In the mobile Internet era, "listening to Music" has been firmly tied to streaming media platforms such as Apple Music, Spotify, and QQ Music. Whenever you want to find a song, you must first open your usual streaming service and search for the song's title. However, since the "Copyright War" of domestic music streaming platform started in 2015, the discussion and controversy about the ownership of music content copyright have never stopped. "Singer A used to be available on App B, but it suddenly went grey yesterday" and "Singer C's song is only available on App D, although it is difficult to use it, it can only be moved to the next one" have become everyday conversations around us. The recent "Xiami Music shutdown" incident only adds to the anxiety of passively moving between multiple streaming platforms that may not work well to listen to the music you want.
On the other hand, with the popularization of music culture in China, more and more music fans have begun to pick up the habit of buying physical records. But today's dominant playback devices are still digital, so if you want to listen to music on a CD or vinyl anytime, anywhere, you still need to convert it from analog to digital.
In this context, it may be time to build a digital music library that is truly your own, independent of the big platforms. In this article, I will share the whole process of buying, converting, and listening to digital music based on my own experience. Hopefully, if you're willing to spend some time and money on your favorite music, this article will help you get back the joy of collecting music.
Why do you need to collect digital music?
Now that mobile phones have replaced computers as our most commonly used Internet devices, online streaming has become the most natural way to consume content. Streaming apps have integrated "search, download, and play" functions. In the case of listening to music, people can't even "open a streaming service on the Web."
This phenomenon is not surprising. For one thing, it's the nature of mobile devices -- the concept of "files" has moved into the background. For many non-digital hobbyists, the process of finding an MP3 file on an iOS device, downloading it locally, and playing it through the appropriate app requires someone else to instruct them. Android's file system is relatively open, but it's still a lot more hassle than a computer. As a result, app-based usage has inevitably (and should not be reversed) become mainstream. , on the other hand, the development of technology has made copyright owners control content more strong motivation -- private transmission of audio and video files difficulty of piracy is shallow, even the formats mp3 itself once is synonymous with pirated music and is also one of the most popular transmission media (about this story, interested friends can read the book of music is how to become a free lunch), so for copyright owners, can be modified at any time, withdraw the user to listen to the way and the right platform for the streaming nature is a better choice.
However, convenience, cheap, and freedom cannot always be bought at the same time. Although streaming platforms can enable you to listen at any time and anywhere to a vast library that will never fit into your bookcase, at the same time, no matter how high-end VIP you purchase, this music does not belong to you, you only have the right to use them. When platforms take down the individual piece, you can't stop them, legally or technically.
Local music isn't as convenient as streaming, but as long as you still have the files, you can play them on any supported device, with no time limits, no authentication, and no Internet connection.
Where do you get the music?
Way one: Buy digital music files
Streaming platforms are becoming more mainstream, but many excellent platforms sell DRM free digital music. Although not exhaustive, I will introduce some of my own common digital music platform for your reference.
iTunes
Apple pioneered digital music sales with its iTunes platform, which broke the monopoly on physical records and, through the iPod, made Apple the coolest technology company in the world. Today, although Apple is pushing its own Apple Music streaming service, the iTunes Store still exists on its own. It has almost the most extensive library of Music books on the market (data from Wikipedia). Also, due to the early years, bears a close relationship with the major record labels, apple can directly from the record companies get the music of the digital master now into the conversion of 256 KBPS AAC files, so the quality is not intact, but compared to other platforms is also very into a formal CD, and some of the albums will have iTunes Store limited PDF digital album inside pages or extra stuff.
Also, all music currently sold on iTunes is downloaded locally as a DRM-free file that can be played on an AAC-enabled music player outside iTunes. However, it's worth noting that while music sold on iTunes doesn't have DRM, Apple adds information like the buyer's email address and purchase date to the music file. It can't be removed directly by changing the ID3 Tag. If you don't mind this, you can remove it with the Tag Stripper gadget.
Bandcamp
Bandcamp, founded in 2008, is my favorite digital music platform and one of the freest and corporate-free of all the mainstream platforms. Bandcamp has no restrictions on users; as long as you sign up for an account, you can download your music in any of the primary audio file formats after purchase (there are also many musicians on Bandcamp who offer music for free or for free). Most musicians also offer unlimited online auditions before you buy so that you can use Bandcamp as an online streaming platform as well.
Bandcamp's revenue-sharing model is transparent and straightforward -- 15 percent of digital music and 10 percent of the physical album and merchandise sales go to the platform, with the rest going directly to the musicians. Meanwhile, Bandcamp has held several "Bandcamp Fridays" since the Covid-19 epidemic, giving up platform royalties on Fridays and giving 100 percent of sales to musicians.
Also, as Spotify is still unprofitable and relies on financing to grow and expand, Bandcamp, a more musician-friendly platform, is one of the few music platforms that can achieve positive profits by depending on its business model, which is also very valuable.
