Farewell to streaming.


I suppose that more than Peer to Peer filing sharing, what really made streaming audio a thing of the past was a combination of immense hard drives and broadband connections. Streaming was a wonderful solution to what ultimately ceased to be a problem. Yes, being able to start hearing a piece of music before it had fully been downloaded to my computer was a great idea, but if getting the entire piece didn't demand much time, and if I could readily save it for future listening, streaming became unnecessary.

However streaming is still, apparently, in use, probably mostly in internet radio, though I haven't had much experience with that. If I can pick and choose what I want to hear by myself from a vast record collection, I'm not sure I want someone else to make those selections for me, though I can understand that this can certainly make life easier. I've also recently noticed that a number of tools are available for converting streamed files into mp3s. I tried a very early attempt at a tool of this sort a few years ago and found it very spotty in its success, but I trust that improvements have been made. At least it shows that there's a demand for something of this sort.

As far as the Boidem is concerned, I'm for sticking with streaming. When I link to a snippet of music (or to an entire piece, though these are harder to find in streaming) I like the idea that all the reader has to do is click and he or she will be able to hear the music, rather than have to download it and then play it. So as long as the Boidem is still around, there will still me a need (however limited) for streaming.



Go to: The Complete Works.