Preparing For a Post-Streaming World

Maybe it'll never come... but what if? Also: Janis Joplin, Smashing Pumpkins, Ray Charles, Radiohead, Phil Spector

What would happen if all of your streaming history just… disappeared?

Would you ever really be able to put your hundreds of playlists back together from scratch if you had to switch streaming services, or even (gasp) have to go back to purchasing music a la carte, one song at a time on iTunes or whatever new form of pirating service might pop up in such a scenario? Could you survive not knowing what your top “on repeat” song of ten years ago was? How would your “gym booty burn 2014” playlist ever be the same again?

OK, now that I’ve scared the heck out of you, how about a happier scenario - what if you suddenly had enough money for your dream vinyl collection - would you know what you’d buy without asking the streaming gods? Could you walk confidently into the record store and pick not just your favorite albums, but the best ones, the essentials for any collection to hang on your wall and impress your friends and music aficionados alike?

Some people might be confident they could recreate their playlists pretty easily. But if you’re like me - with hundreds of playlists, over a decade of streaming history behind them, and a memory like a goldfish - you might worry.

To put it yet another way, how quickly can you answer the question “what are you listening to these days?” For years, I had to pull out my latest Spotify playlist to answer that question. Worse, it was normally a random mishmash of songs I’d found here and there, mostly through their recommendation algorithm, and when pressed further I could never say a single thing about the artists behind those songs. I only knew I liked listening to those few songs the almighty recommendation engine had blessed me with, and nothing more. I’d never really gone deeper.

So if Spotify suddenly went away, I would be pretty much lost, starting my music discovery journey over from scratch. I’d be the ten-year-old me buying a Bad Company CD at Walmart with the last $11.99 from my allowance, thinking it was the greatest new thing ever without any clue they were a band from the 70’s. In other words, clueless. 

It’s the combination of my questions above that made me realize that I’m a little too dependent on Spotify, its history, the playlists I’ve created there, and most of all on its recommendation algorithm to find new songs. And if history has taught us anything, it’s that technology changes fast - what’s popular, what’s profitable, and what’s possible can all change in a matter of days. So I don’t consider it wise to put all my eggs in the streaming basket. There are lots of possible reasons for that, like artist compensation and misuse of my personal data, but I’m choosing the most selfish reason possible; I want to make sure I can always listen to music I love. Which means I need to find a way to take control of my own music listening again.

Luckily, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and being the solution-oriented engineer-type that I am, I have some ideas that I’m going to try.

• Listening to albums rather than playlists

This is the best way I’ve found to learn more about artists and really get to know their songs in an intentional way. It sounds insanely simple, I know. But the fact is, we’re in a world that encourages listening to single tracks, and the album is becoming a thing of the past. If we continue this way, artists might not bother putting out more than one song at a time - we could end up in a world where songs come out like Tweets, weekly and whenever the artist thinks of them. Or the Algorithm.

This piece by Colin Meloy in his excellent Substack sums it up well:

“Even the rarest of music lovers have, from time to time, fallen prey to the conveniences of DSPs (digital service providers¹, as they’re known in the biz, god help you should you ever need to use that initialism yourself). The shuffle button, for reasons still entirely unclear to me, looms on the page as big as any other button. It’s almost like they’re daring you to play an album in order. And what brought you, forsaken listener, to the album page in the first place? Wouldn’t you prefer to hear one of this artists’ songs in one of our millions of curated playlists? Chill Indie, perhaps? Emo Dad Vibes, maybe?”

If my Spotify app recommends Chill Indie to me one more time, I’m switching back to cassettes.

The point is, albums are arranged by the artists for a reason, and messing with that order interferes with your understanding of the artist, and ultimately the music.

So in a world without streaming, the first place to look for more music I like would be in albums by artists I like. Again, a simple concept, but it’s been made more difficult in execution thanks to the ever-present algorithms that just want you to listen to curated shuffle playlists because they think that’s what will hold your attention the longest.

Sometimes I will use the curated playlists when I’m in a rut, but only to find an artist or album I haven’t heard before. But I’ve found it to be much more rewarding to dive into that album rather than seeing what’s next on shuffle.

Albums remain a great music discovery tool that is becoming almost foreign to the younger generations. 

• Understanding what traits make me like or dislike music

Spotify knows everything about you and what you like. It’s just a fact. They have data on how long you listen, what you listen to, when you skip songs, what ads you click on if you’re on the free plan, what merchandise ads you click on if you’re on a paid plan. This might sound scary, but let’s ignore that for a second. The scarier thing to me is that they know this information, and I don’t. I’ve outsourced my music taste. And that’s a problem I think needs solving.

Step 1 is knowing what bands, songs, genres, etc. I like. But step 2, which is what the algorithm tries to do, is to predict if I’ll like something new based on what I liked in the past. That’s hard, and it requires knowing what makes me like certain kinds of music. That’s not always as easy as saying “I like rock & roll.” Diving into those details of ourselves is the next step to really become independent from the algorithm.

