well, mildly critical writing on anyone who is not the industry cycle's current designated target of critical writing
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Thursday, 6 July 2017 21:54 (six years ago) link
xp you can't copy a link without facebook?
― Gaspard de la Nuit: III. ScarJost (Sufjan Grafton), Thursday, 6 July 2017 21:56 (six years ago) link
(asking because I don't know how to test this myself, and I am genuinely curious)
― Gaspard de la Nuit: III. ScarJost (Sufjan Grafton), Thursday, 6 July 2017 22:02 (six years ago) link
You can copy a link without fb.
― DJI, Thursday, 6 July 2017 23:06 (six years ago) link
Didn't explain myself very well. You used to be able to send and receive tracks, playlists etc direct to other users from within Spotify now they need to have a Twitter, fb etc account.
― Dan Worsley, Friday, 7 July 2017 16:31 (six years ago) link
I see. I guess I never liked the in-app messaging very much. I'd rather have fewer messaging interfaces to check, so I am fine with sending links via those. I suppose the value was that you could have a spotify tier of friendship, i.e. a list of people you only cared to share your spotify username with. Now you'd have to share an email address at least.
― Gaspard de la Nuit: III. ScarJost (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 7 July 2017 16:44 (six years ago) link
Just got email confirmation thingy
― Under Heaviside Manners (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 7 July 2017 19:14 (six years ago) link
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/spotify-denies-its-playlisting-fake-artists-so-why-are-all-these-fake-artists-on-its-playlists/
― mike t-diva, Monday, 10 July 2017 15:13 (six years ago) link
That is interesting. But it seems to be happening only in the "yoga moods" kind of music that one would see as $10 CDs in check out lines named after different biomes. It doesn't seem like the kind of music that requires large investment from actually good labels, and I guess I don't really care if Spotify's practices discourage those kinds of outfits from existing.
― Gaspard de la Nuit: III. ScarJost (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 10 July 2017 17:06 (six years ago) link
https://surveys.spotify.com/affinity
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, 11 July 2017 02:12 (six years ago) link
http://www.vulture.com/2017/07/streaming-music-cheat-codes.html
This is somehow both surreal and inevitable.
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Tuesday, 11 July 2017 08:39 (six years ago) link
Good article. I can forgive and navigate around the "20th C. Schizoid Man" stuff, but the official Spotify playlists being stuffed with artists who don't exist outside the service itself seems particularly anti-working musician, which kind of sucks
― calstars, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 13:21 (six years ago) link
http://musically.com/2017/07/11/spotify-fake-artists-traced-back-swedish-producers/
― glenn mcdonald, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 13:54 (six years ago) link
isn't the fake artist thing basically just the musical equivalent of netflix and other video streaming services offering their original content? I'm having a hard time being outraged here
― silverfish, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 17:07 (six years ago) link
Netflix doesn't automatically play Netflix content, you have to navigate to it and select it yourself. Also, own content is clearly indicated.
The problem is not so much that Spotify commissions filler, but that it hides its origins and feeds it to listerers by stealth to reduce payout to real artists.
― Siegbran, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 19:10 (six years ago) link
On a different note I A/B'd Spotify extreme against a 256 MP3 and the latter won. Just more crisp, even with the Spotify EQ on. Not sure why I never did that before.
― calstars, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 19:13 (six years ago) link
more crisp you say
― Gaspard de la Nuit: III. ScarJost (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 11 July 2017 19:50 (six years ago) link
Netflix certainly puts its own content on prominent display on every interface
― President Keyes, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 19:53 (six years ago) link
netflix clearly identifies netflix original content because it attracts users to the service. What spotify does is just add bland filler and hope nobody notices, which is very different. So I guess my comparison upthread is probably not so apt.
(now I'm imagining Netflix inserting random cheaply made episodes of Friends or Planet Earth or whatever within current seasons of those shows and just assuming nobody will notice)
― silverfish, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 20:10 (six years ago) link
I like the idea that AI will provide these fake filler songs in the future.
― silverfish, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 20:13 (six years ago) link
― silverfish, Tuesday, July 11, 2017 8:10 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
With C-actors, vaguely familiar looking sets etc. Now I want to see this!
Srsly the Netflix comparison isn't helpful in any way.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 20:14 (six years ago) link
I also don't see how this is substantially different than library music, which people love and even collect
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Tuesday, 11 July 2017 20:18 (six years ago) link
actually, what this reminds me most of is The Sims 2 -- a lot of their Simlish tracks were recorded by actual pop artists, for the hype, but at least a couple of them were recordings by "fake artists," I guess we're calling them. the funny thing is now they've developed actual fanbases for their one song that isn't even in any real language, although it's hard to tell how much of that is astroturfed (fake bios/photos/"follow-up tracks" that are other artists' mislabeled work), and then whether that was EA astroturfing or just someone trolling
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Tuesday, 11 July 2017 20:49 (six years ago) link
I wish that Spotify wasn't paying money to anyone for the white noise track we stream to my son's bedroom every night. The spotify software is infinitely more important to that endeavor than the recording we use.
― Gaspard de la Nuit: III. ScarJost (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 11 July 2017 22:30 (six years ago) link
If this stuff is bland and unidentifiable, why are people so upset about who records it in the first place? I'm more upset about Spotify removing useful functionality and apps.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Wednesday, 12 July 2017 01:44 (six years ago) link
Really enjoying the playlist that this thing generates: https://surveys.spotify.com/affinity
― Dan I., Wednesday, 12 July 2017 04:15 (six years ago) link
👍
― DJI, Wednesday, 12 July 2017 04:51 (six years ago) link
isn't it just a "daily mix"? some faves with some recs?
