Wednesday, September 14, 2011

I'm glad I'm not on Derek's island. I'd surely tire of Blancmange and Lemon Jelly and I'm not sure who this Duff person/people are either. The dessert part sounds intriguing...tiramisu and creme brulee to be had, I would hope.

As for your streaming theory, Stu (and Dirk), not sure that I agree. That I haven't listened to anything that would go on my desert island is less a reflection of how often I may or may not have listened to recent stuff than the fact that anything new will have a hard time competing with music I've enjoyed for decades. It usually takes a couple of years for something to make it to my 'best of all time' list, because I think distance provides the best perspective. Great example: Moby's 'Play'. Still think it would make the list, though I must confess that I don't listen to it as often as I once did and probably don't regard it with the same degree of enthusiasm that I once did.

Also, with streaming in general, I think it's a little too early to tell. We've only been subscribing to the service for a few months now and I don't believe you subscribe to the option that allows you to save the music to your device (iphone, ipod touch, etc), which is critical for someone like me, who listens to at least half of all music these days on my headphones. I don't actually own the new Little Dragon album, one which I played at the CD club and enjoy more with each listen--easily numbering now at around 10-12--but it's certainly one I'd put on my top list of the year and it feels as though I own it. Were Rdio to go away, I'd certainly buy a copy.

Where I think you have a point is again one of sheer volume, numbers, and opportunity cost. That I have access to so many new releases every week means that I often keep exploring new stuff, at the expense of revisiting and relistening to the new stuff from the previous week and the week before that and the week before that, or stuff from previous years, decades...I do think I'm listening to slightly 'more' music (if that's possible) but at some point, something has to give. And that inevitably means not spending the same amount of time with each new release as I once did.

But I don't find that a lack of actual ownership has led, at this point anyway, to me not embracing or taking ownership of music that I'm starting to like. Not yet anyway. Perhaps this is a long term consequence.

As a side note and perhaps further concession to your overall point of what's lacking in Rdio, they have to adopt better playlisting, genre, and organizational options. An alphabetical scroll or 'what's Bri/Derek/Marc/Drawing Room up to' is nice occassionally but getting to a violin concerto in one or two clicks, for example, not so easy or efficient. Hoping they improve on this in the future. Their ipad/phone app has improved quite a bit but the overall organization needs a bit of an upgrade.

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