Artist is given priority to with independent musicians on Bandcamp; if you are a popular music audience, its music may be limited. Still, a little bit if you like the same genre of music, you will find many surprises in the above, a lot is not yet known, there is no formal record published bands and musicians will choose his work on Bandcamp show and sell, so as long as you make a little browsing, you can find many elsewhere on novel did not sound, big-name band on Bandcamp and many anecdotes. Last June, for example, when some of Radiohead's unpublished demos were hacked and blackmailed, the band, in a state of outrage, uploaded all 1.8GB of their music onto Bandcamp anyone to buy for £18, giving Bandcamp a windfall in sales. There is also a more detailed introduction to this event and Bandcamp on Minority.
Amazon Music
Amazon's digital music service may not be much talked about, but just like Prime Video, it can be a cheesy but sometimes reliable choice. If you've ever searched for music albums on Amazon in Africa, chances are you've seen the "MP3" option, which is DRM Free MP3 music sold by Amazon. Unlike iTunes, the digital music download provided by Amazon is all 256 KBPS MP3 files. The sound quality can meet the daily listening needs. The advantage is that the price is sometimes lower than iTunes. The music in MP3 format is more general than AAC. Also, Amazon sometimes has restricted music content that is not available or difficult to access on other platforms. Such as I have been in Germany on amazon to buy German children's songs album, this album in addition to amazon is Howard iTunes can buy, but the register a Howard iTunes account and get the terms of payment, extremely difficult for mainland Chinese I, amazon is the only option at a time like this.
The option to buy digital albums on Amazon
Qobuz
Qobuz is a French digital music seller that, unlike its predecessors, focuses on high sound quality. Like Tidal, Qobuz offers lossless streaming in CD quality (16-bit/ 44.1kHz FLAC). Simultaneously, Qobuz's online store also provides CD quality and higher Hi-RIS (24-bit) digital music purchases and downloads, which are relatively expensive. At the end of this book, Qobuz's resources in the classical field are more specialized and rich than those of the above platforms. For example, last year's Keith Jarrett 75 Monument Collection was sold exclusively on Qobuz. However, it should be noted that Qobuz does not currently offer its service in China. Fortunately, the restrictions are not very strict. If you want to buy music on Qobuz, you may need to do so through an overseas IP.
Way two: convert physical records to digital audio
Physical records may be worth more to the public today than they are to listen to music daily, but they are still a good source of digital music. Many music lovers still habitually collect artists' physical albums after going to a live concert. You can convert your purchased albums to digital audio, listen to them daily, and store them in your closet for safekeeping.
Transformation of CD
Besides buying on high-priced digital platforms like Qobuz, CDs are probably the most accessible source of lossless digital music today. Especially if you want lossless audio files from domestic artists, CDs may even be the only option (many streaming platforms support lossless formats but don't offer DRM free downloads). And because of the digital nature of the CD, you don't need expensive equipment can be specific extract condition of music files; this process is called the grab rail (rip), the only thing you need to hardware is a USB drive, can buy in Taobao is controlled yuan, as long as the quality of the optical drive qualified, no matter how cheap the industry, out of the music files are the same, only up to speed on the difference.
CD's grasp track process
On the software side, the XLD for MacOS and the Exact Audio Copy for Windows are perfect for capturing tracks, allowing you to read CDs and store them in any format you like.
Conversion of vinyl, cassette, and other analog media
In recent years, perhaps because digital music platforms have become more and more convenient, music fans gradually have an "anyway to buy physical records for collection, listen to the phone, it is better to buy a big" such mentality, vinyl and other analog media have begun to rebound, sales even exceeded CD. In some cases, a lot of the music you like may only be available on analog media like vinyl or cassette, such as older albums, limited tracks on vinyl or cassette versions, or you may enjoy the sound on those media. In this case, you'll need to convert the music to digital audio to listen to it on a digital device.
The RIP of vinyl and cassette is not tricky. Generally speaking, as long as you can play the music back, you have a way to store it, unlike CDs, where digital files can be extracted directly, audio on analog media records music somehow: grooves in vinyl, magnetic changes on tape in the cassette. These physical messages can't be converted into digital signals, so what we do with them is transcribed them. We play them back, and then we record the sound on a computer.
Of course, if your transcript into the speaker with a home-quality microphone, the distortion, and loss of the sound will be very high, and there will be a lot of ambient noise involved, so it is not recommended. It is usually appropriate to use a sound card or digital recorder to directly record a vinyl record player or cassette player's output. In this area, the equipment itself plays a vital and subtle role. My relevant knowledge is not very rich, so I will only talk about the relatively inexpensive operating solutions.
I own a Zoom H5 portable tape recorder for the sake of making podcasts, so I use it directly to transcribe records. The H5 doubles as a recording and sound card, so it's convenient to record now to an SD card or a computer. If you've never worked with an audio device before, you'll first need to understand the output of your vinyl, cassette player.
