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'There’s endless choice, but you’re not listening’

This is just dreary moaning about first world problems.

Yes, but not in the usual dismissive sense that this phrase is used, as it is presumably being used here: not as in a trivial, day-to-day problem that a first-world denizen might face that others wouldn't. Rather, it's more in the sense that it's a general problem -- a detriment -- to living with first world abundance. The abundance of choice has an anhedonic effect, rendering everything as disposable, not worth the time to appreciate deeply since there's always something else to discover and pushing it into the background rather than demanding attention. This lack of appreciation is, in my opinion, more than just a trivial, day-to-day problem. It's a loss of an important aspect of the human experience.

YMMV.
 
Just an update - I mentioned Music Butler above........
The website changed what it offered a few months back and one change that I hade missed, was that they will now only track a maximum of 30 bands FOC - you need to subscribe to track more. Notifications do still go out by email, but not with details of the new releases and what you can view is now very clunky.

Spotify will track new releases, but as I do not use Spotify, I have no idea at all how effective/comprehensive that might be, or how you are notified.

I have just loaded all of the names that I want to track onto Muspy, which, if it works, actually offers more flexible choices - you can choose from simgle, EP, LP, live, compilation etc. etc. for starters. The website includes masses of details about how it works.
 
I'm a real luddite and don't use streaming to anywhere near it's full potential, I never make playlists or recommended listens or new releases etc. I think it is a sure sign I am getting old. I just open it and go to my library.

I need it though as my listening is 90% on the move in the van so I have it on the phone for that reason, the rest of my listening is probably 9% vinyl and 1% streaming at home through the Hi-Fi. The 1% is stuff that I either can't afford on vinyl or isn't available.

Still a whole album person though, that habit will never leave me, I just can't track hop or skip around albums.
 
Undoubtedly streaming is changing things but is it any different to sheet music to 78s from singles to albums.

Very few of us or the next generation will ever listen to a new album 100s of times. But the live gigs I go to are full of people of all ages and music is very much a thriving entertainment. Now nearly everyone with a phone can enjoy Spotify which offers a world of music for free. I’d imagine more people are listening to more music than ever, just in a different way.

We’re all here because of music and its ability to move us, cheer us up, chill us out, or get us shakin’ all over and it also does this on Spotify etc.

It comes to us all - the old road is rapidly aging.

.sjb
 
I think I have suffered from having to find the ‘next great thing’ syndrome where I want to go back to my youth were I would listen to a new album over and over till it was embedded in my brain.

More recently I have been able to stop flitting from album to album in Qobuz to picking one and sitting through it - mainly early evening and letting the room go dark as I listen - then adding it to my favourites to go back and listen again at a later date.

I feel I was letting the search for perfect wreck my enjoyment of good music. Thankfully I am back enjoying what I find. I keep vinyl listening to the weekend for some reason that is lost on me.

I enjoy streaming and the new music it brings me.
 
I enjoyed this article in The Guardian about people quitting streaming services when they realised how it negatively impacted their relationship with music. I've had the exact same rant here multiple times...

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2...-quitting-spotify-to-save-their-love-of-music

(Sorry wasn't sure if this should go in Music or Off-topic)
I popped valley girl by frank zappa on Spotify earlier, it’s algorithm has since selected the most extraordinarily diverse selection of tracks with which to follow it, including this gem which I have never heard before. This is where Spotify rules over all other streaming services. It has aggregated such a vast amount of listening data from which to form it’s predictive algorithms, that they are often more surprising and interesting than any DJ. You can’t hang the DJ any more, she’s an android.


edit: maybe I spoke too soon, it’s now playing ELP.
 
I listen to entire albums on Spotify and enjoy when the album completes and Ai takes over playing a lot of similar and interesting cuts from other artists. This leads me other albums that I save and listen to later.

Sometimes those songs are from albums I already have on vinyl which gets me listening to those. All good as far as I’m concerned. It’s also nice that most of my collection is cataloged in discogs which makes it easy to search that way as well.

I searched my collection for “Prestige” and yesterday plowed through several awesome recordings of mid 50’s jazz.

Yesterday’s all day listening session started with this album on Spotify.

NTMtMzE1OC5qcGVn.jpeg
 
My son listens to music from all eras, his tastes are quite similar to mine, he doesn’t listen to Jazz but that will come. We are going to NYC in 3 weeks time & will be visiting the Armstrong house together.

I do find the harrumphing & pear clutching about streaming rather odd.

I managed to snag tickets to the Arctic Monkeys in June & we are going as a family; I know a lot of others who are doing likewise. Streaming has made this kind of cross generational appreciation possible.
 
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Let's face it, the concept of sitting and listening to several albums all the way through is only as old as the LP, which didn't really take off as a mass medium until the late 1950s. Before that, people's experience of music was either through 5 minute extracts of longer pieces, or through live performances. There's nothing 'sacred' or intrinsically valuable in listening to Dark Side of the Moon (or whatever) for the nth time.

(Though personally I mainly listen to LPs/CDs, but then I'm a Centrist Boomer Dad).
 
I listen to entire albums on Spotify and enjoy when the album completes and Ai takes over playing a lot of similar and interesting cuts from other artists. This leads me other albums that I save and listen to later.

