SPOTIFY - Again

[rapidfirerob]

I usually use Spotify when I am at work. I don't care to haul my thousands of CD's there

iPod Classic. I can't stream at work. It's a school district and it eats bandwidth. I listen to Live365 at home on the computer as a VIP listener (which means payment). Some great fusion stations on there.

[Kcrimso]

iPod Classic. I can't stream at work.

I also have iPod Classic but I can't be bothered any more to rip my CD's there.

[JKL2000]

How complete is Spotify's collection? For someone like me (or most of us) who have a reasonably varied collection of thousands of CDs that all fit under the umbrella of Prog as we understand it, will Spotify have most of it? For example, would they have these?

Cyan - For King and Country
Jose Cid - 10,000 Anos...
SBB - Both of the boxed sets of live material?

Is there any way to search their collection without registering?

[JKL2000]

I just checked (I registered and downloaded Spotify on my PC), and while they don't have what I mentioned above, they do have a lot of interest.

I remember someone here said he listens to Spotify in his car - I can do this via Bluetooth, but what I didn't understand was how he avoided paying huge amounts to stream all that data. I have AT&T so I don't have an unlimited data plan.


They only have three IQ albums: Road of Bones, Frequency, and Living Proof. ??? Weird

[JKL2000]

Wait, with the free version of the iPhone app you can only listen to albums in Shuffle mode? Fuck you, Spotify! I hate you already!

[Jerjo]

How Spotify fucks over artists:

https://www.takepart.com/feature/201...-08-10-spotify

[revporl]

It only fucks over artists if you think about it as an alternative to selling physical product. If you treat it as a shop window or as an alternative to radio play it's a great thing for artists, more exposure than ever via shared playlists etc.

Also, it's pointless for artists to make a moral stand by not engaging with it. If you refuse to put you're stuff on Spotify, others will just upload it to youtube and you'll get no royalities at all.

[JKL2000]

The reason I was messing with Spotify yesterday was actually because I wanted to listen to an album I already own on CD. But I couldn't be arsed to find the CD. But the mandatory shuffle mode is a fail IMO.

[Rune Blackwings]

used to have lastfm on my phone. lastfm ended the streaming on mobile devices (bastards). tried spotify and pandora. annoying things...

[Rune Blackwings]

How complete is Spotify's collection? For someone like me (or most of us) who have a reasonably varied collection of thousands of CDs that all fit under the umbrella of Prog as we understand it, will Spotify have most of it? For example, would they have these?

Cyan - For King and Country
Jose Cid - 10,000 Anos...
SBB - Both of the boxed sets of live material?

Is there any way to search their collection without registering?

When I listened to lastfm, I had all this cool music: Halo Manash, Zero Kama, Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud, Arktau Eos, Phurpa...with Spotify, I have two songs of none of that....commercial for women's products...two more songs of none of that....commercial for Walgreens...

[Kcrimso]

The reason I was messing with Spotify yesterday was actually because I wanted to listen to an album I already own on CD. But I couldn't be arsed to find the CD. But the mandatory shuffle mode is a fail IMO.

For only 5 euros a month than can be changed...

I love Spotify but also buy about 150 cd's per year.

[infandous]

How Spotify fucks over artists:

https://www.takepart.com/feature/201...-08-10-spotify

Good article. I'm a physical product fetishist myself, so if physical product ever goes away, I'm not sure I'll listen to anything new at all (other than live, I guess). I have a Spotify account (free), but I've only used it a couple of times. My girlfriend listens to Pandora at work, sometimes at home. In general though, I'm just not willing to give up what I consider to be the "whole" music experience.......cover art, booklet or gatefold, lyrics, liner notes, etc., IN MY HANDS. I know the arguments about that not having anything to do with the music or seeing that stuff on the screen (or even printing it out at home in high quality), but for me it's just how I've experienced music for almost my entire life. I'm not young anymore, so I have no problem with new paradigm's taking over, I just don't want to adapt to it because I don't get as much enjoyment out of it. However, if musicians can't make a living making music, we will all be much worse off for it.

[Sunhillow]

If you can't download this music,how can it be theft? The only charge that Spotify asks for is to remove commercials from the streams. I have a free account and I have gotten to listen to many albums just to decide whether I wanted to buy them. How is this different from listening to www.progstreaming.com or www.auralmoon.com or www.deliciousagony.com ?

Well, ehm...

..ah hell, never mind

Wait, with the free version of the iPhone app you can only listen to albums in Shuffle mode? Fuck you, Spotify! I hate you already!

Haha, hilarious.

For only 5 euros a month than can be changed...

I love Spotify but also buy about 150 cd's per year.

[Just Eric]

And there are also rebuttals to various points Lowery makes:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...s-models.shtml

Not necessarily a great article, but a fantastic collection of others information rebutting the "sky is falling" crowd.

I am squarely in the streaming camp and vociferously non-apologetic about my position. The wave of the future has started and the griping from the peanut gallery is pure nostalgia.