Transcription of vinyl or magnetic tape
The common vinyl player usually provides RCA output way, there will be around a track red and white two interfaces, used to connect to speakers, sometimes there will be a 3.5 mm audio interface (that is the most common type of headphones line interface, the 1/8 "below), portable cassette players usually is 3.5 mm interface, and desktop tape machine is given priority to with RCA interface. For sound cards and recorders, the most common input port is the XLR port; some may also provide 3.5mm input. Therefore, depending on your equipment, you will need a corresponding adapter:
3.5 - > 3.5;
RCA - > XLR. Since both RCA and XLR are mono, for stereo, in this case, you would need two identical lines connecting the left and right channels;
3.5 -> Dual XLR. Similarly, the 3.5mm interface itself is stereo but is required if it is to be switched to XLR
Some computers support 3.5 inputs themselves (usually with a microphone logo next to the ports, such as the 1/8 on the left below), so you can plug the player's RCA or 3.5 output directly into the computer's 3.5mm input via cable without having to buy a sound card or recorder. Once the computer is plugged in, the recording process is relatively simple, as it is merely recording the input Audio, so any recording software that supports lossless format will work. For simplicity, I usually use Audio Hijack on MacOS. You can also record directly with a digital audio workstation software like Audacity, making it easy to split the track after recording. When you're ready, play your record or cassette from beginning to end. Most recording software provides a listening function, so you can listen to your album carefully and then transcribe it.
In this process, the sound recorded by the computer is what your ears heard when you were listening, so if there's anything wrong with the transcription, you can listen to it and fix it. If your ears are okay, then usually the recording is fine, too. Late transcription is completed, there is some simple work, such as a whole article will each of the audio track on the segmentation (using the Audacity tools such as can be done very simple, as long as the format of the input and output are lossless audio formats, this process will not affect your transcription quality of files, for audio files with Kid3 input the album name, cover, the ID3 information, such as the band name and scan the body (sometimes black glue or tape version of the album cover and digital version is different).
To keep your digital music collection clean and convenient, it's essential to promptly organize your music files. My advice is to collect and file your music files as soon as you download or grab a track because it takes a lot of time to process a single album, but if you have dozens or even hundreds of albums in one go, it can be a chore.
In general, if you want to make sure that the music library is easy to use on most software and operating systems, use a simple folder structure, orderly file naming, and the correct ID3 tag will do.
In the folder structure, I use the predominantly secondary iTunes music - album folder structure; on the one hand, this folder to create and track file naming can rely on iTunes help automate, on the other hand of my own in the process of listening, which is basically to know who you want to listen to the album, so in this kind of file structure by browsing and search can easily find the content they need.
If you have an extensive music collection, you can add layers of generation, genre, label, etc., depending on your listening habits. Still, it's best to establish clear and consistent rules about how you organize your Music so that inconsistency doesn't mess up your entire library.
File naming is relatively simple, usually using the ([album number]-)[track number].[track name].[suffix name] format. Some of these details can be adjusted to suit your preferences and requirements, such as using underscores instead of Spaces, translating all text into ASCII characters for wider compatibility, etc.
For ID3 editing, the free software Kid3 is a fully featured and easy-to-use choice for Windows, macOS, Linux, and even Android platforms. If the Kid3 interface is too crude for you, there are more refined alternatives on the Mac like Meta. MP3Tag on Windows is also the preferred tag management tool for many music fans. Although it has "MP3" in its name, it supports the major music formats. The app is available for Mac but is still in beta.
How to listen to the Music
After building up your own local digital music library, all that remains is to organize and listen. The files stored on your computer don't have a platform to collect them for you, so it's up to you to manage them as you like.
My process is to manage my Music library using the Music—app on macOS, which automatically organizes my Music files and listens to them. At the same time, I subscribe to the Vox private music cloud service, and I sync all my Music to my Vox library so I can use it to play Music directly from the library on my phone. Not only that, but Vox is a great music player in its own right. Even if you don't pay for a subscription to its cloud service, you can still stream your local Music to your phone via AirDrop or iTunes syncing and listen to it using Vox. Also, Vox has a macOS client, which can also be used to play local Music.
If your music library has an absolute scale, not all heap in a computer with a built-in hard disk, you may need to put part of the music files in the cloud or NAS. In the personal cloud disk with iTunes, I was in the private cloud disk, building your exclusive music streaming service, the article to share my listening and finishing process, interested readers can refer to.
On Windows, Foobar2000 is the most classic choice for playing local Music. It supports almost any audio format. It is entirely free, and as long as you organize your music library in folders, you can use it to open and browse all your albums and play them on demand. Simultaneously, Foobar2000 also has a very active user community; you can find a variety of beautiful themes and different functions of the plugins online, which can meet almost any PC listening to music needs.
There are several native music players available on Android, but you can try Musicolet, which is surprisingly ad-free and free and has excellent playback capabilities. Nyx is another option, with a distinctive interface and interaction. The main features of the product are free, with ads and premium features unlocked for $4.49.
