Tag Archives: Music

Thoughts on Spotify

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Recommendations

I’ve been using Spotify for three years now and I must say it streams very well, over Wi-Fi and even 3G. It has a huge collection of music which is also impressive. It could be really good, I say could because it’s not, far from it.

Firstly, I’m talking about Spotify on iOS here, not the desktop client. After three years of listening to music on Spotify you would think the service knows a lot about my listening habits (music I listen to, like and dislike). I’m sure Spotify retains this data but unfortunately it does not use any of this information, not that I can see anyway. Spotify also links to my Last.fm account (a music service I’ve been using even longer) and scrobbles the tracks that I listen to, up to the Last.fm database. Spotify doesn’t use any of the information that Last.fm has about me. For example, If I check out the ‘What’s New’ tab within Spotify I’m shown a generic list of top tracks and new releases which appears to be the same for every user. None of these albums/new releases are tied-in to my listening habits. Music recommendations are pretty much non-existent in Spotify, ok so I can browse through my Facebook friends shared playlists but I’d much rather listen to what my Last.fm friends can recommend rather than Facebook.

I should be able to listen to a radio station tailor-made to my exact listening habits, but there’s nothing like that to be found in the iOS app, not even ‘Artist Radio’, which is a desktop-only feature.

Playlists

The other thing that bugs me about Spotify is the lack of a ‘personal collection’ area. Sometimes I don’t want to search the entire Spotify collection, I just want to browse or search through the tracks that I ‘own’ (segregated from the main library). Now I know this can be achieved by creating playlists, but it’s a clumsy way of doing it. For example, if I create a folder and call it ‘My Collection’, I can then create subfolders with artists names and then further subfolders with album names. The problem however, is that Spotify does not sort these artists into alphabetical order. If I had 200 or so artists in my personal collection, it’s pretty much impossible to sort all these artists and albums into alphabetical order, which makes the ‘My Collection’ playlist useless.

The creation of playlist folders are not even supported in the iOS app. I don’t want to return home to the desktop client every time I need to create a folder, or even move an album into a folder.

Smart playlists

Talking of playlists, it’s not unreasonable to expect Spotify to have Smart playlists and ratings like we’ve had in iTunes since 2002. We should be able to create a Smart playlist on iOS which includes something like the following criteria:

  • Playlist is: ‘Favorite Albums’
  • Rating is: 3 or more stars.
  • Last played: Not in the last 8 months.
  • Genre is: Pop.

This basic feature is not even supported on the desktop client.

IPad

And what’s the story with the iPad app? Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has been telling us it’s ‘coming soon’ for almost a year now. The iPad is the most exciting platform to emerge in years and Spotify does not seem to be embracing it. Instead of spending time partnering with Facebook and recently Coca-Cola, wouldn’t you think time would be better spent improving the software? There are so many improvements that need to be made to Spotify, I wonder if a company that can’t even manage to ship an iPad version is up to the job.

 

Why Cover Flow is Broken

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Cover Flow enables you to flick through your music by album artwork. It’s a great little feature but it’s broken and alway has been.

Cover Flow works as you would expect when at a root level i.e on the Artists or Albums tab but not when browsing inside a playlist.

Try it yourself. When you’re browsing inside a playlist turn the iPod landscape to enter Cover Flow mode. Now you would expect to see just the artwork for just the albums inside that playlist right? Wrong, Cover Flow has one view, your entire music collection only.

Perhaps I’m doing something wrong here? Your comments are welcome.

Prince says “the Internet is completely over” | VentureBeat

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In the middle of a starstruck interview by a reporter for London’s Daily Mirror, the artist currently known as Prince launched into a short, punchy tirade against Internet music distribution.

Prince, in case you haven’t followed him lately, has shut down his own website. He has ordered clips of his music removed from YouTube. Asked to explain why his next album will be sold as CD only and won’t be downloadable, he said:

“The Internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it … The Internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated.

“Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”

Is MTV really outdated? The network’s Video Music Awards drew an estimated 5.8 million viewers. In the first quarter of this year, MTV.com averaged about 25 million unique monthly visitors. Maybe Prince should fill his head with those numbers.

His real gripe seems to be that he’s not getting paid enough for digitally distributed music. He wants an advance from iTunes, rather than waiting to see how much they pay him. He doesn’t believe the conventional geek wisdom that posting his songs on the Internet will drive sales of music and merchandise to new heights.

