Who listens to music any more? That is, focuses primarily on the music, while not doing anything else. Most "listening" today is timepass while driving, or walking around wearing iDweebs. Sure, there are the people who read The Absolute Sound and buy overpriced audio cables. They're under 1% of the customer base, and they mostly listen to classical, anyway.
If you want blah background music, I recommend Radio Coast.[1] This is an amusing exercise in copyright avoidance. Seeburg, the jukebox maker (1900 or so to 1979, bankrupt), had a side business in background music. To avoid paying royalties to record companies, they had their own orchestra and recording studio in Chicago. They'd license the underlying song, which is a compulsory license with a statutory rate. Then Seeburg made their own phonograph records, running at a nonstandard speed, with a nonstandard groove width, and a nonstandard hole size, to be played on a special Seeburg 1000 player. The player played a big stack of records over and over; it wasn't random access, like a jukebox. The records were not copyrighted, because that required a filing back when they were doing this.
So someone got one of these obsolete machines, refurbished it, and collected enough of the special records to set up a free streaming service.
I'm curious how much listening to recorded music as a single-focus activity was ever really the case outside of concerts or those dedicated to it. I certainly don't remember growing up and having my parents putting on records, cassettes, or CDs for us to sit around and just listen to them. We'd put something on while cooking, or cleaning, or otherwise, but it wasn't the sole activity.
If anything, listening to music on the radio, either while around the house or in a car, feels like it was the primary mode that most people listened to music in until fairly recently. Albums were expensive! These days, you can buy a set of nice headphones for not all that much money, but a solid receiver and speakers and your record or CD player of choice used to be a serious investment only for the dedicated.
Even with all of that, I question your implication that people just want "background music" and have no care or taste in the matter. Most people I know have vastly different choices of what we listen to while working or driving or exercising. I know I specifically keep different music loaded on my phone for walks or drives vs. when I'm at home and working or relaxing. Just because they're not trying to pick up on the finer points of a quality recording doesn't mean they're only "listening" to music with dismissive quotes any more than my parents who used to listen to the radio for hours for that new song they liked to come back around to record it on a cassette were just "listening".
> Who listens to music any more? That is, focuses primarily on the music, while not doing anything else. Most "listening" today is timepass while driving, or walking around wearing iDweebs. Sure, there are the people who read The Absolute Sound and buy overpriced audio cables. They're under 1% of the customer base, and they mostly listen to classical, anyway.
Me. Sure, occasionally other people put on musak and I'm forced to have that distracting background noise to whatever I'm trying to do, but when I listen to music by choice, I'm listening to music and that's it. Maybe if there's someone else there I'll talk about the music while listening to it. I don't generally listen to music while driving because it's distracting, although I'll acquiesce to a passenger who wants to listen to music.
And no, I don't listen to classical music or buy overpriced audio cables (I don't buy audio cables of any kind). Cheap wired headphones are generally adequate to capture all the sound a FLAC file can produce, and I tend to think that people who do more than that aren't audiophiles as much as audio gearheads. Which is fine, but it's not about the music it's about the equipment. Sound canceling might have some value, but I prefer to simply listen to music in a quiet place.
Is it possible that you are projecting, just a little bit?
I assumed that this comment was starting with sarcasm, and I had to re-read it to realize that, no, you really think music has become the new hardcover book.
I assure you that humans, on the whole, listen to just as much music as they ever have. I read yesterday that Taylor Swift fans in Seattle created a 2.3 Richter event from sustained, passionate cheering and jumping. That's Beatles level shit.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not judging you nor do I believe that people whose priorities have shifted away from music are less awesome than people who still make mixtapes for their loved ones.
I do think that you are making an unfortunate correlation between "me and my in-group" and "everybody", though.
And this absolutely furthers your point because I hate Spotify and all streaming services for this purpose.
It's just not a thing like streaming tv. I need to know I have the song forever, I need to know that I will not be interrupted.
Meaning, I have a separate mp3 player. For the car, the USB drive is EASILY the best thing that ever happened. Youtube and friends on social media is more than enough for discovery.
It might not be your thing, but I frequently use 'active listening to music' as a way to relax after a long day. I don't have ultra high end kit either. I'm doing most of my listening on entry level Grado headphones attached to my laptop. I have a hard time believing that I'm unique in this activity.
If you want blah background music, I recommend Radio Coast.[1] This is an amusing exercise in copyright avoidance. Seeburg, the jukebox maker (1900 or so to 1979, bankrupt), had a side business in background music. To avoid paying royalties to record companies, they had their own orchestra and recording studio in Chicago. They'd license the underlying song, which is a compulsory license with a statutory rate. Then Seeburg made their own phonograph records, running at a nonstandard speed, with a nonstandard groove width, and a nonstandard hole size, to be played on a special Seeburg 1000 player. The player played a big stack of records over and over; it wasn't random access, like a jukebox. The records were not copyrighted, because that required a filing back when they were doing this.
So someone got one of these obsolete machines, refurbished it, and collected enough of the special records to set up a free streaming service.
[1] https://radiocoastcom.godaddysites.com/