How Good Can Spotify Be
This blog has been about the steps I followed to write and self-publish a non-fiction book. I’m almost finished with the process I went through with my first book. I want to continue this blog even before I get very far with my next book, so I will have to expand the topics I cover. Don’t worry, I’m not going to be talking about what I had for breakfast or the crazy thing that happened to me at the grocery store. I will be writing about things that I have a passion for and that I may write a book about in the future. This post will be an example of that. I powered up my computer yesterday, wanting to write a post about the next step in publishing my first book, but something happened that I have to write about.
I sometimes listen to music while I’m doing things on the computer. My first book is about that. Hi-Fi For Low Dough details what I discovered about high resolution music on the internet. One of the most interesting things I discovered was the music streaming service called Spotify. Just visit http://www.spotify.com and click on Get Spotify Free. After signing up for a free account, you can download the program to your computer. You want to use the program instead of your browser because you will get higher streaming rates with the program and a broadband connection. And a higher streaming rate gets you much better sounding music.
Now, you may be wondering about how my book can be about hi-res music and Spotify, which is a service that streams low resolution, compressed music. Spotify Free is lower resolution than CDs, but it is better than the first generation mp3 files, and the basic service is free, so I use it mostly for music discovery. They have over 30 million songs to play and over 2 billion playlists to try. Being compressed, a lot of the music on Spotify sounds flat, not spacious, and, well, “compressed.” But, some of it is not that at all.
I like a lot of different kinds of music. Rock, Jazz Fusion, New Age, Electronic. But some of my favorite music is music that is mixed and mastered better than most music is. Some artists just have a passion for detail and are willing to spend the time to master their music so that you can hear every instrument and vocal while listening at a very high volume. Other artists don’t have the time or the money to spend worrying about every detail. They can still make good music. But I really like artists like Tears For Fears, Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, Michael Jackson, Rush, Yes. Two of the best concerts I’ve ever been to were Tears For Fears and Steely Dan, because even their live shows were mixed so well that they sounded like studio sessions.
I’m giving you all of this information so that you can share the experience I had yesterday. While my computer was booting up, I thought about the fact that I hadn’t listened to any good music in a while. Before I started writing my next blog post, I wanted to listen to some music to relax and get in a creative mood. But before I could even do that, I saw a note that I had left myself about a music artist that I had seen on a TV show. I wanted to hear more of their music to determine if I liked them enough to buy some of their CDs or hi-res downloads (if available.) So, I ran my Spotify program and typed in the search box: “broken social scene”. I then typed the same thing in the search box of https://en.wikipedia.org, where I discovered that this is a Canadian group that has produced four albums so far. And they are all available on Spotify.
I started by scanning some songs from their first album “Feel Good Lost”. Wikipedia says that they are an indie rock band and a “musical collective” that has included as few as six artists and as many as nineteen, playing their music. Their first album has some ambient influences – no vocals – and a lot of their music is what is called post-rock. It’s mostly instrumental, using rock music instruments. Lots of guitars and drum and percussion sounds. Most of their music is good, even if a little “experimental” and unusual. But they do have one song that absolutely blew me away. It is called “Pacific Theme” and it is the sixth song on their album “You Forgot It In People”. It is 5:09 long and you must listen to it – all of it – with your best headphones. NOW.
Sorry to yell at you – lol. This is one of the best mixed songs that I have ever heard. Even listening to it streaming from Spotify, you can hear every one of the 10-19 musicians on this recording equally well. Their use of stereo separation and/or spread and echo and other effects, places you right next to the artists as they play this song. This is – by far – the best sounding song I have ever heard on Spotify. Now listen to it again – only louder!
Your welcome. And yes, I have already ordered the CD from Amazon. If it sounds even better in that format, I will let you know. I don’t think it’s available in higher resolution. If you have heard anything about that please leave a comment.
Just some final words. If you really want to appreciate how good this song sounds, search on YouTube for “broken social scene pacific theme” and listen to some of the live recordings. Unfortunately, they are nowhere near as good as the studio recording. Just shows you how hard this was to accomplish. Some of their other songs have good stereo space and mixing, but nothing even close to this song. Now you know one of my passions. If you have heard anything even close to the soundspace produced by this song, please leave a comment for the rest of us, so we can hear it too. Thanks.