Credit the guy for not following the pack, and for challenging the conventional wisdom that the Internet makes everything better for everybody. But you’d think Prince of all people would have one hell of a social media presence. Think how hot he’d be on Twitter. Instead, he’s left the playing field wide open for Net-savvy acts like Chester French. He will need to convince the multitudes that it’s the Net and not Prince that is over. There’s one obvious path to that: If Prince can crank out another hit without the help of the Internet, he’ll have a lot more credibility.

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via venturebeat.com

Nutcase :-)

BBC News – Ringo Starr blames eBay for autograph ban

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Ringo Starr

Starr’s autograph often features a five-pointed star under his name

Ex-Beatle Ringo Starr says his decision to stop giving autographs was prompted by fans selling signed items on eBay.

The drummer posted a video message on his website in October 2008 saying he would no longer sign memorabilia, and that fan mail would be thrown away.

Speaking to BBC Radio 2 on Sunday, Starr said he had become aware that fans “were making money” from his name.

“I was signing and then they were on eBay the next day. So I just decided, I think I’ve done my share. That’s it.”

Starr told Sir Terry Wogan he had written “millions” of autographs before imposing the ban, and he had been surprised by the reaction to his announcement.

“I honestly didn’t think it was going to be world news – BBC and CNN,” he laughed.

Starr announced his autograph ban in this video

Items carrying the autograph of all four Beatles can still command a high price – a business card signed by the Fab Four sold for £3,500 at Christie’s last year.

But the price of Starr’s signature on its own varies widely, according to Mark Riddle from autograph experts Memorabilia UK.

Items signed during his time in the Beatles can be expected to fetch between £300-500, but more recent items will sell for around £80-120.

Mr Riddle says the value of Starr’s signature had risen slightly, around 30%, since his self-imposed ban.

Ringo Starr’s full interview from Weekend Wogan will be available on the BBC Radio 2 website from Monday, 12 April.


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via news.bbc.co.uk

Shit drummer from Liverpool refuses to give any autographs. What an absolute prick!

BBC 6 Music

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David McCandless over at Information is Beautiful has created this visualisation of the BBC budget 08/09 for The Guardian this week.


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The image above shows the budget for BBC radio. Now ok I’m not a qualified Chartered Accountant but just take a look at the Radio 4 spending budget compared to that of 6 Music. Surely it makes more sense to make some minor cut-backs at Radio 4 rather than close the whole of 6 Music?

Nizlopi Split

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nizlopi.jpg 500յ00 pixels

Sad news, Ive just received this email from Luke Concannon:

29/1/10

Dear friends
Well it’s been a year since we last spoke. And what a year. A deep adventure, time of turbulence, healing, sadness and resurgence for both John and I, and the FDM family.  And it goes on! John and I went walking and talking through the deep wet snow of the Peak district the weekend before last. It was great after our years of busyness, sleep deprivation, excitement and stress to have a walk and a talk for a weekend like the old friends we are. 
I explained to him that through out 2009 I had been thinking about Nizlopi and the future and LIFE!!!! And that after many wild meanderings and much confusion I feel I must go on, on my own from here. That my dream is now to do another project, not Nizlopi, and to build a new life.  So.this is good bye from Nizlopi.  We are no more! Wow, there you go I said it. Scary as it is.
We had a good weekend of walking and talking after this, and though this may not have been Johns central vision, there did feel something right and true about it. We have done great work together of which we are proud, and extremely grateful, to all the hours, sweat, gifts, and anguish put in by our friends, family, and colleagues, we have all invested a lot. And I feel that many people have had a good dance, a damn good time and been touched and inspired through this music. We have just had a hell of a tough few years since JCB broke, and the stress and focus it has put on our differences as a band and label have been huge. We weathered these. And we now find our selves looking at a calmer horizon wondering where we are headed for now.
Thank you to everyone who has come to our shows, and sent messages of love and support, to all of you who believe in us. We believe in you too! And John and I still believe in each other and all we have done, but it’s time to move on, in this very short life, because we both have work to do that we can’t seem to fully help each other do together at this time. We wish you great Joy and luck in your projects. We will let you know throughwww.nizlopi.com andwww.myspace.com/nizlopi about what projects John and I are doing. Great music will be occurring. And this does unfortunately mean that we wont be able to play any special events you may ask us to play.
Oh what a time what a world in crisis
Being made out of volcanic speed
A time of greed and need 
Of deep fissures between us all
And these flowers of hope amid the rubbish heap
The deep strange story in our troubled chests that seems to shine a light on a possible future
I know we can make it to the world we envisage
And to not do so is weak and leaves us all desolate
So lets go there together forever singing
That laughter is in us all for the giving
We’ve gotta keep going to where we know we’re bound
Straight on brothers straight on sisters!
Love 
Luke X