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WHAT IS THIS? The CMU Weekly – to which you are subscribed. Unsubscribe information is at the end. NOTE: Make sure you 'enable images' to see this e-bulletin properly. CLICK HERE to read this online. |
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But this week Spotify announced the biggest cuts to its free service yet; as well as listening to increasingly frequent and irritating adverts, cheapskates like me (every single one of us) will be limited to ten hours of listening and only five plays of any one track. You want more, you'll have to pay for it. Which, to be honest, and contrary to what swathes of rabid commenters online this week may have told you, seems pretty fair.
Will it turn me into a paying subscriber? I'm not sure. I don't know how often I get close to ten hours of Spotify listening each month, nor how many tracks I've listened to five times via the service. I use it more as a preview tool, filling in gaps in my musical knowledge left by albums and artists old and new that I've not yet heard (or not yet fully absorbed, I guess). And it's great as a reference tool, when you need to hear something right now but don't have it otherwise to hand. There are playlists I listen to over and over (particularly several of our Powers Of Ten playlists), which I may find myself locked out of, but on the whole, if I really like something I've heard on Spotify, I'll still go and buy it. Yeah, I know we're all supposed to be into access rather than ownership these days, but there's still something I quite like about actually owning stuff. I like knowing that no record label is ever going to get upset and take my CD or vinyl (or even MP3) away and put it out of reach on a high shelf until I give them a bit more money, or they sort out a dispute with someone else involved in making the record. Also, I've always liked flicking through the shelves of record shops, and that's something the internet still hasn't managed to replicate satisfactorily. Back in the days when towns had several record shops, I'd spend hours walking between each one, checking out what each had and working how best to spend the few pounds I had in my pocket. And I particularly like shops whose staff take care to make personal recommendations - Reveal Records in Derby was always good at that. Back when I used to go there, they wrote little notes on their favourite albums which always seemed to be directly written to me. They weren't, obviously, but those recommendations tended to match my tastes perfectly. I'm not aiming to get all nostalgic here, though. I have nothing against the instant gratification of downloading music - it's how I obtain much of my collection these days, but my preferred method is to pick something out of a rack, have a debate with myself over whether or not I can actually afford to buy it, put something back, find something else, and then think up some spurious excuse for buying both of them. Partly I think I just enjoy the slower pace of getting music in this way. The internet is a sea of music waiting to be explored and I am in the privileged position of having a job where I constantly have CDs, MP3s and streaming links thrust at me. But sometimes it's nice to spend an hour selecting two or three things to enjoy at a more leisurely pace and, of course, to hand over some cash for it. But today (this edition of the Weekly coming out a little late) is the day that things really slow down, and we're all asked to spend a whole day perusing the shelves, it being, of course, Record Store Day. As ever, the annual cerebration of the cult of the independent record store will see hundreds of artists perform in shops and sell exclusive releases. You know, I'm all for the digital world. I'm really very fond of it; the internet will undoubtedly be the thing that eventually turns the music industry's fortunes around (because you've got to destroy something in order to build it up again). But that doesn't mean everything about the old way of working is redundant, and real life record shops, despite being less convenient and less quick than digital services, are still a great tool for discovering and consuming music, and will always feel more personal. A great tool for discovering the latest music business news (sorry, this is an incredibly weak link) is the CMU podcast, which is back this week a brief absence. In it we discuss the aforementioned changes to Spotify, the impending sales of Warner Music and EMI, the return of the proposal for copyright extension, the looming trial of Dr Conrad Murray, and covers of songs by Pulp and Paul McCartney. What fun. Editor, CMU |
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Their latest album, 'Flourescent', was released in February this year, preceded by the single 'Trails', which was coincidentally remixed by last week's playlisters Deerhoof. Ahead of a tour with ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, which kicks off in London tonight and is followed by headline show in London and Brighton on 19 and 21 Apr, we asked Yuki to put together a Powers Of Ten playlist for us. Handing over her carefully thought out choices, she said: "This selection of songs is what makes me happy right now. And would make me happy any time, any day. Speaking of which, I'm feeling a little down at the moment so maybe I'll listen to these songs right now. Instant happiness playlist!" |
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ASOBI SEKSU’S TEN Click here to listen to Yuki's playlist in Spotify, and then read on to find out more about her selections. 01 Horace Andy - Take My Hand 02 Patty Duke - All Through The Day 03 Broken Social Scene - Cause = Time 05 Cocteau Twins - Evangeline 06 The Cramps - New Kind Of Kick 07 Minnie Riperton - It's So Nice (To See Old Friends) 08 Donovan - Celeste 09 Ike & Tina Turner - Wake Up He is the OG. The one and only. If someone said that all other music was gone except for Otis, I'd just nod and say: 'OK, no problem'. So hard to just choose one song - right now I'm listening to 'Nothing Can Change This Love'. |
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Anyway, Bieber wrote: "You would think paparazzi would have some respect in holy places. All I wanted was the chance to walk where Jesus did here in Israel. They should be ashamed of themselves. Take pictures of me eating but not in a place of prayer, ridiculous... People wait their whole lives for opportunities like this, why would they want to take that experience away from someone ... Staying in the hotel for the rest of the week u happy?" Following this outburst, Bieber announced that he would be taking a break from from Twitter. Not sure whether his decision to step back from the social networking site is to do with the rant or not. His explanatory post reads like this: "I'm just excited at this point to get on stage and perform. Gonna take a little break from Twitter and enjoy this time with my family until then". Last month Bieber apologised to fans (again via Twitter) after he displayed his middle finger to waiting paparazzi as he drove away from a restaurant where he'd been enjoying a birthday dinner with girlfriend Selena Gomez. I don't like all this apologising and stepping back from things, I prefer angry Bieber. Isn't it about time he went off the rails, or something? |
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