Situation in the "Hi-Fi World": controversial video hosting, streaming news and USB microphones for the home

We share selected materials on why streaming services are increasingly filming music, and video hosting services are in no hurry to listen to public opinion. Plus – summing up the voting results in three sets of USB microphones for home studios.

Photo: Tim Mossholder. Source: Unsplash.com

What video hosting sites are criticized for… It’s one thing to watch business content – expert guides on work issues, lectures from academics and streams from conferences. Another is to take and, having nothing to do, look at something about reptilians, UFOs or listen to pop music. This is called: “one awkward movement, and at once a whole wave of unnecessary recommendations.” David Icke and Morgenstern will immediately fill your search results and settle in related-blocks for a very, very long time. However, if you do not want them to accompany you on YouTube for years, there are a couple of simple solutions that we are talking about in this material. Plus, we remember that the audience is still not satisfied with how the largest video hosting sites in the world work and work.

How YouTube fights off criticism… We will tell you what the site is doing in response to user “feature requests” and criticism from the audience, which is also supported by other IT companies. For example, Mozilla, whose employees have developed a special system for reporting strange YouTube search results and recommendations. According to our observations, the platform continues to “adhere to some kind of tactics” and quietly releases point updates with little regard to public outrage. We discuss them and the general situation around the popular video hosting.

You can’t just pick up and switch to streaming… The TV people found themselves in the role of catch-up and are trying to do everything to offer their own alternative to independent programs on YouTube. But they are no longer able to achieve the same attention to morning stand-ups, evening talk shows and news agenda. We share analytics on how quickly audiences turn away from TV screens and try to understand how TV and telecom companies are going to react. In addition, we talk about who else can take advantage of the change in viewers’ preferences and what might try to do.

Streaming services need new approaches to working with music… Yes, the era of “stagnation” is already here – music platforms and social networks are in no hurry to introduce new mechanics, interfaces and ways of interacting with audio content. They have, of course, a number of serious reasons for this. Firstly, with the current formats of albums and singles, not everything is so simple – labels cannot decide how the musical landscape will look even within the framework of the five-year plan. What can we say about daring experiments. This work was “delegated” to small audio social networks, and in case of a successful launch of a project, large publishers can afford to buy it out or simply copy the functionality.

How social media is limiting the use of music… While innovations in the world of audio social networks are not visible, the big players continue to “tighten the screws”. We discuss how this happens and what it leads to. Do not forget to note the new tools that are still launching sites in the hope that the audience will be able to overcome the annoyance and will use libraries of ready-made samples and tracks so as not to get blocked.

Streaming a new marketing tool? It is not in vain that musicians complain about online platforms, which do not always allow them to make money on their work. The industry went through a similar situation in the 1930s and 40s, when unions fought for the right to regular royalties from the sale of records. On the other hand, even if today many people have to put up with the conditions of streaming platforms, we must admit that for the most part we all use the free opportunity to distribute and listen to music – for example, on YouTube. Authors and performers have already begun to adapt to this, who are not trying to make money on tracks, but use them as a new marketing tool.

Photo: Giorgio Trovato. Source: Unsplash.com

More than investing in another streaming service… We analyze the details of the deal between fintech company Square and Tidal. The news about the purchase of the latter took place in the middle of last week, but the major media did not dive into the essence of what was happening. We did this work for them and wrote a compact habrapost for you about what Jack Dorsey and Jay Z, who own one and the other company, can unite, in addition to their interests in the field of music.

Moose. services are increasingly changing the contents of libraries… We are discussing another hot news – the removal of a huge number of tracks by South Korean K-pop artists from the Spotify showcase. We figure out what’s the matter, who can compete with whom, what all this means for the audience and the entire music industry. In the comments – the opinion of the hackers.

Favorite USB microphones for streaming, podcasting and hobby recording… We conclude the selection with an acquaintance with one of the main components of a home studio – affordable microphones that can be directly connected to a computer or laptop.

We have analyzed more than a dozen interesting models of the basic and middle price segment. Plus – we looked at unusual USB microphones and conducted polls in each of the habraposts.

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