# Spotify



## Bach (Jun 2, 2008)

Dear christ, this is fantastic. You can listen to anything. Any music you want to discover, this is how to go about it.

http://www.spotify.com/


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## Bach (Jun 2, 2008)

There's not much this application does not have - and there are even multiple interpretations of most pieces, for conductor fanatics like Mirror..


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

Thank you very much, Bach. But it's not available in the US...


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## Bach (Jun 2, 2008)

I'm quite certain it is

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=spotify&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

That could be the UK page I posted (with the /en thing at the end)


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

From their FAQ's page:

What quality does Spotify stream in?
We use the Ogg Vorbis q5 codec which streams at approximately 160kb/s.

I have no idea what this means. I wonder if it's good?

This sounds a lot like my Rhapsody account, except Rhapsody rarely has the bigger names in orchestras and conductors - and it's not free. They are well stocked with Naxos music however which usually quite good.


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## Bach (Jun 2, 2008)

Well this is free and has a huge bank. Really - everything I've looked for today from Bach's Musical Offering to Alban Berg's Piano Sonata to Eliot Carter's 5th String Quartet it's got. And multiple recordings of all those works. 

The quality is brilliant - I have an excellent Hi-Fi hooked up to my computer, so any deficiency I would notice - there isn't any. It's CD quality. 

If I make a search for Strauss's Metamorphosen - I get recordings by Karajan, Rudolf Kempe, Michael Gielen, Simon Rattle and more besides. This is just an isolated example.


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## Ana Gray (Dec 30, 2019)

I had some problems with the sound quality because I downloaded operas from different sources. But now I convert my music with Musconv and I can try multiple options.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Ana Gray said:


> I had some problems with the sound quality because I downloaded operas from different sources. But now I convert my music with Musconv and I can try multiple options.


Thank you for letting us know.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Firstly, Spotify is available in the US.

And it _is_ fantastic. I had given up on music services and classical music (crappy selections) and was only persuaded to try it when my wife bought a family membership. I immediately tested it with some far-flung recordings of obscure composers and was, like you, impressed. They don't have everything, but that's probably because some labels won't license their recordings. You won't find any of the Dunedin Consort's recordings of Bach or Händel for example. But you might know that, already, being Bach.

The sound quality, though, is MEH. I'm not an audiophile, but if I find a recording that I don't have (and that I really like on Spotify) I buy the CD. Play a CD of Schiff on the stereo and the same recording streamed by Spotify (same equipment), and it's night and day. Spotify suffices for bluetooth speakers and mid-range headseats though.


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## Taplow (Aug 13, 2017)

The only reason I subscribe to Spotify is to preview recordings for a potential purchase. It is worth the subscription price for that alone. Some labels, however, are disappointingly missing from the service.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Taplow said:


> The only reason I subscribe to Spotify is to preview recordings for a potential purchase. It is worth the subscription price for that alone.


My thoughts too.

Incidentally, I created a public playlist called "Rococo Sansouci", a playlist of composers in and around the court of King Frederick the Great. If you like that period, you'll like the playlist. There are a handful of weak pieces (like one of Benda's keyboard concertos) and some Graun, but they were overall a strong group of composers.

I also started playlists for each year of Mozart's life (strictly music published or composed in a given year of his life) but decided to put that off as too time consuming. I would collaborate on that but I don't know how to on Spotify.


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## fjf (Nov 4, 2014)

vtpoet said:


> The sound quality, though, is MEH. I'm not an audiophile, but if I find a recording that I don't have (and that I really like on Spotify) I buy the CD. Play a CD of Schiff on the stereo and the same recording streamed by Spotify (same equipment), and it's night and day. Spotify suffices for bluetooth speakers and mid-range headseats though.


In configuration you can choose the quality of downloads and playback. Choose the highest, and it wont be meh. Now if you are one of those that say they do not like 320kbps mp3, please disregard this post. I am not going there. Right now I am enjoying the Bach cantatas (Suzuki version) from an smartphone and a good Sony earphone and it may not be earth-shattering quality but it is enough for portable use. The huge variety of music for an small monthly fee, and the (adequate) quality is something that was impossible before the streaming trend started. Perhaps you should also revisit your setup. Maybe you need a proper way of connecting the bits to your stereo.


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## Helgi (Dec 27, 2019)

You can also disable volume levelling to get the best possible quality.

I wouldn't call myself a full-blown audiophile, but I care about sound quality and have no complaints whatsoever about Spotify in this regard.

I buy lossless files of what I want to own if they're available, but that's mostly because I want full control over my collection.


