What is the current status of Spotify?

[GA Russell]

A few months ago, Spotify announced that they would collect data from your computer and keep track of what you are doing.  Did they ever recant this idea?

I've been avoiding them ever since.  It would be nice to know that one could go there safely.  Any idea?

[Scott Dolan]

They will only collect data if you give them permission to. The story was a bit overblown by the media, surprise surprise. 

[Chuck Nessa]

What a wonderful service!

 

[Scott Dolan]

Then don't use it. I don't, except on rare occasions. 

What they are doing is no different than what MANY apps and websites do. And if you don't give them your permission to do so, they don't. 

How devious. 

[Brad]

Don't we basically do that -- give permission -- now implicitly, in certain respects (e.g., allowing a site to use your present location).

Different, but similar, is when you use the Apple dictation device.  You are giving them the rights to any information you may dictate. So, if you are you using it to dictate confidential information, you should stop doing that immediately. 

[Larry Kart]

I find Spotify very useful when I'm deciding whether or not to buy something that isn't an automatic purchase. Usually the disc I have in mind is there, more often than on, say, Amazon or the like. Also, on Spotify I can listen to as much as I want to of any track that's there.

[Scott Dolan]

And that's exactly what I occasionally use it for as well, Larry. Now, in my case I tend to use the iTunes store because their samples are usually 1:30 instead of the seemingly standard :30 that most other sites offer. That's usually enough to inform my decision, but sometimes I may need to hear more. 

I'd say I use Spotify, maybe, three times a year. 

[7/4]

I don't think I've ever used it.

[BillF]

Any more confessions? (I am not a Spotify virgin.)

[A Lark Ascending]

These days I listen to an album on Spotify once a day on average. Good for exploring, hearing things you are curious about but don't think you'll want to hear more than once etc. 

[Eric]

I also use it primarily for "auditioning".  I'll also use it away from home I want to listen to something in my home library.  If there is a release that I "want", I will usually buy it at amazon or elsewhere,

[David Ayers]

Haven't folks graduated to Apple Music yet?

In any case, the more easily available recorded music gets the less I want to hear it.

[Hoppy T. Frog]

On 12/8/2015 at 4:55 AM, David Ayers said:

Haven't folks graduated to Apple Music yet?

In any case, the more easily available recorded music gets the less I want to hear it.

Really? I get paralyzed by the expanse of music I want to listen to or watch on YouTube--there's so much to cram in before we die...

[Scott Dolan]

Yeah, I don't get David's comment either. 

What does "easily available" have to do with it? 

[David Ayers]

The revolution against data-overload begins here!   

[A Lark Ascending]

I've always felt we were better off when there wasn't enough food to go round. We may have gone hungry but at least we appreciated the rare meal we got. 

[BillF]

Spotify (backed by information from a forum like this) can do a great deal for your music education. I recently watched a documentary about drummer Jimmy Wormworth in which he talked about his wide-ranging and lengthy career in music. Pre-Spotify I wouldn't have heard of, let alone listened to, many of those musicians and dates. Not anymore!

[A Lark Ascending]

14 minutes ago, BillF said:

Spotify (backed by information from a forum like this) can do a great deal for your music education. I recently watched a documentary about drummer Jimmy Wormworth in which he talked about his wide-ranging and lengthy career in music. Pre-Spotify I wouldn't have heard of, let alone listened to, many of those musicians and dates. Not anymore!

Quite. It exists. It's up to the individual to take as much or as little from it as they want.

There are serious issues revolving about how performers etc are being remunerated. But I'm not sure they're facing anything that any other industry confronted with technological change have had to face. 

[BillF]

3 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Quite. It exists. It's up to the individual to take as much or as little from it as they want.

There are serious issues revolving about how performers etc are being remunerated. But I'm not sure they're facing anything that any other industry confronted with technological change have had to face. 

Political change as well. By and large all employees are now getting screwed - compared with in my days ... (quavery voice)

Edited December 19, 2015 by BillF

[Scott Dolan]

4 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

I've always felt we were better off when there wasn't enough food to go round. We may have gone hungry but at least we appreciated the rare meal we got. 

Just had to note that this actually made me laugh out loud.

[A Lark Ascending]

4 hours ago, BillF said:

Political change as well. By and large all employees are now getting screwed - compared with in my days ... (quavery voice)

Of course - globalisation, unfettered free-marketism, the deliberate emasculation of trade unions. Hoping that consumers will simply select on the basis of morality can't compete with that. It's part of the £3 t-shirt world. 

