The Cross disappearing from Spotify?

What territory are you in? - they are all still available on my UK Spotify

He said he already has the CDs and is going to break them out, so this argument is irrelevant. Should he continue to buy the CDs regardless?

I understand that streaming is controversial, and it’s easy to be cynical about such a method, but it’s popular and not going anywhere. The stigma of being a cheapskate should stop too – I stream and will buy the albums that are worth my money. From a royalties perspective, it’s a rip off for the artists, but if Spotify and Apple continue to offer it, and people continue to pay for it, why fix what ain’t broke? (Devils advocate – pay your artists what they’re worth!)

I didn't say anybody was being cheap.

I didn't even imply it!

Yes, I don't understand why people would prefer to stream than store locally, but as you say, the genie is not going back in the bottle.

But, fundamentally, if they can't play what I want to hear... why would I pay for that?

Sorry, I realized I came off a little harsh, that wasn’t my intention at all. And trust me, I understand the frustration of paying for something and it not being available to me, but I focus on what it can bring me and then fill the gaps in where necessary. I personally can’t stand Spotify – its user experience is terrible to me for a start – and prefer Apple Music, and even they’re a whole other can of worms.

And yeah, it’s stupid that they remove music at will; I don’t get it either. It’s very impermanent, but I guess my listening habits have shifted so drastically that streaming is just fine for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Again, sorry for jumping down your throat…

It's convenient. I won't deny it. And pretty cheap to be able to access so much music. But yeah, for artists it's a necessary evil these days.  

It's also a fantastic way to discover new music.

Since I use LastFM and I always want to listen to songs with the correct tags, it is difficult for me to use Spotify as the main music player.
I therefore have a local digital music library on my PC and a selection of that on my phone. I only use Spotify in case the song & album tags are either 100% correct or to download the song and store it locally.

I just cannot stand tags like "Bohemian Rhapsody (2015 Digital Remaster)" in my LastFM library

All good.

The Lot is still all on Apple Music

Is roger planning a similar “gold” release series where he rereleases all his albums as deluxe editions , would buy them alright . have The Lot , but as we all know , there’s a lot more unreleased stuff out there in bootleg form .

Ditto. Nowadays my first taste of a new genre is always a Spotify playlist, and when I want to have an overall idea of what an artist sounds like I listen to their standard playlist on Spotify, rather than dig some compilation album somewhere.

I love being able to listen to anything I want, wherever I want without having to plan in advance. I don't have to make plans the night before, rip/download whatever I want to listen and copy it to my devices, to then, the following day, listen to whatever I was in the mood the night before. It's great to wake up early, put on my running shoes and my headphones, hit the elevator button and type the name of whatever I feel like listening right at that moment as the elevator arrives. One of these days I was already by the front gate when I remembered Iron Maiden had just released a new album, and the next minute I was listening to it during my morning jog. The same used to be true for work before covid, as it'd be inconvenient to dump a bunch of MP3 or FLACs into the company's computer. Not how easy it became for friends and family to make playlists "live" together on roadtrips and dinner parties. 

It made me more eclectic overall, because back in the day when I had to either rip or download everything I wanted to listen, I'd go weeks listening to the same thing over and over, to then download/rip another couple of albums and just repeat the cycle.

Since I got a new record player, I've been having quite some fun collecting records again and listening to them at home at night. It's certainly fun to collect them. But considering the time we spend outside, it's easy to get used to using a thin rectangle in my pocket to grab any song I'd like to listen right now right out of the air - no planning, no waiting time. Just like I got used to picking whatever I want to watch from the couch, rather than driving to the nearest Blockbuster.

As for supporting the artists, I suppose when I buy expensive tickets for their concerts, much more of that money goes into their pockets than when I buy a record (or used to buy CDs/DVDs). Though I'd willingly pay a little extra to Spotify if that meant they'd pay better royalties at least to the smaller acts, rather than Daniel Ek or a few assholes from Sony or Warner.

Everything from The Cross here in Australia except Blue Cross isn't available.  Just found myself a copy of Mad Bad on vinyl anyway so bugger them! 

Apple Music has The Lot boxset

Tidal sway towards Urban Artists. The sound quality is awesome though.