The way I execute this is where I’ll probably diverge from most people - I’m a mega nerd and like spreadsheets. I am what I am. So I’ve been recording my likes and dislikes, basically creating my own taste profile in a spreadsheet I control. Do I recommend this to everyone? Maybe not. But it’s working great for me. And if the great “own your music again” revolution comes, I’ll be prepared. 

Plus, as I wrote recently, this is a great way to break my reliance on Spotify, as I can now download my streaming history and playlist information any time and keep it in a spreadsheet that I control. That’s pretty liberating, even if I stay on Spotify for the long term.

• Writing about it

And to round out my trifecta of super-obvious yet somehow very wise action items:

Writing what I think about the music I discover and re-discover has been super helpful. I’ve been doing this with books I’m reading for years, and I feel that it gives me a space to really reflect and remember what I’m listening to or reading. It’s a form of journaling, really, which I do recommend to most everybody. That’s really where JamWise came from - I was writing and recording my listening anyway, and I realized there might be a little bit of value in sharing my projects. Maybe you won’t go full-nerd like I have, but hopefully sharing the journey I’m taking will spark some ideas or goals for you as well.

Maybe it’s as simple as a note on your phone. Or maybe you write in a planner or journal, and you can keep a list of your favorite new music, or the best recommendations you’ve seen or read about. Or maybe you’re smarter than me and you can keep track of it all in your head. The important part is to make it work for you, to be just a little introspective about why you like music, and to use that knowledge to guide you to new jams.

• Bonus Goal: Active Listening

I also recommend this piece from Ian Sharp’s newsletter LP, which examines the idea of “active listening.” Active listening is essentially what I’ve been missing this past decade - all the active parts of the process have been left to Spotify to decide for me, and that’s what I’m going to change. (hint: listening to playlists on shuffle destroys active listening)

What’s really going to happen with streaming music?

I realize this “streaming is over” talk might be overdramatic. The general consensus seems to be that streaming music is here to stay for a while - it’s such a good product for consumers (artists are another story) that I can’t see the world just giving up on streaming very easily. The products will follow the money wherever it leads.

Yes, Spotify is having difficulties making a profit, even while paying lower royalties to artists than other similar services. I don’t know the solution to the royalties situation, but one clear way to fix it might be for Spotify to grow - enough that they have no excuse for not compensating artists fairly. And that seems to be coming - analysts expect streaming music to continue rapid growth in developing markets, meaning whoever gets the business model right - both for artists and consumers - will be in great shape. So someone will capitalize on that opportunity, which means for the near to mid term, streaming will be around in some fashion. It’s just a young business model and will take time to find its final form.

It seems most likely to me that instead of a new business model, we’ll first see price increases driven by more favorable artist rights (eventually). That might lead to churn in the market - maybe there will be a new entrant who tries to undercut big, old Spotify and the rest in a few years, but the lower price war won’t last. If artists can solidify what their art is worth for a streaming business, that will largely level the playing field. And those costs will be passed straight through to the consumers - which, to be honest, seems fair to me. I currently pay an insanely small amount of money for a library of all of the world’s music - the value per dollar is enormous. It seems fair to pay more for that kind of service.

I would note that, if I was running things, I might look for ways to trim the costs of developing recommendation algorithms. That kind of tech takes a lot of development and TLC to maintain, and it’s a moving target. How much would Spotify save if they just cut the algorithm and let us just get music ideas from our friends’ playlists like we did in the good old days when Spotify first came out? It’ll never happen, because the algorithm and the surrounding tech is Spotify’s main differentiator, but we can dream.

Another near-certainty in my mind: there will be a new application of a developing technology that upends the music industry again. Who knows if that’ll be a few years or a few decades from now, but something is going to change in a big way. That’s what I’ve been trained to believe as a Millennial, and I’m sticking to it. Change is coming, and we have to both be ready to embrace it and shape it when it comes. Will that change upend existing companies, or will they embrace it? I worry a whole lot less about that now that I’m the one controlling my music tastes, rather than relying on Spotify, one of the companies that seems likely to be upended one of these days.

Here’s another interesting take from Darren Hemmings'Network Notes post on trends to expect in 2024 that’s worth a read - it goes into detail about the threats to the streaming industry, including the advent of more “DIY” musicians, which is another aspect I hadn’t thought much about. There could even be a time coming where things like TikTok remixes of songs become the new musical medium, blurring the lines between all levels of music makers, curators, and the algorithms that sort and classify them. Stuff could get complicated.

Conclusion: take control of your listening while you can - you never know who’s going to be in charge next.

Project B.A.E. - Best Albums Ever - Episode 9

Where I listen to every album from the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums list in random order and rate them according to my proprietary and super-advanced system of just writing whatever I want.

Pearl - Janis Joplin - 1971

Current leader in the category “albums I’d play for my future daughter listen.” Just fantastic. Blues rock at its best. Nothing more needs to be said - this fricking rocks.

