Spotify - anyone heard of it?

Last.fm's recommendations/radio-generator stuff seems to work really well. They should just steal that.

but then again they have over 10 years of data to work with.

Spotify probably have a comparable amount of data though.

If you like Broadcast try Suicide.

An even meaner record store clerk

The inaccuracy is bad, but it's the incredible smallness that really irks me. You've got 20 million tracks to play with, and the best you're even going to try to do is ask me if I want to hear something I've already heard again? An individual song? Not even an informative histogram of my listening habits over time? You do have computers there, don't you?

The record-store-clerk experience we're trying to make possible, I would think, is the one where no matter what you ask them about, they have a secret room in back that's full of stuff like that. And repeat.

If they just had the recommendations and not the reminders, I think I'd like it a lot better. Most of my recs actually make sense, except for all the cases where Spotify tells me to check out some artist it knows I've already listened to.

A new low: "Abracadabra (Round N' Round) [Radio Edit] was huge when you were a teenager. Play now?" And the linked song is a horrific 2012 club remake erroneously listed as by the Steve Miller Band.

Probably been asked before, but do many of the "rolling" 2013 threads have their own playlists? I am on the bobbins one and find it useful.

that's a good one. one for reminiscing about around the virtual fire of 2033 with frenz. is there a nostalgia of disgust/contempt? must be. xp

I'm getting annoying by all these "this song was huge when you were a teenager" things. That song came out when I was 30! Where are you getting your data from, Spotify?

the only one I like is "you recently listened to [for example] The Joe Perry Project. Want to play it again now?" because when that is in fact what you wanna do it's immensely satisfying. you're God damn right I wanna play that thing, enjoyed listening to it and it'll hit the spot right now, good lookin out Spotify

Since you listened to Neil Young, you might be interested in this new release by Bob Dylan.

Spotify is just straight trollin' me now.

if you go through intense genre phases then spotify recommendations are for the most part on point. for instance i've pretty much only been listening to disco and '80s r&b and i got recommended a taste of honey

Since you listened to Neil Young, you might be interested in this new release by Bob Dylan.

Spotify is just straight trollin' me now.

― Kissin' Cloacas (Viceroy), Wednesday, August 28, 2013 7:25 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what is wrong with this

Ha yeah I thought the same thing, seems like a pretty straightforward recommendation

Spotify just told me that Poolside have been listening to a lot of Nature Sounds Nature Music, I wonder if they're having trouble sleeping. It was a good recommendation. Overall I really like the discover thing.

Just got a rec for "Minnie Ripperton", presumably because I sometimes listen to Minnie Riperton.

You listened to Shuggie Otis this week. Want to try The Durutti Column?

uninspired information, spotify

xp primarily the "new release" part.

http://i.imgur.com/McF5V6k.png

Some amusing choices in there http://open.spotify.com/user/record_club_umc

spotify, like everyone else, insists i should listen to swans

IT'S A TRAP

(j/k you should listen to Swans)

limp bizkit weezer damian marley now that's music

You listened to They Might Be Giants. Like to hear the new album?

(1998's Severe Tire Damage)

You listened to Lou Harrison this week. Want to try Archie Shepp?

That's different.

And it was quiet, just intonation music for acoustic guitar by Harrison, that I listened to in particular. (In fact, when I saw this, I said out loud: I didn't listen to Lou Harrison this week! But then I remembered I was listening to a compliation of just intonation music for acoustic guitar.)

So I guess I should share mine:

http://open.spotify.com/user/moteldemoka

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/11/david-byrne-internet-content-world

David Byrne doesn't like Spotify's low royalty rates

http://north.com/thinking/david-byrne-spotify-stance/

Dave Allen from the Gang of 4 disagrees with David Byrne

Definitely more interested in reading what non-rich non-establishment musicians have to say about this than the latest musings of Byrne/Yorke...though I'd cast some doubt on Allen's assumption that Spotify usage is not reducing the amount of money that listeners spend on downloads or physical purposes.

yep. Bob Lefsetz has a simplistic attack on Byrne's piece:

Here's part of it

But when you start railing against the Internet and Spotify and asking how a musician can get paid, you lose me completely. Hey, why don't we go back to dial telephones! While we're at it, why don't we go back to TALKING on the telephone! At least the providers were hip to this and started making money on data. If Verizon were Byrne it'd be lamenting the loss of landlines, and have us pledging to actually pick up the phone and call our mother and sister and spend at least ten hours a week talking, the same amount of time it's going to take me to listen to your lame album to the point where you say I will get it.

