Spotify - anyone heard of it?

Posted in the digital music collection thread, but it's worth re-posting I think: http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/04/pacemaker-dj-app-with-spotify/

does anyone know how forgotify works? is it really all tracks that have never been played before?

According to the Forgotify site, yes. Load up Forgotify, see what never-heard-before song it randomly chooses (Maybe it uses a search algorithm and Spotify play stats to determine what is never-played), admire the cover, then play it (or don't)

OK, I've been using this for half an hour and it is now playing a track that I am almost certain I myself have played before

Maybe it takes a while to update the play statistic?

Forgetify has also given me a Mary J. Blidge track once

forgotify is still pretty great, regardless of whether these are tracks that have literally been played by zero people or not, some really fantastic stuff that I never would have found myself.

it kind of reminds me of the Random Shopper thing in that regard

There was a website that would show you a random book on Amazon - it turns out that most of their stock is either erotic literature or print-on-demand hard copies of Wikipedia articles.

yeah, it was not the best way to stock my library

= karaoke versions and tracks from sound fx albums in the spotify equivalent

So far Forgotify has given me a bunch of great 1970s Middle Eastern pop, some Bollywood soundtracks, off-brand classical recordings and some random self-released earnest singer-songwriters. Every now and then it says the track it was about to play has now been played by someone, but would I like to hear it anyway.

So nobody cares about Pacemaker? I can't wait to check it out!

downloaded; it's kinda neat

The thing about getting a track on forgotify which it seems too strange that noone has played: Some albums are on Spotify twice over or more -- could be because of various editions, or availability in various markets, or due to simple error. It is conceivable that one instance of such an album gets all the plays (e.g. if there's a tagging error in the other one).

So nobody cares about Pacemaker? I can't wait to check it out!

messed around with it a little today, it doesn't do much pro DJ type shit if you're used to Traktor or whatever (I can't really figure out cueing or get it to auto-sync very good) but just to have a simple app to crossfade between two tracks off of Spotify is pretty great (especially for free)

Yeah, hopefully:
1. Pacemaker gets some improvements
2. Spotify opens up to other vendors (Traktor for example)

after some more playing around I figured out you can at least move the start cue but it's hard to put it right on a beat. without having a good starting point it seems impossible to get it to sync right, unless there's something I'm missing. like you hit "sync" and it just immediately starts playing the other track, they will be the same tempo but if you're just starting from some random spot it's not gonna match up right.

still, it's kind of a cool app, I do like it

funnily enough this will only work on iOS 7 and Traktor DJ will only work on iOS 6 haha

I grabbed Traktor DJ for iPad the day they had it up for free but I never used it.

if they integrated spotify with Traktor Pro for desktop that would be pretty killer.

er, not desktop ... laptop ... non-iPad. you know what I mean.

Before this, I figured that something in Spotify's contracts prevented them from allowing "performance" apps (like DJ software), but I guess not. Hopefully this is just the start.

the only restriction in Pacemaker is that you can record your set inside Pacemaker (mix and record at the same time) if you're using mp3's but if you use Spotify tracks the record button is disabled. supposedly because of some copyright thing.

Traktor works fine on iOS 7 iirc?

oh does it? I guess they updated. they sent out an email saying not to update to 7 and never said anything more about it. (I went ahead and upgraded since I really only use it on my laptop anyway.)

I mean, if it still didn't work this many months in, they'd be having some serious issues

Guys remind me is there still a way to see the total time of your playlists?

I see a tiny little figure in the top right of the playlist screen, above the switch for making "available offline"

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140223/22200926326/musicians-increasingly-realizing-that-streaming-services-are-actually-really-good-thing.shtml

Thanks for that article, interesting read. Sounds like the key is to lose a label that will suck most of the money before you see it (duh!) and get hugely popular in Scandinavia.

interesting read, sure, though i'm not sure two musicians writing pro-spotify articles means that musicians in general are "increasingly realizing" anything. it would have been just as easy to find two or three or twenty or thirty pro-spotify articles by musicians three or four years ago.

I think it will be interesting if streaming gets really popular in the US to see if the money actually starts rolling in for people.

it is really popular, it's just mostly those darn millenials on youtube

I think I've seen AT&T plugging their new download and streaming service Beats Music with TV ads. Subscriptions are $14.99/month for a family and $9.99 for an individual.

it's a service with a deal with at&t. it's $9.99 each per if you are not a customer of at&t. there's a thread

Annoyingly, just as I was getting into the surprisingly good Matt Berry albums, they've vanished from spotify

Glenn can explain what it means of course

http://blog.echonest.com/post/78749300941/the-echo-nest-joins-spotify

It may be a little while before I can actually explain anything beyond the fact that on your first day you get green headphones and a t-shirt, but yes, Spotify just bought The Echo Nest, where I work!

I didn't realize you work there! I love me some data mining.

I feel honored to have been a part of the Echo Nest experience since the beginning, and I wish you and your coworkers the best of luck as you embark on your incredible journey with Spotify!

If this could somehow lead to that insane genre map you produced becoming accessible as a Spotify app with all the relevant linking, well that'd be pretty much the best thing ever.

yep. fix it please.

The soundrop app (works with spotify or deezer) now has an Official 80s Underground/Indie room for all you old goths and noise rockers etc
http://open.soundrop.fm/s/80sunderground

Web version that uses youtube - http://play.soundrop.fm/s/XRp57NhZKZr7ZEGH

Onimo * others come play some of your faves!

http://f.cl.ly/items/2O0O1B452m2x0N3s0r0Q/ClouDrop%2013%20Mar%202014%2016%3A21%3A14.png

yes please

Grr. I promise I will try to get these fixed...

Maybe they are "fixed", and that Spotify is paid to push those artists?

No, that's not it.

I love how for so many artists who I want to hear an 80s pop song by I get some re-recorded 2000s version of it and can't find the original. namely The Jets's "Make it Real" or Benny Mardones "Into the Night"...

Jets "Make It Real": http://open.spotify.com/track/3sasIFIs1FUbB9gp03JUts
Benny Mardones "Into the Night": http://open.spotify.com/track/0rhyBUAgNXwdyvGVXSrLzc

These sound like the right versions. All I did was search on "jets make it real" or "benny mardones into the night", and these were the first results in both cases...

nope, it's a decent reproduction, but that is definitely not the original version of "Make It Real". This is the original, and you can tell it's different as she uses slightly different inflections in the chorus, plus the keyboards are slightly different: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouOfSl2CFbY

that is the orig (1980) Mardones version tho, maybe I missed it several months ago or they added it in. when I last tried it was always a newer 2000s version.