I’ve been spending much time on Spotify lately. Indeed, not a day goes by at the moment when I’m not subjecting my laptop or phone speakers to a tune or several. If I’m feeling a little low, I’ll pop my headphones on (House of Marley Positive Vibration 2, since you ask) and allow the uplifting beats and melodies of a trance classic to wash my ills away. It never fails.
The world of music streaming has evolved considerably over the past two decades. Remember the days of Napster? I remember having to wait a joy-sucking 6 or more hours for a song to download, and that was only if someone wasn’t on the telephone at the same time. That occasion in which I, at the age of about nine, downloaded “Rollin’” by Limp Bizkit, only to be informed by my parents the following day that it was the explicit version I’d inadvertently picked, has stayed with me all this time. My bad!
We’ve even passed the days of paying 99p to download an individual song off iTunes, although that option still exists. But why do that when, instead, you can pay less than a tenner a month for Spotify (or Apple Music), and have at your disposal the world’s entire music library in one place? Honestly, I’d die without it.
Discovering new music is always an absolute delight, and so it has given me great joy to utilise Spotify’s Discover Weekly. No doubt algorithms are used to recommend songs based on one’s listening history but, if my banging recommendations are anything to go by, they can spy on me as much as they like!
Paul van Dyk, U2 and David Morales are but a few of the names on this week’s selection, which proves two things. One, that those algorithms are bang on. And two, that my music taste is pretty flawless…
I also enjoy revisiting classic songs from my childhood - tunes that either passed me by or, due to their sheer popularity and prevalence, left me distant to their charms. It’s joyful to relive those happy - and not so happy! - memories. I can listen to a song from, say, fifteen years ago with a fresh pair of ears, and appraise it as such.
How about you? To what extent does music play a role in your life? Let me know what you’ve been singing and dancing along to lately…
Comments