Archive for September, 2009
Spotify Playlist: 28 September 2009
Posted by matt in spotify playlists on September 28, 2009
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On broadening my musical horizons
Posted by matt in me, spotify playlists on September 15, 2009
One of the greatest things about social media, for me at least, is the fact you can know about 3 people in the beginning, then gradually find more and more interesting and entertaining people by word of mouth (or text), until you eventually reach a comfortable critical mass whereby the number of new people you are meeting slows down to match the number of people who are unfriending you because you mentioned off-hand how much you hate Twilight.
Coupled with this, we’ve seen a rapid increase over the past five years or so in the number of ways to link, share and recommend new media. Without needing to buy a music magazine or TV guide, I’ve discovered far more excellent music, film and shows since I joined Facebook and Twitter than I ever did when I was reading hard press.
Now, thanks to a combination of individual recommendation, Last.fm and Spotify, I can connect instantly to music I like. Even better, I can be connected to music that I will probably like, purely based on my listening habits, or by giving me a selection of artists similar to one I specify.
This is brilliant. If things continue in this way, never again will I buy music that I haven’t already listened to, in full, more than once and at my leisure. Every CD and digital download I have bought in the past couple of years has been meticulously vetted, not vaguely recalled from a 2-minute sample fished out from betwixt ten-minute commercial segments and the latest Pussycat Girls ‘joint’.
About two months ago I was inspired by fellow music-lovers (notably Robyn, example here) and decided to start compiling playlists on Spotify. The intention was to have music I already know and love, and mix it in with stuff that I’d learned about in the preceding weeks and months. I didn’t want to restrict it to any one genre, nor did I want to alienate people by ignoring others. Hopefully I’d be finding new music for myself while spreading awareness of lesser-known, yet awesome, acts.
I’m aiming to post these playlists on Mondays, once a fortnight. The most recent one can be found by following the link below, and I’ll be posting backdated links to the previous ones. I hope you find at least something new that you enjoy, and if you think they’re worth sharing, please do so!
On The Game, and how you play It
For those of you who are not familiar with the phenomenon known simply as The Game: welcome! You’re in for a treat.
For those of you who are familiar with It: HA HA! You lose! Pass it on.
The Game is one of those things that you can easily spend too much time thinking about, but you really shouldn’t if you ever want to win It. Put simply, now you know of The Game, you are also now playing It. In fact, you’ve been playing It ever since you were born, and possibly even before that (if you believe in that sort of thing).
To know The Game is to play The Game. To remember you are playing The Game, however, is to LOSE.
So long as you forget about The Game’s existence, you will not lose. This means that so long as you forget you’re playing, you don’t have to do anything but continue to play. As soon as you remember you’re playing (either on your own, or through being reminded by an object or someone telling you), you lose and are duty-bound to inform everyone around you that they, too, have lost. If someone just told you, you’re allowed to swear at them. Go on, it’ll make you feel better.
So to those of you reading this who, until a few minutes ago, were boasting a 20+ year winning streak I say: unlucky.
Maybe you’ll do better next time.