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## Hermastersvoice (Oct 15, 2018)

Regrettably, Spotify tend to fall out with record companies or never get on board with them. So, for example the vast catalogue of Supraphon with its many reference recordings by musicians such as Ancerl, Suk, Chalabala, Matacic, Firkusny is almost entirely absent. Hyperion does not appear either, nor does Testament. Taylor Swift does not appear either.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

Spotify is, essentially, my sole source of listening. Now, hear me out here: I understand that CD quality is inherently better, and that serious collectors would scoff at the prospect of "cheating" by amassing over 200 classical "albums" on Spotify by only paying a scanty amount per month. But I personally choose to spend my money elsewhere- my "leisure" spending goes to building up my book collection. Paying the base price for Spotify gives me access to pretty much anything I'd want, with some exceptions (as mentioned above; Hyperion, Supraphon, Testament, Telarc, and others have very minimal offerings or nothing at all). The sound quality is just fine for my purposes. The layout is the most hassle-free of any streaming service I've tried (I've tried Idagio and Primephonic, and was severely disappointed at the interface and music selection). But there are several downfalls that occasionally remain irksome:

- Pop-oriented search feature based off "songs", not albums
- No option for lossless streaming, and for me, the "high-quality" streaming option can sometimes be flaky
- Inexplicably, no option for custom organization of albums, leaving, for example; Bach albums in your library split across those that start with "Bach" and those that start with "J.S."
- No search feature within albums
- Playlists appear in arbitrary order with no option for custom order
- Spotify still bombards me with a "State of Music Today" suggestion on the home page every time, as if they're pushing me to "get with the times, dude!":lol:
- White on black interface is fatiguing to eyes with no option to change
- Sometimes, individual movements of a work will be blanked out ("not available in your country"), while others are playable. For example, on Rudolf Barshai's recording of Mahler 5. This is quite ridiculous, and I can only conclude it results from laziness on Spotify's side or the label offering you only a "sample" of the album to encourage you to purchase it. Laziness is a legitimate issue, though...more than one album/artist name has been misspelled (Franz Joseph _Hadyn_) and even the token classical track has been labeled as explicit!

It's definitely not without annoyances. But it works for my purposes. For anyone who doesn't want to spend over the top on music while still feeding their interest, it really is the way to go.

Edit: And I forgot the most crucial, non-negotiable feature that sells me on Spotify for classical music- _gapless playback_.


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## Ras (Oct 6, 2017)

Allegro Con Brio said:


> .- Playlists appear in arbitrary order with no option for custom order


Playlists can be moved about manually by clicking on the list and holding the left mouse button down and moving the mouse up and down. (Unfortunately they cannot be ordered alphabetically automatically). Ordering playlists manually is quite troublesome and time consuming.

You can make folders with playlists to organize it better - for instance I have folders like these: Bach: Art of Fugue or: Beethoven: Piano concertos.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

Ras said:


> Playlists can be moved about manually by clicking on the list and holding the left mouse button down and moving the mouse up and down. (Unfortunately they cannot be ordered alphabetically automatically). Ordering playlists manually is quite troublesome and time consuming.
> 
> You can make folders with playlists to organize it better - for instance I have folders like these: Bach: Art of Fugue or: Beethoven: Piano concertos.


Thanks for the tip! I don't usually make playlists except to consolidate separate albums into a single "cycle" (i.e. bringing all of a Beethoven symphony cycle I enjoy into a single place for easy access). I wish there were some sort of separating text in between each album in a playlist, so it's not just a continuous stream of tracks that I have to keep scrolling down perpetually in order to see where one album leaves off and another begins. The playlist feature is made for tracks, not albums. So I'm content enough to have a large album library, then search for the one I want manually. Alphabetization/sorting is really Spotify's biggest weakness for me. If they would just let me organize my albums manually according to composer rather than the ridiculous first name of artist/title of album algorithm, you'd have no idea how much happier I would be!


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## Helgi (Dec 27, 2019)

My main gripe with Spotify is how limited the album collection is. Being able to quickly filter the titles is helpful, but would be much better if it included artists, composers other metadata as well.

And it's frustrating when something I'm looking for isn't on there.

However, having access to _nearly_ anything I want to listen to wherever I happen to be; at home, at the office, in the car, on a bike ride, in the grocery store - for 11 euros a month or whatever it is. That is pretty amazing.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Spotify + Audacity can be a useful combination. My ears are happy with the premium sound quality, but the low-res is not so good.


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## Ras (Oct 6, 2017)

Allegro Con Brio said:


> Alphabetization/sorting is really Spotify's biggest weakness for me. If they would just let me organize my albums manually according to composer rather than the ridiculous first name of artist/title of album algorithm, you'd have no idea how much happier I would be!


I agree. They ought to improve that. But with my current set-up and living in Denmark Spotify is just the best streaming service I know about and it's cheap. I really like the so-called Spotify connect set-up where I can play music on my receiver using my phone and/or pc as a remote via the Spotify app (it doesn't always work, but when it works it's really nice).