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 12 July 2017 07:53 (six years ago) link
No? Presumably they leverage the Likert scaling to fine tune the output in a more sensitive manner.
Also I'm assuming that it doesn't just produce the 'you've got great taste' playlist but also feeds into your entire individual recommendation profile, so has some effect on discover weekly, release radar, etc.
― Dan I., Wednesday, 12 July 2017 12:23 (six years ago) link
In any case the resulting playlist is a lot better than the daily mix, for me so far
― Dan I., Wednesday, 12 July 2017 12:26 (six years ago) link
http://spotify.me/
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Wednesday, 12 July 2017 14:10 (six years ago) link
I CAN'T STOP RATING SONGS HELP
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Wednesday, 12 July 2017 14:29 (six years ago) link
I know! I spent a couple of hours doing it last night, and it was so addictive I had a hard time getting myself to go to bed. Something about the near-immediate feedback of having the playlist update itself after every batch of ratings.
― Dan I., Wednesday, 12 July 2017 14:48 (six years ago) link
on the one hand this is a useful feature; on the other hand I am clearly not the intended audience because I use Spotify for reviewing albums, so I'll get a bunch of what I normally listen to and then Harry Styles
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Wednesday, 12 July 2017 18:24 (six years ago) link
a lot of my assessments were fairly spot on but it listed my lifetime top album as neil young, harvest moon, which i've only streamed a handful from there, if ever. not sure how they computed that
― global tetrahedron, Wednesday, 12 July 2017 18:35 (six years ago) link
If this stuff is bland and unidentifiable, why are people so upset about who records it in the first place?
Another problem, due to the setup that Spotify works as two big pools, premium and free, is click farms that play their own music 24/7.
Spotify could fix that by directly linking subscription fees and plays by account (ie, your money, minus Spotify's cut, goes to the artists you play), but apparently that's too much admin.
― Siegbran, Wednesday, 12 July 2017 18:41 (six years ago) link
where do you get the option to rate songs? this must just not be working for me... do you have to stay in the web browser?
― global tetrahedron, Wednesday, 12 July 2017 18:44 (six years ago) link
According to spotify.me, my most listened to genre is Escape Room. I have no I idea what Escape Room means, so I'm guessing it's one of the things Glenn made up.
― fffv, Wednesday, 12 July 2017 18:45 (six years ago) link
it's a genre of video games and/or live-action recreations where you solve puzzles to get out of a room. not sure what the soundtrack for that would be, let's ask Spotify's gaming section
...the answer appears to be Rag'n'Bone Man
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Wednesday, 12 July 2017 18:50 (six years ago) link
well, you're only human after all
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Wednesday, 12 July 2017 18:58 (six years ago) link
https://festivalpeak.com/what-is-escape-room-and-why-is-it-one-of-my-top-genres-on-spotify-a886372f003f
― global tetrahedron, Wednesday, 12 July 2017 18:59 (six years ago) link
Song ratings is a browser based thing originally posted by caek upthread: https://surveys.spotify.com/affinity
― Dan I., Wednesday, 12 July 2017 18:59 (six years ago) link
So, basically, Glenn McDonald has control over the future of dumb musical genre names?
― MarkoP, Wednesday, 12 July 2017 19:13 (six years ago) link
vp over the future of dumb musical genre names is a cool job. or job title, maybe.
― fffv, Wednesday, 12 July 2017 19:17 (six years ago) link
dammit, now I have to get new business cards made again
― glenn mcdonald, Wednesday, 12 July 2017 19:34 (six years ago) link
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/12/15961416/spotify-fake-artist-controversy-mystery-tracks
― DJI, Wednesday, 12 July 2017 20:15 (six years ago) link
I like the idea that AI will provide these fake filler songs in the future.― silverfish, Tuesday, July 11, 2017 2:13 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― silverfish, Tuesday, July 11, 2017 2:13 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
http://www.koat.com/article/alexa-credited-for-calling-911-but-amazon-says-she-cant-do-that/10289228
― Louie Ramirez y Sus Blechos (_Rudipherous_), Wednesday, 12 July 2017 20:35 (six years ago) link
to post something in here that is not endless complaining: I do appreciate that they're trying, and trying different things. even if this particular version, with tracks I've already listened to about 1000 times interspersed with recommendations, is a bit uncanny-valley
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Wednesday, 12 July 2017 21:12 (six years ago) link
There's this certain very specific type of modern R&B--lazy, completely (and annoyingly) unquantized beats with always a little too much time between the kick and the snare/clap/snap (you can just imagine the producer hovering over his MPC congratulating himself on his own genius), with "woke" borderline slam poetry style vocals--that Spotify desperately and insistently thinks I'll love, and keeps offering me over and over again. Get the hint, algorithm!
― Dan I., Thursday, 13 July 2017 17:29 (six years ago) link
Couldn't think of a specific example because I usually just skip them and move on, but I didn't have to wait long, because this was the very next track on the list!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FAduzmtj_c
Except that's not as bad as most--imagine that except with the entire beat played "live" without quantization.
Kind of off topic for the thread, I guess, but I'm so amazed (not upset) that Spotify keeps presenting me with this stuff over and over despite me doing nothing (as far as I know) to encourage it.
― Dan I., Thursday, 13 July 2017 17:50 (six years ago) link