Kinda like the old days in that regard, I guess.

For me as a punter it's great, for example I saw a gig earlier this year St Pancras Old Church, a tiny space maybe 100 tickets. The headline was the Saxophones, an american duo who have a young child, one set of grandparents came along to babysit. I can't remember the name of the opening act but he was a young man from London so I guess no big deal, second support was Dana Gavanski (absolutely amazingly good) also from America.

So how is there enough money to make it all happen? But I do love the huge number of intimate venues that have been popping up all over London in the last few years.

Agree that tech has made it easier for people to produce and distribute their music but must be tough.

I'm a repentant music pirate, but not a very good one. I exclusively use streaming services and have done so for the past 7-9 years (since Rdio was a thing). The convenience is just too good.

I do feel bad sometimes that I'm not buying the album, but I actually think that my listening style ends up benefiting the artists I listen to on streaming. I tend to obsess over one artist or album at a time and listen to it on repeat constantly.

Example: I discovered a new album a few weeks ago. Google Music tracks listens and I've apparently listened to the entire album 35 times, and some specific songs around 70 times. I'm curious if this doesn't at least match the revenue they would have gotten from an album sale?

This is almost my exclusive behavior with albums, too. It appears that I listened to "Carrie and Lowell" by Sufjan Stevens about 55 times, some tracks 90 times!

This isn’t sales dollars, it’s chart ranking, and also, it’s a dinosaur organization trying to apply old model to current model, but I find it interesting.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyr...nd-what-doesnt/

When the world of mp3 first appeared I fully expected companies like EMI to capitalise by offering high quality downloads (and later streaming) of their vast back catalogues through their own portals. I guess a lack of vision by the record companies led to the current situation.

I've spent a long time creating playlists on Spotify so I hope it survives but have always been concerned about how artists are rewarded by streaming services.