I remember when I was a kid my parents and their friends were always moaning that we all had too much today and didn't appreciate it (they were of the Depression/WWII/First Austerity generation). I have infinitely more access to a wide range of music than I did 40 years ago. Do I enjoy it less. Hard to calibrate but I don't think so. I enjoy it differently - then so much was the thrill of the new but that is offset in later life by knowing the context of the music more widely and hopefully hearing things beneath the surface I'd not have heard then. 

Edited December 19, 2015 by A Lark Ascending

[JSngry]

9 hours ago, David Ayers said:

On 12/8/2015 at 3:55 AM, David Ayers said:

 

In any case, the more easily available recorded music gets the less I want to hear it.

 

9 hours ago, David Ayers said:

The revolution against data-overload begins here!   

 

 

Said with a smile, but really, the more of anything you hear, the more - over the long haul - most of it starts to sound the same. The greater tendencies get easier to hear, the genuinely personal traits and idiosyncrasies get easier to dismiss. Seems like one has to remain proactive in that regard, and then, what happens to good old reflexive enjoyment excpet in things into which one has already been experiential programmed?

You know how some people say that a CD is overload compared to an LP compared to a 78 and all that...some truth to it. Sometimes listening to silence is the best listen of all. Streaming is potentially the compilation CD that never ends.

What I like is having access to damn near anything in some form. What I don't like is the proposition of actually listening to it all. That's just overload.

When I had 50 jazz records, I could tell you everything about them, I knew all the solos, all the players, all the liner notes, etc. Now, between more LPs, tapes, CDs, burned CDs, downloads, Cloud-stored things, I probably have access to over 10K items myself, without even having to go to a streaming service. Most of what I play gets played for a few hours, maybe a few days, and is heard as "more of whatever it is", which does not mean that I do not enjoy it, it's just that it's a redundant joy, which is a "first world problem", both first world and, yes, problem, because it the line between mature listening and jaded indulgence should not be scoffed over.

Good news is that when some other type of music comes along, it's usually easier to explore than ever before to explore. But there again, total immersion...baptism or drowning, hmmm?

 

[Scott Dolan]

And you just summed up why I tend to leave entire genres of music behind for extended periods of time (usually several years). Then once I feel the palate has been cleansed I will usually revisit it and dig a little deeper into what came about later. 

My current budding love of Free Improv is a decent example. I burned myself out on my intense daily 60's Free Jazz listening several years ago, and by the time I had reached the line of demarcation between that and Free/Euro Improv I had simply had my fill and had to move on. 

Now many years later I have returned to the dark side.  And I'm loving it just as much now as I did back then. 

I think the same discipline can be applied to Spotify. But I can say that because I consume music in a different way than most here (from what I can surmise). I tend to listen to an album over and over and over, until I've truly "gotten" every note, pieced together every story, experienced every emotion, noted every last little interplay, etc... And I'll do that with each and every album before moving on to the next. It's obssessive, but it keeps my exposure/saturation level moderate. I've never been a buy ten albums at a time and listen to them all in one or two sittings kind of guy. 

[A Lark Ascending]

I'm very different. It would be false modesty to say a skate over the surface but I don't have the technical musical understanding to plumb great depths. I tend to butterfly between records, relishing the change from one genre to another. There's nothing deep, analytical or intellectual in my listening. I listen to be entertained, nothing more. 

I also find with most recordings there's a golden listening period from about the third to tenth play when I get overwhelmed; then familiarity starts to take off the sparkle, although leaving a record unplayed for a long time can bring the fun back. As a result I tend to space out listens to new records so they don't lose their sheen too early.

Having three very different centres of gravity - jazz, folk and classical (well, four....nostalgia for old rock records from my youth) - which I've generally kept more or less running at the same time also means I never get jaded on music. 

But I do need to hear new and different things. Which is where I find Spotify helpful.   

Edited December 19, 2015 by A Lark Ascending

[GA Russell]

My hard drive shut down a couple of months ago, so I have switched to something small for the time being. 

Yesterday I went to Spotify to check what they had available, but they insisted that I first download their player.  And they insisted that before I do that, I first agree to their collection of my data.  No thanks.

Now that Grooveshark is gone, what is the next best thing to Spotify that is free?  Google Play?