Sometimes those songs are from albums I already have on vinyl which gets me listening to those. All good as far as I’m concerned. It’s also nice that most of my collection is cataloged in discogs which makes it easy to search that way as well.

I searched my collection for “Prestige” and yesterday plowed through several awesome recordings of mid 50’s jazz.

Yesterday’s all day listening session started with this album on Spotify.

NTMtMzE1OC5qcGVn.jpeg
Streaming that now. Great choice!
 
I'll always listen to full albums on vinyl at home, but streaming has it's place as well for me.

I agree with the too much choice 'problem' on streaming services, but I've recently changed from Spotify to Apple Music and find that the 'iTunes Match' functionality has really improved the way I use it. Ny own library is now front and centre, and I can branch out from there to discover other stuff.

Admittedly, I could (and should) have set Spotify up like this previously, but I just never got around to it.
 
Yeah. Streaming is the undoubted king of convenience and it's great that we have it nowadays.But it's not the same. The magic isn't there anymore. Everyone has access to everything. There is no underground. Everything is overground, with abundance.

Being a culture vulture from the 70's, listening to the radio and reading the music press was the only way to learn about everything back then. The NME, Melody Maker, Sounds, Trouser Press etc etc. The physical thing is lost. Like reading the sleeve notes on an album sleeve and rolling a joint on it (been 40 odd years since I did that but...)

One thing I've never understood is why people spent loads of money on iTunes to buy their music. 320kbps at full price? That's just nuts.

Guilty secret - I bought Walter Beckers - Circus Money on iTunes back in 2008 because I had an iPhone and thought it was cool. It wasn't. It was stupid.
 
I keep Spotify for the mobility it brings to my listening . At home I nearly always play a record end to end (or, being old school, at least a complete side of a record). I set up and use playlists when I'm at the gym to cover the sound of the omnipresent gymeurotechno . I use i phone connect in the car or Spotify on headphones on the bus where I usually listen to newer releases, again generally right through.
 
I'd never ever move away from local files. I'd never go back to CD either; 100,000 CDs will fit in a space the size of a couple of mobile phones stacked on top of each other. With applications like MusicBee etc you can still enjoy artwork, artist info, lyrics etc. I subscribe to Deezer (having ditched Spotify due to objections over Joe Rogan) - but that's solely because I can stream direct to the car when I'm driving which is hugely convenient. I can't stand radio but I love being able to have a wide variety of playlists available to listen to whilst driving. I never use Deezer at home even though it's supposedly lossless; it just doesn't sound as good as local FLAC and I prefer MusicBee's interface. I've bought shedloads of music on Bandcamp, in fact I'd say it's my primary source.

In the past on Spotify/Deezer I've often done what's described in the article where I end up flitting between tracks and only listening to a few seconds etc. If I didn't want easy music in the car I wouldn't bother with Deezer.
 
Yeah. You may have bought loads of stuff digitally but, you can't sell it because you don't own it. The thing about vinyl and to some extent Cd's is that it's a physical thing. You own it and you can sell it , and in some cases for a damn site more than you paid for it initially. Like a £2 or £5 purchase 20 or 30 years ago becomes £200, £300 or even £500?

I just don't get the fixation with streaming and digital culture at all, never have. Glad I never bought into it. Total waste of money IMO
 
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Yeah. You may have bought loads of stuff digitally but, you can't sell it because you don't own it. The thing about vinyl and to some extent Cd's is that it's a physical thing. You own it and you can sell it , and in some cases for a damn site more than you paid for it initially. Like a £2 or £5 purchase 20 or 30 years ago becomes £200, £300 or even £500?

I just don't get the fixation with streaming and digital culture at all, never have. Glad I never bought into it. Total waste of money IMO

I can't understand paying for downloads, but I can definitely see the appeal of streaming for younger people starting out now; an instant, huge, collection for £10 per month with virtually every single new release added weekly.

As well as the lack of upfront cost for accessing the music, there is no physical storage requirement, and the music can be accessed on any system (or phone) anywhere in the world.

In many ways, it's something we only could have dreamed of a few years ago, but there's definitely an element of too much convenience being a bad thing.
 
It's so that the artist actually gets decent money, as opposed to streaming (but that's a whole other can of worms).

I definitely agree with that, I meant more from the consumer point of view - buying a download as opposed to a record or CD.

I buy records from Bandcamp and Bleep wherever possible as it's handy to have the download available.

If I buy a record from somewhere else and no download code is included, I'll usually just stream the digital version unless it's an album I'll listen to a lot digitally, in which case I'll buy a CD/download as well.
 
Yeah. You may have bought loads of stuff digitally but, you can't sell it because you don't own it. The thing about vinyl and to some extent Cd's is that it's a physical thing. You own it and you can sell it , and in some cases for a damn site more than you paid for it initially. Like a £2 or £5 purchase 20 or 30 years ago becomes £200, £300 or even £500?

I just don't get the fixation with streaming and digital culture at all, never have. Glad I never bought into it. Total waste of money IMO
I don’t understand this, it’s a very Luddite way of thinking. I have vinyl, CD, local files & use Spotify. I don’t see why listening & finding great music should be a struggle.

Some of my records are worth quite a bit but I never purchased them as ‘investments’.

I think it’s great that the younger generation have endless access to music, they can explore in a way I never could at the same age.
 


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