Spotify - the ugly truth

[Dan Gould]

I guess I am lucky I have zero interest in streaming music and am committed to CDs/vinyl til I kick.

Also no need for "playlists" that I don't actively construct myself.

[Rabshakeh]

5 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Except that libraries hired and paid real composers, arrangers, and musicians, and the results were often very good.  Hence the collectibility of certain records.  

I really don't care what Spotify does.  I don't use it.  If people don't like Spotify, cancel your subscriptions. 

Spotify is hiring real people and paying them. I don't think anyone suggests otherwise, do they? (At least until AI gets better.)

Whether the results are any better than in the library music days is not clear to me: "Often very good" seems to overstate how good those records were. Retrospectively some that have been rediscovered are very good, others aren't but are good enough for sampling and often quite innovative in the way they used rhythm or synth sounds. But most library records were just as depressingly terrible as you'd expect. I don't hold out much expectation that Spotify's background jazz is going to age that well. 

[JSngry]

Subscription? 

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

"Often very good" seems to overstate how good those records were. Retrospectively some that have been rediscovered are very good, others aren't but are good enough for sampling and often quite innovative in the way they used rhythm or synth sounds. But most library records were just as depressingly terrible as you'd expect. I don't hold out much expectation that Spotify's background jazz is going to age that well. 

"Often very good" refers to the nature of the assignments that composers were given, and not necessarily the quality of the work itself.  The albums were organized thematically. If Chappell needed a bagipe album for scenes depicting Scotland, that's what the composer delivered.  So, If the Chappell bagpipe album is not in high demand, that's only because I don't bagpipe music isn't in high demand.  (No offense to our Scottish contingent, if we have one.)

[Rabshakeh]

7 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

"Often very good" refers to the nature of the assignments that composers were given, and not necessarily the quality of the work itself.  The albums were organized thematically. If Chappell needed a bagipe album for scenes depicting Scotland, that's what the composer delivered.  So, If the Chappell bagpipe album is not in high demand, that's only because I don't bagpipe music isn't in high demand.  (No offense to our Scottish contingent, if we have one.)

I think Ted Gioia should do a quality comparison between classic bagpipe Italo-library records and modern Spotify ghost bagpipe playlist tracks. Then write about it in short sentences. If Ted publishes that article, I will subscribe for life.

[rostasi]

Spotify gives new meaning to "Ghost Trance Music."

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

I think Ted Gioia should do a quality comparison between classic bagpipe Italo-library records and modern Spotify ghost bagpipe playlist tracks. Then write about it in short sentences. If Ted publishes that article, I will subscribe for life.

And then tell us all that bagpipe music is thriving, despite compelling evidence to the contrary. 

[T.D.]

And Ted should demand that Congress pass laws establishing subsidies, NEA grants, etc. for bagpipe performance and studies. 😆 

Edited Friday at 09:07 PM by T.D.

[Rabshakeh]

On 1/2/2025 at 9:57 PM, rostasi said:

Same feelings for Rick Beatoff too...

 

23 hours ago, T.D. said:

 😁

Rick's videos are a taste I never acquired. Having seen a few I now pass. But so many people link to them that it's nearly impossible to be unaware of him.

Just watched it. Please would someone give me that sort of confidence. 

"If you go online, you get what you wanted..."

[JSngry]

So many of the "fireplace" stations use blatant AI music.

[medjuck]

On 1/2/2025 at 1:54 PM, Rabshakeh said:

 

I think he's an example of audience capture. He was once a writer of stolid music history books, then he went on substack and he's discovered that what people want to read is these rants about the culture industry, written in short sentences with hard paragraph drops. So that's what he does now.

But now he's grossing about $2 million a year.

[Dan Gould]

21 minutes ago, medjuck said:

But now he's grossing about $2 million a year.

You know for a fact he has subscriptions to the tune of $166K a month?

[medjuck]

1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

You know for a fact he has subscriptions to the tune of $166K a month?

https://substack.com/@tedgioia/p-153278958

Maybe not all of his 200,000 subscribers are paid subscribers. 

[Rabshakeh]

3 hours ago, medjuck said:

https://substack.com/@tedgioia/p-153278958

Maybe not all of his 200,000 subscribers are paid subscribers. 

Is that quite unlikely? I subscribe for the free stuff but I certainly don't pay for Ted (I pay for others). Substackers here can confirm but I think that paid subscribers are a fraction of subscribers. Ted should.still be making decent money from it, though. He's one of the bigger names on the platform.

[Д.Д.]

16 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

I think Ted Gioia should do a quality comparison between classic bagpipe Italo-library records and modern Spotify ghost bagpipe playlist tracks. Then write about it in short sentences. If Ted publishes that article, I will subscribe for life.

😄

[Brad]

On 1/2/2025 at 4:33 PM, rostasi said:

I stay away from Ted Gioia no matter what he's talking about.
I still wonder what he yells at on a sunny day.

I stopped reading him a couple of years ago. He just goes on and on. 

23 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

I guess I am lucky I have zero interest in streaming music and am committed to CDs/vinyl til I kick.

Also no need for "playlists" that I don't actively construct myself.

Same here. Never had any interest. If I need to look something up, I will go to YT. 

11 hours ago, medjuck said:

https://substack.com/@tedgioia/p-153278958

Maybe not all of his 200,000 subscribers are paid subscribers. 

I have several Substack subscriptions but maybe one or two are paying. No way I’m paying for the rest. Some Substack  writers seem to indulge in long posts to justify their subscriber fee. I’m constantly cutting and adding new ones. They’re all chasing a $.