4 ms·

Also, it's sometimes difficult or even impossible to listen to the original mix of an album on streaming websites, if there's a remaster available.

AlecSchueler 3y ago
This annoys me so much! Some artists like The Beatles who have so many different mixes I just have to resort to using YouTube instead of Spotify. I wanted to listen to Please Please Me last week but Spotify gave me some horrible stereo remix that didn't even sound like the same music. I knew there were already two or remasters issued in mono, one from the 80 and two from the 00s, so figured I'd just append "mono" to my search and they'd all come up. Nope, just the most recent stereo remaster optimized for playback on phone speakers. Went to YouTube and I had the choice of every mix that had been published as well as a rip of the original vinyl pressing and a compilation of the outtakes. They're all published by the same company too and have the same rights holders so I don't understand why they choose to hide so much of their work.
- 10729287 3y ago
  ... Because Spotify is an app to consume music, not to listen to it. They don't want to disturb the casual user who just want to listen to "that tune from the beatles". FLAC and Ripping groups/individuals is where you have to go if you care about mixes or little differences from a medium to another. It's such a joy to dig into an artist and find perfectly crafted rips of early 80s Japanese CDs of Michael Jackson and compare it with the vinyl releases, for example. I feel your pain, and it's partly why I'm more and more moving from those platforms. It was very useful at first but useful is not how we want to deal with our music.
  - AlecSchueler 3y ago
    I guess I just thought of it as an alternative to buying the CDs and that the same variety wouls be available. Back in the day I could go into my local CD shop and choose between the 2009 mono or stereo reissue. Now I have the 2022 stereo mix and nothing else. The album was produced with mono in mind so it seems perverse that it's not available that way. I guess in a few years from now we'll only be able to get the AI enhanced versions that correct the guitar tuning to concert pitch or whatever. I know I could go to "ripping groups" and everything but Spotify came with the promise of getting the catalogues I wanted with minimal work on my part, in exchange for a monetary payment.
- tiagod 3y ago
  I just searched for "please please me mono" on Spotify and I get a bunch of different versions, including a 2009 mono master. https://open.spotify.com/track/473McZs08uo5AIimJyAelZ https://open.spotify.com/track/473McZs08uo5AIimJyAelZ
  - AlecSchueler 3y ago
    That's the version from "The Beatles 1962-1966," so remasters of a 1973 remix of the incomplete album in a jumbled up order.
- phone8675309 3y ago
  This is a market that piracy serves well. On a good music tracker, each of those album mixes and each pressing of those mixes are a separate download so you can pick the release that you want to listen to and get to keep it after the fact.
  - AlecSchueler 3y ago
    It was also a market served by CD shops. I know I could pirate it. I turned to Spotify because I thought it was offering me a way to exchange money to legally access the same catalogues that were in the physical stores I used to visit.
- al_borland 3y ago
  What I also find annoying is when I try to make mix based on the year the songs were released, and the remasters screw it all up. I’ll play a 00s mix and get a song from the 70s, and the 70s mix will be missing it. I tried to manually go through my music library and correct this long ago. I only made it into the B’s. Looking up every song was painful, and the discrepancies in when it was released sent me down far too many rabbit holes.

AlecSchueler 3y ago

This annoys me so much! Some artists like The Beatles who have so many different mixes I just have to resort to using YouTube instead of Spotify. I wanted to listen to Please Please Me last week but Spotify gave me some horrible stereo remix that didn't even sound like the same music. I knew there were already two or remasters issued in mono, one from the 80 and two from the 00s, so figured I'd just append "mono" to my search and they'd all come up. Nope, just the most recent stereo remaster optimized for playback on phone speakers. Went to YouTube and I had the choice of every mix that had been published as well as a rip of the original vinyl pressing and a compilation of the outtakes. They're all published by the same company too and have the same rights holders so I don't understand why they choose to hide so much of their work.

10729287 3y ago
... Because Spotify is an app to consume music, not to listen to it. They don't want to disturb the casual user who just want to listen to "that tune from the beatles". FLAC and Ripping groups/individuals is where you have to go if you care about mixes or little differences from a medium to another. It's such a joy to dig into an artist and find perfectly crafted rips of early 80s Japanese CDs of Michael Jackson and compare it with the vinyl releases, for example. I feel your pain, and it's partly why I'm more and more moving from those platforms. It was very useful at first but useful is not how we want to deal with our music.
- AlecSchueler 3y ago
  I guess I just thought of it as an alternative to buying the CDs and that the same variety wouls be available. Back in the day I could go into my local CD shop and choose between the 2009 mono or stereo reissue. Now I have the 2022 stereo mix and nothing else. The album was produced with mono in mind so it seems perverse that it's not available that way. I guess in a few years from now we'll only be able to get the AI enhanced versions that correct the guitar tuning to concert pitch or whatever. I know I could go to "ripping groups" and everything but Spotify came with the promise of getting the catalogues I wanted with minimal work on my part, in exchange for a monetary payment.
tiagod 3y ago
I just searched for "please please me mono" on Spotify and I get a bunch of different versions, including a 2009 mono master. https://open.spotify.com/track/473McZs08uo5AIimJyAelZ https://open.spotify.com/track/473McZs08uo5AIimJyAelZ
- AlecSchueler 3y ago
  That's the version from "The Beatles 1962-1966," so remasters of a 1973 remix of the incomplete album in a jumbled up order.
phone8675309 3y ago
This is a market that piracy serves well. On a good music tracker, each of those album mixes and each pressing of those mixes are a separate download so you can pick the release that you want to listen to and get to keep it after the fact.
- AlecSchueler 3y ago
  It was also a market served by CD shops. I know I could pirate it. I turned to Spotify because I thought it was offering me a way to exchange money to legally access the same catalogues that were in the physical stores I used to visit.
al_borland 3y ago
What I also find annoying is when I try to make mix based on the year the songs were released, and the remasters screw it all up. I’ll play a 00s mix and get a song from the 70s, and the 70s mix will be missing it. I tried to manually go through my music library and correct this long ago. I only made it into the B’s. Looking up every song was painful, and the discrepancies in when it was released sent me down far too many rabbit holes.