Brain Rating: 9

Taste Rating: 8

Jams:

• “Cry Baby”

• “Half Moon”

• “Me And Bobby McGee”

Back To Mono - Phil Spector and Various Artists

This is the most unusual thing I’ve come across in this list so far. This “album, if it can be called that, is actually a 73-song compilation box set of songs produced by Phil Spector, including an entire album full of Christmas songs at the end. I don’t have a clue what to think about this thing. 

There are some amazing artists like the Ronettes and the Righteous Brothers, whose version of “Unchained Melody” is one of my personal votes for the best cover song of all time. Heck, there are like 5 songs in this collection (playlist?) that are also on Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes.

I also now know that Phil Spector was convicted for murder in 2003, and he’s also credited with developing the “wall of sound” production technique that revolutionized the production discipline. What the hell am I supposed to say to that combination of facts?

I mean, this is a good collection of music, but I’m perplexed by its presence on this list. And now I’m just upset that my “2011 pool jams” playlist didn’t make the Rolling Stone list.

Brain Rating: 5

Taste Rating: 1

Jams:

• “Unchained Melody”

• “Spanish Harlem”

• “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”

Kid A - Radiohead - 2000

Ok. Deep breaths. This is a band I will admit that I’ve tried to like since childhood. I bought 3 or 4 Radiohead albums over the years, which was just the thing to do growing up in the early 2000’s, each time hoping this would be the album that made me UNDERSTAND. Alas, I never did. So this will be an exercise in maturity and opening myself to changing my preconceived notions. 

I listened to half of this album before learning it’s number 20 on the Rolling Stone list. Out of 500 albums, this is considered the 20th greatest. Then I listened to the rest of it, and then, perplexed, moved on to the next album on my list without knowing what to write about this one.

The next day, I listened to Kid A again. I cranked the volume up and used my good headphones and lit a candle and everything. I was in a great mood and ready to love anything I heard. Then I listened a third time.

And now, I have to write the first thing I’ve ever written on the internet that might get me canceled - I believe this album is an inside joke from the music industry. Everywhere I look, I see detailed write-ups about how you have to experience Radiohead albums the right way, with the right understanding of their music and previous work, and maybe I don’t have that context - although I did listen to Pablo Honey, The Bends, and OK Computer many, many times in search of the cool music my middle school peers spoke of. 

So maybe it’s me, just uncultured, uneducated Dave. But I also think that, for this album to be at #20 all time, it can’t rely on the other 13 albums by the artist to prop it up. You know what the rest of the top albums of all time have in common? They don’t require decades of detailed explanations for you to “get” why they’re the best. Cultural context plays a role in other albums being considered great, sure, but that’s different than saying an album is great because it reinvented an artist’s sound relative to their previous albums. If that’s the argument, you’re really saying that the 20th greatest album of all time is a compilation of Radiohead’s first 4 albums, not just Kid A.

I sincerely apologize to the 95% of other people on the internet who seem to love Radiohead. I have failed to change my opinion, and I will face the consequences bravely (just kidding I’m a coward, please don’t throw sticks at me).

On a side note, this album has also given me a great idea for a post about how to gracefully dislike music. I probably need to work on that, along with the rest of the internet.

Brain Rating: 5 (I guess? To keep me from getting dragged too badly?)

Taste Rating: 0

The Birth of Soul - Ray Charles

This compilation was released in 1991, but the songs are from 1952-1959. 

Generally, the idea of the concept album didn’t start until 1964 when, by many accounts, the Beatles invented the idea with Rubber Soul, so I suppose it makes sense for the great music from before that era to appear only in compilations. Some people say the concept came earlier, but regardless it wasn’t around when Ray Charles was doing the majority of his recording. That doesn’t mean there weren’t albums, but I guess the idea of an album as a cohesive unit of music didn’t start until later - at least in the minds of music critics. So we learned something today, excellent work everybody.

Ray Charles was an innovator and had one of the most iconic singing voices ever. His music is rich and deep, and influenced countless artists. While this is a long listen, it’s an excellent way to deep dive the history of rhythm & blues and soul music.

Also, to my fellow millennials, listen to “I’ve Got A Woman” to appreciate the real version of that song, and to hopefully help you forget the sampled version we collectively grew up with. Trust me.

Brain Rating: 9.5

Taste Rating: 6

Jams:

• “Ray’s Blues”

• “I’ve Got A Woman”

Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins - 1993

Smashing Pumpkins was my first “real” concert - it came pretty late in my youth because I grew up in the middle of nowhere and it took until late high school before I could afford gas money to get to the nearest city and see a show. I frankly didn’t know how well-regarded this band was until recently, but even before that they were one of my angsty growing-up favorites, featured in my playlists alongside Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.

My only annoyance with this album is the ridiculously overdone gain/fuzz/whatever you want to call it on the electric guitar, but the songs are great, Billy’s voice is full of emotion, and overall this is a classic album.

Brain Rating: 7

Taste Rating: 8.3

Jams:

• “Cherub Rock”

• “Today”

• “Hummer”