Was about to go to bed but saw that Morcheeba has a new album out so instead I’m now listening to this and moving more posts over to this blog.
I’ve recently made the change from Spotify to Qobuz, there were lots of reasons for this, but one of the main ones was the amount artists were being paid and how aggressively Spotify were trying to minimise this as much as they could by introducing ‘ghost’ music to the mix.
Music that isn’t really produced by active artists and Spotify holds the copyright to, with some rumours even going as far as to say AI-generated tracks.
These tracks were then proactively encouraged to us in our artist radios, Spotify-generated mixes, and weighted to nudge down original artists according to a report in Harper’s Magazine.
According to an article at ear Qobuz pays more than every other music streaming service, this is probably because there is no free tier and that seems to be one of the reasons that their income is higher than other services due to their commitment to encouraging the continuation of music production and their self-proclaimed love of music.
As soon as I saw all this I started the free trial, but it wasn’t long until I upgraded to the paid Duo plan for me and my partner as the sound quality is stunning! This was the next main reason I’d been told about, sound quality.
The lowest quality on Qobuz equates to the highest quality on Spotify and the difference was so noticeable even through ear buds but especially on our good quality headphones (it does make me want to buy excellent quality headphones now though).
The interface is a bit more grown up and there is a magazine section to read articles from music journalists all about music and hi-fi, been dipping into this now and then and it’s been really interesting so far.
When I transferred my files across there was a bit missing but when I looked into it it seemed to mainly be playlists generated by Spotify and one album, which is a shame as I really like that album, but hey-ho nothing is perfect.
Overall after a week of using it I’ve got to say how impressed I am by the service and quality, music discovery is a bit harder but it’s the ease of ‘discovery’ on Spotify that allowed them to get away with the slop they were serving their customers, and I’m sure after a bit of practice I’ll get more used to the way Qobuz works
Hunky Dory
After playing Hunky Dory once more for the umpteen millionth time, I was genuinely interested in what other people’s favourite album of all time was.
That one album you could play and have played forever, or would choose if given no other choice.
So of course I asked Twitter…
I was pleasantly surprised by how popular a post it became, but very perturbed as the goal was to listen to every album that was suggested, more on this later.
What was also really nice is that everyone was really positive with no making fun of or belittling others choices and taste, which was very broad indeed and is going to make for some interesting listening for me.
Some of the albums suggested are very close to being that *one* album for me as well, The The – Soul Mining, Prefab Sprout – Steve McQueen, Joni Mitchell – Blue, which shows what great taste people have.
These are the albums that were suggested by the lovely people of Twitter but only the ones where the poster played by the Highlander rules and mentioned only one!
13 others also thought Hunky Dory was the best album ever, and of course they are correct!
Part of the UK # 1 Albums challenge.
I can categorically state that this doesn’t rank in my favourite Pink Floyd albums not even Top 10, in fact I probably wouldn’t listen to it again through choice.
It just seems to ramble a bit too much for me and I usually really like music like this.
Next album then…
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
Updated to the latest 2021 edition of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, edited by Robert Dimery. Used here for educational purposes only.
The Streets – Original Pirate Material
So far…
This list was released on the 13th of September 2019 in the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/13/100-best-albums-of-the-21st-century