In my classes this quarter, the state of the music industry in the mediated/digital realm has been a recurrent theme. I saw this editorial today: "Spotify is ruining the way we listen to classical music." The article echoes many of my feelings on the topic and, perhaps unintentionally, raises some other interesting questions.
First, classical music doesn't adhere to the metadata standards that pop music does. Whether this is the label's fault or the streaming/download service's fault I don't know. What's interesting to me is that popular music has set the standard and classical music needs to somehow shoehorn itself in. This is problematic in a few ways. Classical compositions are (as the author points out) often multi-movement works, and the digital services typically treat each track as an independent work. I suppose there's a similar problem with concept albums, too. Perhaps iTunes, Spotify, et al. could work to develop a separate classical interface that is more amenable to this (actually, I think Spotify has a "classical" version, but I've never tried it).
Second, classical music (basically) involves three kinds of people: performers, conductors, and composers. Right now, I have Emil Gilels' performances of the Brahms piano concertos on my desk; the Berlin Philharmonic and Eugene Jochum accompany him. Say I want to hear more by Emil Gilels--Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, whatever. I can't exactly search for Gilels + Beethoven. Perhaps I want to hear another performance of the Brahms concertos with Berlin and Jochum. I can't really search for Brahms + concertos + Berlin Philharmonic + Jochum. I'll by recordings because of a particular conductor (I just stocked up on Bernstein and Koussevitzky; didn't really care what they were conducting). Such searches are difficult if not impossible on iTunes, Spotify, etc. A search for someone like Bernstein might also yield him as conductor, composer, and/or pianist. (I do think ArkivMusic has this figured out as well as can be, although they're primarily a CD retailer).
Third, it seems to me that "discovery" is an important component of music listening today in a way that it wasn't before. My students often talk about combing the internet to find something fresh and new in a way that I'm not sure I've ever done (and this is technically part of my job). It seems to me that this is a fairly modernist notion--always trying to find something new. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; however, I wonder if it contributes to the kind of "shallow" listening that the author describes. The jewel case for my aforementioned Brahms CD is broken in about four places because I listen to it repeatedly. I know these works very well: I've performed them several times, listened to many different recordings, studied the score, read liner notes (another thing that is vanishing in the digital world) etc. I do realize that my listening needs and modalities differ from those of the non-music-professional.
Fourth, streaming services are replacing the collections of old. I have a rather large CD collection (thanks to BMG's mail-order club and a college job working at Tower Records' classical annex). I also have a large pop collection on CD and iTunes. I very, very rarely download/purchase classical music via iTunes (usually only when I'm in a pinch preparing for class or some such thing). Perhaps the "ephemeral" nature of streaming services replaces the more engaged listening that collectors participate in: things that I stream are not mine.
Last, I know in the case of Spotify and eMusic, many of the artists represented are (for lack of a better term) B-list artists. Last time I checked, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin were not available via Spotify, but a huge range of artists that I've never heard of are, in some cases performing covers of works by the A-list artists. At the risk of treading into the problems of canonization, surely there's something to be said for knowing the Beatles as the Beatles, and not through some random cover band.
First, classical music doesn't adhere to the metadata standards that pop music does. Whether this is the label's fault or the streaming/download service's fault I don't know. What's interesting to me is that popular music has set the standard and classical music needs to somehow shoehorn itself in. This is problematic in a few ways. Classical compositions are (as the author points out) often multi-movement works, and the digital services typically treat each track as an independent work. I suppose there's a similar problem with concept albums, too. Perhaps iTunes, Spotify, et al. could work to develop a separate classical interface that is more amenable to this (actually, I think Spotify has a "classical" version, but I've never tried it).
Second, classical music (basically) involves three kinds of people: performers, conductors, and composers. Right now, I have Emil Gilels' performances of the Brahms piano concertos on my desk; the Berlin Philharmonic and Eugene Jochum accompany him. Say I want to hear more by Emil Gilels--Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, whatever. I can't exactly search for Gilels + Beethoven. Perhaps I want to hear another performance of the Brahms concertos with Berlin and Jochum. I can't really search for Brahms + concertos + Berlin Philharmonic + Jochum. I'll by recordings because of a particular conductor (I just stocked up on Bernstein and Koussevitzky; didn't really care what they were conducting). Such searches are difficult if not impossible on iTunes, Spotify, etc. A search for someone like Bernstein might also yield him as conductor, composer, and/or pianist. (I do think ArkivMusic has this figured out as well as can be, although they're primarily a CD retailer).
Third, it seems to me that "discovery" is an important component of music listening today in a way that it wasn't before. My students often talk about combing the internet to find something fresh and new in a way that I'm not sure I've ever done (and this is technically part of my job). It seems to me that this is a fairly modernist notion--always trying to find something new. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; however, I wonder if it contributes to the kind of "shallow" listening that the author describes. The jewel case for my aforementioned Brahms CD is broken in about four places because I listen to it repeatedly. I know these works very well: I've performed them several times, listened to many different recordings, studied the score, read liner notes (another thing that is vanishing in the digital world) etc. I do realize that my listening needs and modalities differ from those of the non-music-professional.
Fourth, streaming services are replacing the collections of old. I have a rather large CD collection (thanks to BMG's mail-order club and a college job working at Tower Records' classical annex). I also have a large pop collection on CD and iTunes. I very, very rarely download/purchase classical music via iTunes (usually only when I'm in a pinch preparing for class or some such thing). Perhaps the "ephemeral" nature of streaming services replaces the more engaged listening that collectors participate in: things that I stream are not mine.
Last, I know in the case of Spotify and eMusic, many of the artists represented are (for lack of a better term) B-list artists. Last time I checked, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin were not available via Spotify, but a huge range of artists that I've never heard of are, in some cases performing covers of works by the A-list artists. At the risk of treading into the problems of canonization, surely there's something to be said for knowing the Beatles as the Beatles, and not through some random cover band.