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2013/10/15/david-byrne/

I remember paying 18 dollars for a new CD at sam goody based on a few songs I liked hearing on the radio/MTV. They aren't fond memories.

That Allen piece is aces.

yeah

while I agree with Allen on a lot of it (I think tech isn't the problem so much as the labels making short-sighted deals with the tech companies), the dude seems to willfully ignore that "if you aren't on spotify, spotify makes you no money" only makes sense if being on spotify doesn't cost you sales. Damon Krukowski's article suggests such a meager label royalty rate from spotify (well below the flat $.005 thanks to unexplained algorithms and whatnot) that if several thousand spins = a dozen lost record sales, a label is losing money by putting full albums on spotify.

in general i think people are quick to hop on to a "spotify isn't the problem" perspective because a) spotify is fucking AWESOME for the consumer and b) Spotify IS more ethical than, say, buying a used cd, if "the amount of compensation to the artist" is how you judge the ethics of musical consumption. But IMO any artist who can still get people to buy their full-lengths SHOULD remove them from spotify if they can, because there is no need to buy your shit once I can rent it, and you make far less from the rental than the purchase. Personally, I'd just leave the singles on there - which are all most people would play anyway, but would keep nerds from being satiated.

I dunno. I own 6 drag city records from back when I downloaded music. I haven't bought a drag city record since spotify happened in America, and I buy about 1 record a week these days.

That's a lovely anecdote, but i'm talking simple math. You have to get a TON of spins for a label to make the kind of money they'd get from a handful of sales, and I think we can reasonably assume you lose a handful of sales when people are able to spin your whole record a ton of times without buying it. Spotify's value as a promo, radio-like tool would not be diminished by lopping off 2/3 of an album's tracks.

granted, the majors have an advance on the royalties and equity in the company, but it's indies that I think are going to suffer from only the most sentimental dorks having any reason to get the album.

i do think allen's right in that it's mistake to ignore new tech entirely. but it's equally wrong to just shrug, give your shit to a tech company and assume the good will out.

what do you all use it for? I don't think the things I use it for are the same as most folk. I still heavily spend on albums (mostly because I would like to see the scene continue), but I use Spotify a lot for either:

1) making playlists of older individual pop tunes I liked
2) playing full albums that I own elsewhere but can't find my copy of and just want to hear
3) finding old soul albums to go to sleep with

i use spotify like mad, also for playlist-making, spinning albums i'm too lazy to pull out of my collection, and checking out obscure old shit. I still buy albums (used ones, but if i had more money i'd buy new) but i'm the definition of that "sentimental dork." Look at the Top Tracks of any indie artist and it's clear that even acts like Galaxie 500 and Fugazi have breakaway "hits" that get 5 to 10 times the spins of the other album tracks. Keeping the album tracks on doesn't bring in new income as much as decrease old.

But people don't want what you're selling. Isn't that Allen's main point?

Of course people would prefer to rent the entire music industry for 10 bucks than buy your album for 10 bucks. but unless you're damn certain no one will buy your album for ten bucks (and forgive thom yorke for being so bold), that's no reason to do it!

I really wonder if we'll see a rollback to the times where artists just release single after single and the albums are a compilation of said singles. or bands might start releasing a series of short EPs and then release the collection as an album (already seeing some do this).

some genres are still albums genres (like metal), but for those that aren't, may be a better means of making money while still recording what you want to.

spotify is speculative tech - they gave the major labels a ton of money as an advance on royalties for its content (the same way labels get songs from artists, though the labels also got equity). If you're an artist and your label DIDN'T get an advance or equity, just the piddly royalty rate, you AND they are getting fucked.

and yeah, i can see that rollback to a singles/ep era too. The reason I have this conservative stance on spotify is BECAUSE i like the album format, and I know it's a money-loser in the context of streaming.

well I can definitely see that, friends of mine blow through album after album on there according to the stream and then look at me crosseyed when I told them I bought an album

Agree with croup here...I still spend money on music (physical and downloads) but 80% of that is for releases that aren't on Spotify and 20% is for things that I really want to support. My spending is also a fraction - definitely less than half - of what it used to be. There are cases where I discovered something on Spotify that I wouldn't have heard otherwise and subsequently purchased it (most recently, the Still Corners album), but that's maybe five things per year.

At the same time, Spotify is amazing and I'd be super-reluctant to go back to a time when I couldn't (legally) check out 10 new releases every Monday or delve into the entire back catalogue of whoever is starring in this week's ILM ballot poll.