Thread: Spotify and classical music?

Originally Posted by Sonata

From what I discovered, the radio is free, but the ability to select specific works or songs is allowed only during the trial period. I was bumped from that within 48 hours of signing up. Oh well.

I've been a free subscriber for a long time and can still pick and choose freely, build playlists, and so forth.

I've tired the free service before just signed up again and I'm not impressed. It doesn't seem to have full discographies, understandable with the likes of Rubinstein but younger musicians with less than say 10 recordings should be fully cataloged...

The way I see it for €10 a month you get top notch Spotify or on average 1 CD, after 40 years you'd have top notch Spotify or 4800 CDs. Cancel your subscription and you'll have nothing unless you bought CDs instead in which case I'll be round while you sleep. *slips into cat burglar gear*

Originally Posted by Lenfer

I've tired the free service before just signed up again and I'm not impressed. It doesn't seem to have full discographies, understandable with the likes of Rubinstein but younger musicians with less than say 10 recordings should be fully cataloged...

The way I see it for €10 a month you get top notch Spotify or on average 1 CD, after 40 years you'd have top notch Spotify or 4800 CDs. Cancel your subscription and you'll have nothing unless you bought CDs instead in which case I'll be round while you sleep. *slips into cat burglar gear*

It's 480 CDs in 40 years

And in 4 years CDs would be as rare as vinyls, except it doesn't have collectable value. This is true for young people today, most of them listen to music with phones and computers, and more and more computers today don't even have CD-Roms. They don't understand why they should keep a piece of plastic or a digital file (and sync it across their phones and iPads) when all they want is to listen to any piece of music anywhere anytime.

I'm not sure what you mean by "fully cataloged". The SpotifyClassical.com and playlists on it are my fan project, it only covers a fraction of Spotify's catalog. You should search on Spotify for artists you are looking for. Everyone can find something that's not there, but what they have got so far is worth checking out, IMO.

Originally Posted by Sonata

From what I discovered, the radio is free, but the ability to select specific works or songs is allowed only during the trial period. I was bumped from that within 48 hours of signing up. Oh well.

48-hour trial is for mobile; on desktop you can stream any track for free (with ads in between every 3-4 tracks) for unlimited time.

The main appeal of the $10/month paid-subscription is better sound quality (320k; 160k for free users), mobile streaming and offline playlists (download a playlist so you can listen without wi-fi connection). If you don't care about those, then there's a 5$/month plan to get rid of the ads.

I have the 5 dollar a month plan with Spotify, and overall I have been quite satisfied indeed with this service. Basically, it has become a resource enabling me to listen to different works, composers and interpretations of works which I might already own w/o having to buy them and to which I otherwise would never have been exposed. I find that even though I don't "have to" buy some things on Spotify on cd, I have found much that I wish to be able to listen to when I am driving in my car, so I end up buying that cd and burning it anyway. And all this for a measly 5 bucks per month! For me, it has truly been a treasure trove and a win-win situation.

Originally Posted by ulyssestone

It's 480 CDs in 40 years

And in 4 years CDs would be as rare as vinyls, except it doesn't have collectable value. This is true for young people today, most of them listen to music with phones and computers, and more and more computers today don't even have CD-Roms. They don't understand why they should keep a piece of plastic or a digital file (and sync it across their phones and iPads) when all they want is to listen to any piece of music anywhere anytime.

I'm not sure what you mean by "fully cataloged". The SpotifyClassical.com and playlists on it are my fan project, it only covers a fraction of Spotify's catalog. You should search on Spotify for artists you are looking for. Everyone can find something that's not there, but what they have got so far is worth checking out, IMO.

Thanks Ulyssestone I realized I messed up but by then couldn't edit it.

Originally Posted by ulyssestone

And in 4 years CDs would be as rare as vinyls, except it doesn't have collectable value..

They've been saying that for years. I do think CDs will go but I'm hoping Blu-ray Audio discs will take over. Even if they are niche and expensive as long as they came nicely packaged I'd buy them.

By fully cataloged I mean that when I type in X artist I they don't have all the recordings available that are readily available on Amazon and elsewhere.

If they offered a lossless service I'd maybe shell out the money.

Nobody annoyed by the fact that sometimes when longer works are split up in parts, these ads come bursting out your speaker? It's not the ads themselves, but the separation of for example two movements that's really bad IMHO.

I use it for comparing mainly. When I've got the version I wanted, I switch to YouTube or other ways to get my music.

Oh, and you can take a look at Classify. It's a built in app in spotify, is useful when you're looking for music from a certain era or instrument etc.

I dont see the problem.. If you dont like the ads, just buy the damn thing >_> It costs almost nothing...

In general I'm pretty satisfied with the classical selection on spotify. It's not perfect though:

*The occational mislabeling or lack of info on tracks.

*I really miss some labels there, like Hyperion. ECM New Series used to be on Spotify, but is no longer. And even when a label is there, you can't be sure you'll find everything they've released. For instance, Harmonia Mundi's availability seems to be extremely selective. I could find one Ensemble Clement Janequin 'album', dispite the fact that they have 20+ on Harmonia Mundi.

*Some people upload midi files as if they were real recordings. I can see why someone would do this in hope of making a little bit of money off people who doesn't know/care, but I really don't like the thought of some clueless person who wants to listen to some classical music ending up listening to a midi file.. Also, for very famous pieces, you'll often find that dull, low-quality recordings are very popular. It's not surprising that 'very casual' classical listeners click anything that says 'Air on the G string' etc, and it's not up to me to decide which recordings people should listen to, but again it's a little sad.

*I've noticed that the search engine can't always be trusted to find what is there.

Originally Posted by ulyssestone

48-hour trial is for mobile; on desktop you can stream any track for free (with ads in between every 3-4 tracks) for unlimited time.

The main appeal of the $10/month paid-subscription is better sound quality (320k; 160k for free users), mobile streaming and offline playlists (download a playlist so you can listen without wi-fi connection). If you don't care about those, then there's a 5$/month plan to get rid of the ads.

I see. Unfortunately the free service is a no-go for me then. 9 times out of 10, my iPad serves as my computer. I'm on my home desktop about once a week for an hour, and that's being generous. Oh well. I have enough music to keep my busy for the time being

I haven't encountered any of the problems cited by jttoft and others. I find Spotify an incredible resource for ALL genres of music. Yes, there are compilation albums on there with incomplete works, but they are easily avoided. Spotify has become an invaluable tool for me while sat at my computer day after day. I can explore music and musicians I don't know, as well as sampling CDs I'm contemplating buying.

Absolutely wonderful!