[Just Eric]

The reason I was messing with Spotify yesterday was actually because I wanted to listen to an album I already own on CD. But I couldn't be arsed to find the CD. But the mandatory shuffle mode is a fail IMO.

Pay the $10 monthly, worth every penny. Complete control over every playlist you create, easy searches, mobile enabled, and even storing songs on mobile devices.

98% of my music listening these days is Spotify.

[JKL2000]

Pay the $10 monthly, worth every penny. Complete control over every playlist you create, easy searches, mobile enabled, and even storing songs on mobile devices.

98% of my music listening these days is Spotify.

I might, but my problem is that Spotify seems not to have so much of the music I want. And how can I listen in the car with a limited data plan?

[chalkpie]

I might, but my problem is that Spotify seems not to have so much of the music I want. And how can I listen in the car with a limited data plan?

DOESN'T have the music you want??!! Wow. I would need 20,000 brains and 90,000 ears to even begin to scratch the surface here.

For the car? Do what I do - use your CD player. Spotify is just another means of playing music, but it's not a means to an end IMO. I don't even own a smart phone and refuse to give those assholes another $30 a month out of principle, but that is another conversation for another day. CD's, LP's, streaming, mp3's.....take your pick....they are all valid and I use all of them.

I agree with Just Eric and I will reiterate.....I have purchased more classical music than ever before after getting this service, and I already bought a ton of classical music before subscribing to Spot. I can show folks a picture of my CD racks and Visa bills if they are really interested.

I still buy discs for all the normal reasons any rational person could come up with, but also Spotify does have a deficiency in the quality of music it streams, and I can usually hear the difference between a CD and a Spotify stream on my home system. It's more apparent on classical and chamber music i.e. music that contains a lot of transparency.

I don't think that Spotify necessarily killed music, I think the internet herself should claim that trophy. Yet, like Just Eric says, this may be the new beginning - musicians (and I include myself in that category) just need to learn to adapt somehow and utilize its gifts and power. Do I have the answer? Sure - get rid of the internet, and go back to the olde days and olde ways, but that also includes killing the fun we have here on this very site. That wouldn't be very progressive of us, eh? So, we need to adapt. How? I have no fucking idea but I don't get paid to come up with these answers.

I have acquaintances that condemn me for subscribing to Spotify, and the irony is that I still buy more CD's than they do on a monthly basis. If that's not hypocritical....

[NorthNY Mark]

I might, but my problem is that Spotify seems not to have so much of the music I want. And how can I listen in the car with a limited data plan?

I've been subscribing to Beats Music, and while there's stuff they don't have (KC, Henry Cow), I'm stunned at how much they do (including not only all the major new releases, but some pretty obscure stuff I read about on here, as well as an amazing amount of classical). For the car (or for limiting the data you use), you can download anything onto your digital listening device (presumably, the downloads would disappear when you end the subscription, which is just one of the reasons you'd still want to buy anything you really fell in love with). I assume Spotify works the same way with the subscription fee--you could always look at the free versions just to see what artists and albums are available on each service and decide whether either one would be worth your while.

[Kcrimso]

For the car (or for limiting the data you use), you can download anything onto your digital listening device (presumably, the downloads would disappear when you end the subscription, which is just one of the reasons you'd still want to buy anything you really fell in love with). I assume Spotify works the same way with the subscription fee--you could always look at the free versions just to see what artists and albums are available on each service and decide whether either one would be worth your while.

Yes, Spotify also has "offline" mode. I think you need premium account.

[bob_32_116]

I can't speak about Spotify specifically but I have used a number of other streaming services and I am often amazed at what they have, as well as what they don't have that I would think they would.

For example, I found the soundtrack to Chariots of the Gods, which I believe is loong out of print. Also I have heard the latest album from Australian artist Ned Collette, who is largely unknown even in this country and as far as I know the album is not even available on CD yet. On the other hand there are big gaps in the catalogues of certain artists, notably Porcupine Tree.

[bob_32_116]

I have acquaintances that condemn me for subscribing to Spotify, and the irony is that I still buy more CD's than they do on a monthly basis. If that's not hypocritical....

Exactly. Indeed, I have bought many CDs that I would not have bought if I had not heard them first online.

[Just Eric]

Spotify's catalog is GINORMOUS! Of the few things I cannot locate there I usually go to Bandcamp and if I strike out there I give up and move on. Too much good music out there to keep burrowing down the rabbit hole for that one elusive release.

[JKL2000]

DOESN'T have the music you want??!! Wow. I would need 20,000 brains and 90,000 ears to even begin to scratch the surface here.

Are you saying they have everything you have on CD?

[chalkpie]

Are you saying they have everything you have on CD?

No Cardiacs, ReR, Cuneiform, etc.

[Steve F.]

No Cardiacs, ReR, Cuneiform, etc.

Fuck those losers.