So you haven't had the problem of exceeding the number of albums that Spotify allows you to save? That happened to me - that's why I started saving albums as playlists.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

Ras said:


> I agree. They ought to improve that. But with my current set-up and living in Denmark Spotify is just the best streaming service I know about and it's cheap. I really like the so-called Spotify connect set-up where I can play music on my receiver using my phone and/or pc as a remote via the Spotify app (it doesn't always work, but when it works it's really nice).
> 
> So you haven't had the problem of exceeding the number of albums that Spotify allows you to save? That happened to me - that's why I started saving albums as playlists.


Oh dear...had no idea they did that. I suppose it's not as much of a problem since you can always search the database for the album you're looking for. Yup, I agree wholeheartedly that Spotify is probably the greatest for classical streaming right now. As I mentioned, Idagio and Primephonic were big disappointments for me in many ways. How can one listen to classical, and especially opera, without gapless playback? I have high hopes for them, and sincerely wish that they will someday become the streaming services that classical listeners deserve. The other service I'm currently signed up for is Naxos Music Library, because I got a free subscription through my institution. I don't recommend it at all, especially based off the exorbitant price they charge for a normal subscription. Drastically small library, it won't let you keep music playing after leaving the application, and the search feature is weak at best. I keep it around because it's free for me and because it has every Naxos album, which is nice for exploring lesser-known music.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Ras said:


> So you haven't had the problem of exceeding the number of albums that Spotify allows you to save? That happened to me - that's why I started saving albums as playlists.


Ha! That happened to me on day two (2) of my spotify trial. Your solution is ingenious.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Allegro Con Brio said:


> The other service I'm currently signed up for is Naxos Music Library, because I got a free subscription through my institution. I don't recommend it at all, especially based off the exorbitant price they charge for a normal subscription. Drastically small library, it won't let you keep music playing after leaving the application, and the search feature is weak at best. I keep it around because it's free for me and because it has every Naxos album, which is nice for exploring lesser-known music.


I suppose it depends what you want from a streaming music source. I've had NML premium for a few years and am totally satisfied.
It's devoted to classical music; I like that. The premium sound is fine; I would not pay a dime for the lesser priced sound which stinks. Navigating the site is very easy without ever using the search function.

As for the size of the library, I don't know why you feel it's quite small. In addition to having every Naxos cd, there are tons of other labels; my only regret is not having Hyperion cds.

Concerning applications, I know very little. I don't have any interest in streaming music when I'm not at my computer in the music room. Yes, I can't stream on my smart phone, but I don't even have any kind of cell phone; I find them nothing but an interference with my daily life.

Money appears to be a big issue with many TC members. I'm a retired guy with plenty of assets, so the NML cost is just a drop in the bucket.

With all the above in mind, NML is my kind of streaming service. Just the other day, I listened to the 3 hours of Liszt's oratorio "Christus" and enjoyed it greatly; multiple recordings were available. Overall, having NML, owning about 15,000 cd's, and checking out Youtube now and then, covers all my wants and needs. Of course, that's just me. My wife has different wants including listening to the music she loves when she's baking/cooking in the kitchen or fixing appliances in the house.


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## Forsooth (Apr 17, 2018)

I left Spotify mainly because I quickly reached the max albums. I'm on Qobuz and there is no limit. In addition (don't remember if Spotify has this) Qobuz has a separate search function for your favorited albums, if you want to see, for example, all your Mozart albums played by Lilli Kraus.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

I save the rock/country albums I love in Spotify. For everything else, I just mark down enough information in my Word document to enable me to search for it again.


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## Helgi (Dec 27, 2019)

Helgi said:


> You can also disable volume levelling to get the best possible quality.


Ahem! I was just listening to the Fauré Requiem by King's College, Cambridge, the 2014 recording, and heard this _awful_ compression in the high point of the Kyrie. Checked my settings and found that I had the volume normalizer on 

Turned it off, restarted Spotify and the problem was gone.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

Bulldog said:


> I suppose it depends what you want from a streaming music source. I've had NML premium for a few years and am totally satisfied.
> It's devoted to classical music; I like that. The premium sound is fine; I would not pay a dime for the lesser priced sound which stinks. Navigating the site is very easy without ever using the search function.
> 
> As for the size of the library, I don't know why you feel it's quite small. In addition to having every Naxos cd, there are tons of other labels; my only regret is not having Hyperion cds.
> ...


I think I've been brainwashed by Spotify's relatively poor sound quality- the lesser priced sound on NML actually sounds better to me than Spotify! I guess I've never heard true lossless, CD sound in classical music. I'm most likely missing a lot, but as a young'n where being frugal is a big priority, and there are more important things to spend money on- like college- I'm perfectly satisfied with what Spotify offers. I probably shouldn't have said NML has a drastically smaller library- I just think it's harder to find exactly what I'm looking for, and they don't have a few of my favorite recordings. And isn't Christus such a remarkable work? I really do think it's a high point of 19th century choral music. Shame it's so neglected.


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