New SB ?

[Mnyb]

The ironic thing is that this thread has posts concerned with whether SB products will be available in the future. I would be *more* worried as to whether my "rented" cloud music would be available in the future in the format, manner, etc. that I want. This said, I have no doubt that millions of songs will be available in some format or another in the cloud forever more. It's the few hundred out of those million that is not available that would bother me. Even today, there are albums not available on CD that I'd like to have (well, needle drops have been OK), there are books I want to read that are currently out of print and only available at 50 times the cost on ebay, etc.

That is worrying , so much content get lost over time .
Ironically it would not cost a fortune to fix , digitising is easy especially on the cheap with not over much post processing ( avoid the LP tweaked master ,get something earlier if possible ) and yield a much better result than the horrible " remaster " process that just give you overcompressed loud version for the money .

Sell these on the net as flac downloads after a surprisingly small number of sales you have fincanded the work for a skilled engineer to transfer the tape, no CD's to press or anything just scan the original covers too ?

Absolutely everything * could * be aviable and backups ? Heck if say 1000 person downloads it ,it will be there for a very long time .

That's another thing with distributed personal files ,some will never go away there are millions of copies.

[mlsstl]

There are definitely potential issues in storing one's music on "the cloud" or depending on it as your music source. There are plenty of examples of problems in related areas. One of the most famous is the 2009 episode when Amazon went into the Kindle Readers of customers who had already bought Orwell's "1984" novel and deleted it. They later apologized, but there was no small amount of irony in that move.

This past February, 5,000 ebooks became unavailable on Amazon due to a dispute with the publisher.

Music availability comes and goes at the whim of copyright holders. I remember about 10 years ago that my wife, a Jimmie Spheeris fan, tried to replace one of her old LPs with a CD and found it unavailable. Used copies were over $100. It seems Sony pulled the distribution rights from Rain Records. That made it illegal to sell new copies. Had this music been on a cloud service, it would have simply disappeared.

The availability of movies similarly depends on the copyright holders. Try finding a quality copy of Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit" in the US right now. (The UK version is wonderfully restored while the US version looks like it was made from a worn out 6 hour VHS tape.)

A related concern is the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) which gives amazing authority for copyright holders to go searching for violations. Subpoenas to ISPs for user info are now commonplace. (I have a friend who was recently notified by his internet service that they had turned his name over to a plaintiff's law firm for allegedly downloading a movie from a bit torrent site. Interestingly, he does not own a TV and I can personally attest to his computer cluelessness.)

I do not find it inconceivable that some of the aggressive copyright holders will decide they are entitled to prowl through collections uploaded to the cloud in search of "violators" and then demand you prove your possession of same is legal. That could entail a lot of work and possibly even significant expense if one has to hire a lawyer.

In short, I'm just not very trusting of the cloud to look out for my best interests.

[aspendl828]

I pretty much agree with all the points in favour of a self managed local collection of owned files.

My concern is that Logitech might sense the move to renting / streaming from third parties and any future product line may focus more on that source of music with the likely compromise of a lossy format at the expense of functionality that most on this forum (certainly in this thread) would prefer.

Let's hope I'm wrong!

[garym]

I pretty much agree with all the points in favour of a self managed local collection of owned files.

My concern is that Logitech might sense the move to renting / streaming from third parties and any future product line may focus more on that source of music with the likely compromise of a lossy format at the expense of functionality that most on this forum (certainly in this thread) would prefer.

Let's hope I'm wrong!

Although I'm as guilty as the next person on this, it is actually silly to concern ourselves over these "what ifs" with regard to Squeezebox (or other technology for that matter). I was an active music collector/listener in the days before CDs. If we had had similar internet forums back then, think of what the threads might have looked like, with folks worried over the ability of vinyl manufacturers to continue making our audiophile 1/2 speed records, turntable manufacturers, whether CDs would still work in the future because they might be replaced by something else, etc. etc. All I'm actually sure of is that the future will be different from today with regard to how we store, access, and play our music. But most likely it will be better. And whether it will be Squeezeboxes or some yet-to-be-heard-of maker of some yet-to-be-discovered product is something no one can predict.

I woudn't want to return to my 1971 audio setup. And I suspect in 2022, I wouldn't want to return to my 2012 setup.

[mlsstl]

...it is actually silly to concern ourselves over these "what ifs" with regard to Squeezebox (or other technology for that matter).

Guess we're each entitled to our own perspective, but the copyright issue isn't a "what if" situation.

Just Google "Righthaven", or check out the RIAA lawsuits that have been going on for over 10 years. More recently, the US Copyright Group has filed over 50,000 lawsuits against individuals for movie copyright infringement. TV channels routinely disappear from cable and satellite systems as the program owners and conduit providers fight over contract details. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't.

The internet radio system has already had stations come and go thanks to copyright cost issues. Radio copyright fights go way back. ASCAP tried to double fees in 1941 and the stations called their bluff. That's why BMI was started (Broadcast Music Inc) as radio stations looked for alternate material.

There is just too much money involved for the copyright holders to ignore the cloud trend. I like internet radio and it doesn't bother me too much one way or another as to what they play and when, but trusting faceless corporations with my own collection and hoping they play nice is a different matter.

[garym]

Sorry. Agree. The silly part refers only to speculation (what if) on what sort of players Logitech may or may not have in the future.

[garym]

I like internet radio and it doesn't bother me too much one way or another as to what they play and when, but trusting faceless corporations with my own collection and hoping they play nice is a different matter.

and couldn't agree more, as this is why I want my own copies and multiple backups of everything I own.