4 ms·

Regardless of device or media used, my personal experience has been that while the level of new music discovery has increased by a lot, I found myself much less

by marban 8y ago

Regardless of device or media used, my personal experience has been that while the level of new music discovery has increased by a lot, I found myself much less engaged/immersed when everything is served to you by an algorithm. Compared to decisively picking an album and even with just teasing through the tracks in the order the artist composed it, I'm getting the reminiscent feeling that this is not the best development for either the producer, consumer and media culture in general. In other words, I can't even remember the last time I just sat there and did nothing but listening to music.

rdiddly 8y ago
It's adversity that makes things special and memorable. Scarcity and inconvenience once did that for music listening. Now it's very easy to hear music when you want to, so it's not particularly special; it's plentiful and cheap to the point of near-worthlessness.
- marban 8y ago
  I guess it's a matter of price as well — in a sense that music is way too cheap for what you're getting for.
  - rdiddly 8y ago
    Yep and that makes it harder than ever to make a living as a musician.
genghizkhan 8y ago
That's quite interesting. My experience has been the exact opposite. I tend to be far more likely to listen to my Discover Weekly than any other playlist, and I totally love listening to those songs both as their own thing as well as when I'm working. It's just a lot more satisfying to find new songs/artists/albums every week than not. It's just like radio, in a sense, except it's curated using an algorithm and closer to my taste than a lot of traditional radio. The algorithmic part doesn't bother me: I don't really care if the being at the other end of the radio is an algorithm or a person. Mind you, this is my experience with Spotify: one of the reasons I'm nearly religious in my choice of streaming services. I tried Apple Music for nearly a year when it launched but found little to like there.
- jpindar 8y ago
  Spotify is indeed like radio - but without ads and other chatter, and with info about the song name and artist.

by marban 8y ago

rdiddly 8y ago

It's adversity that makes things special and memorable. Scarcity and inconvenience once did that for music listening. Now it's very easy to hear music when you want to, so it's not particularly special; it's plentiful and cheap to the point of near-worthlessness.

marban 8y ago
I guess it's a matter of price as well — in a sense that music is way too cheap for what you're getting for.
- rdiddly 8y ago
  Yep and that makes it harder than ever to make a living as a musician.

genghizkhan 8y ago

That's quite interesting. My experience has been the exact opposite. I tend to be far more likely to listen to my Discover Weekly than any other playlist, and I totally love listening to those songs both as their own thing as well as when I'm working. It's just a lot more satisfying to find new songs/artists/albums every week than not. It's just like radio, in a sense, except it's curated using an algorithm and closer to my taste than a lot of traditional radio. The algorithmic part doesn't bother me: I don't really care if the being at the other end of the radio is an algorithm or a person. Mind you, this is my experience with Spotify: one of the reasons I'm nearly religious in my choice of streaming services. I tried Apple Music for nearly a year when it launched but found little to like there.

jpindar 8y ago
Spotify is indeed like radio - but without ads and other chatter, and with info about the song name and artist.