I sometimes listen to music while I’m doing things on the computer. My first book is about that. Hi-Fi For Low Dough details what I discovered about high resolution music on the internet. One of the most interesting things I discovered was the music streaming service called Spotify. Just visit http://www.spotify.com and click on Get Spotify Free. After signing up for a free account, you can download the program to your computer. You want to use the program instead of your browser because you will get higher streaming rates with the program and a broadband connection. And a higher streaming rate gets you much better sounding music.
Now, you may be wondering about how my book can be about hi-res music and Spotify, which is a service that streams low resolution, compressed music. Spotify Free is lower resolution than CDs, but it is better than the first generation mp3 files, and the basic service is free, so I use it mostly for music discovery. They have over 30 million songs to play and over 2 billion playlists to try. Being compressed, a lot of the music on Spotify sounds flat, not spacious, and, well, “compressed.” But, some of it is not that at all.
I like a lot of different kinds of music. Rock, Jazz Fusion, New Age, Electronic. But some of my favorite music is music that is mixed and mastered better than most music is. Some artists just have a passion for detail and are willing to spend the time to master their music so that you can hear every instrument and vocal while listening at a very high volume. Other artists don’t have the time or the money to spend worrying about every detail. They can still make good music. But I really like artists like Tears For Fears, Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, Michael Jackson, Rush, Yes. Two of the best concerts I’ve ever been to were Tears For Fears and Steely Dan, because even their live shows were mixed so well that they sounded like studio sessions.
I’m giving you all of this information so that you can share the experience I had yesterday. While my computer was booting up, I thought about the fact that I hadn’t listened to any good music in a while. Before I started writing my next blog post, I wanted to listen to some music to relax and get in a creative mood. But before I could even do that, I saw a note that I had left myself about a music artist that I had seen on a TV show. I wanted to hear more of their music to determine if I liked them enough to buy some of their CDs or hi-res downloads (if available.) So, I ran my Spotify program and typed in the search box: “broken social scene”. I then typed the same thing in the search box of https://en.wikipedia.org, where I discovered that this is a Canadian group that has produced four albums so far. And they are all available on Spotify.
I started by scanning some songs from their first album “Feel Good Lost”. Wikipedia says that they are an indie rock band and a “musical collective” that has included as few as six artists and as many as nineteen, playing their music. Their first album has some ambient influences – no vocals – and a lot of their music is what is called post-rock. It’s mostly instrumental, using rock music instruments. Lots of guitars and drum and percussion sounds. Most of their music is good, even if a little “experimental” and unusual. But they do have one song that absolutely blew me away. It is called “Pacific Theme” and it is the sixth song on their album “You Forgot It In People”. It is 5:09 long and you must listen to it – all of it – with your best headphones. NOW.
Sorry to yell at you – lol. This is one of the best mixed songs that I have ever heard. Even listening to it streaming from Spotify, you can hear every one of the 10-19 musicians on this recording equally well. Their use of stereo separation and/or spread and echo and other effects, places you right next to the artists as they play this song. This is – by far – the best sounding song I have ever heard on Spotify. Now listen to it again – only louder!
Your welcome. And yes, I have already ordered the CD from Amazon. If it sounds even better in that format, I will let you know. I don’t think it’s available in higher resolution. If you have heard anything about that please leave a comment.
Just some final words. If you really want to appreciate how good this song sounds, search on YouTube for “broken social scene pacific theme” and listen to some of the live recordings. Unfortunately, they are nowhere near as good as the studio recording. Just shows you how hard this was to accomplish. Some of their other songs have good stereo space and mixing, but nothing even close to this song. Now you know one of my passions. If you have heard anything even close to the soundspace produced by this song, please leave a comment for the rest of us, so we can hear it too. Thanks.
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I was not familiar with the Broken Social Scene and had not turned to Spotify to listen to music before. Now that I have downloaded it and learned about the enormous library of music available on Spotify for free, I will be listening to Spotify more.
Listening to Pacific Theme on Spotify is an experience! I did listen with the volume turned up and it was almost like being in the recording studio. You are right about the mixing - almost no voices lost yet the integrated sound is powerful. Thank you for sharing this!!