someone who's doing some things
Music streaming
I got an email from Spotify a week ago. It gives me my listening numbers for 2016, and it makes for some interesting reading. Here’s what I did:
So that’s not bad really.
I can’t think why I really like this, but I do. I think it’s a lovely thing, but I really don’t know why. It doesn’t fit my ideas of utility at all. If you’ve no idea about what I’m talking about, then you should know that Serendipity is an app built on Spotify’s API which shows where two people are playing the same song at the same time anywhere in the world. It is quite amazing to watch, but, as far as I can tell it has no real purpose. Not that it needs it though.
I sort of do this every year, or at least try to anyway. It has become a little ritual with me. I leaf through the Wire’s top 50 to see how many (if any) of these albums I’ve heard and then try and find them all on Spotify so I can listen to them. Of course not all of them are ever on Spotify so it isn’t really a comprehensive system, but it does most of the job, and that’s ok.
This year is no different. I’ve actively listened to just a handful of these albums in the Wire’s top 50, and only own 1 of them I think. So I’ve added the lot, or at least the lot I can find, into a playlist and I’ll attempt to listen to the lot. Probably next year I’m thinking.
That’s the plan. That’s been the plan for a few years now, and it seems to work.
Which is great. I think I need to hear it again and reacquaint myself with it. I hope it does well for Blancmange, and I really hope that they bring some new music out in 2016. I’ve really enjoyed the new stuff and how they’ve revisited their original material too.
Anyway, let’s add it to a playlist on Spotify then.
I checked this morning and my Spotify Discover playlist is back! Another 30 tracks for this week.
I’m looking forward to hearing it. I actually missed it quite a bit.
I’ve been really enjoying Spotify’s ‘discover weekly’ playlist, until that is, this week, when it has completely failed to arrive. My last playlist was dated the 14th and since then I’ve had nothing new! It’s amazing how easy it is to get used to things, and I’ve really got used to this playlist being refreshed every week. So, not getting it this week has been annoying. Almost an inconvenience!
I hope that they get it sorted out soon!
It’s been a few weeks now since Spotify introduced their new ‘Discover Weekly’ playlist feature. I approached this with some skepticism. I didn’t like the idea of a playlist generated by some algorithm based on my listening habit. I assumed it would pick up all the wrong things and offer me some dreadful concoction of tracks that would be ultimately unlistenable.
However, I was for the most part wrong. It appears that Spotify have done a very good job of pulling this together and making it something that is in fact quite enjoyable to listen to, and that has, somewhat rapidly, become a looked forward to part of my week.
As a result of the discover weekly playlist I’ve already found a few artists who’s work I didn’t know and have looked into further. It’s been very good. I really hope it continues to provide interesting discovery and open up new musical possibilities.
I just hope that they don’t get rid of it like they did with Spotify apps.
So Apple’s new ‘Spotify killer’ service is here. I’ve decided to try it out to see how good it is. So far, I’m not sure I particularly get what all the fuss is about. However, One thing I’m not sure I quite like is the fact that everything is now in iTunes. My library and everything else all in one place. I’m not sure I’m going for that quite.
We’ll see how it goes, but for now I’m actually preferring Spotify a lot.
February was an interesting month for musical discovery. I ‘found’ some really good stuff, so I thought I’d post a round up of what I enjoyed in February. I might even keep doing it every month. Who knows.
Morning Phase by Beck: I really enjoyed this album. I only recently decided to listen to some Beck again and just listened to a bunch of albums culminating in this one which was excellect.
Sea Change by Beck: I listened to this before Morning Phase, and now that I think back I’m not sure which I prefer. Perhaps I’ll need to listen to them side by side.
The Eurythmics, Boxed: Whilst I haven’t actually finished listening to this as yet I do like a good boxed set to listen to and this one reminded me of a lot of their great tracks that I’d forgotten.
The Civil Wars: Not something I would normally listen to, but I quite enjoyed listening to an album or two of their material. I don’t think I’d go back to it in a hurry, but it was nice.
Stereolab: I’ve listened to a lot of them in Feb. Not entirely sure why, and they’re one of those acts that I enjoy but then can’t really remember what it is I’ve been listening to afterwards. Perhaps that’s ok.
Those are the highlights that spring to mind at the moment, and that probably means they’re the things I enjoyed the most. Maybe.
I listened to this on Spotify and was really impressed by how good it was. Very well produced synth pop music. In many ways what you’d expect from OMD. So I played it for a few days and now I’m starting to move on again. I’ve probably over listened to the Metroland remixes and had enough, for now anyway.
So i makes me wonder what is it that gets us to obsessively listen to something for a while, a few days usually in my case, and then move on. Of course, it could just be me, but I don’t think so. I do know that a few of my friends are like this too. It comes in cycles usually. I’ll listen to something intently for a while then put it down, then in a few months or years I’ll come back to it and rediscover just how good it is. I suppose that’s the thing with ‘pop’ music isn’t it.
I am Ashley Elsdon 