Spotify

It’s amazing right? I love physical media but this almost makes me want to give it up.

The usual suspects are missing…The Beatles, AC/DC, Frank Zappa. I couldn’t find Jerry Jeff Walker’s version of “Up Against the Wall” which sucked.  There are some major holes.

What mystifies me are the random songs that are missing off albums. On Uriah Heep’s Demons and Wizards one of the bonus songs is unavailable. “Domino” and “Detroit Rock City” are missing off of Kiss’ Alive 3. I don’t see a trend with these. Are the bands or labels leaving off random songs in the hope that you’ll buy the whole album?

To me the real strength of Spotify is being able to listen to music I’ve been curious about but never listened to.  The aforementioned Uriah Heep is one. I never had any of their albums (until last week’s trip to Goodwill where I picked up five LPs) but Spotify let me hear a fair amount of their music. I’m always interested in top 40 music but listening to Britney Spears reminds me why I don’t have more pop albums in my collection. I even found local bands like the Dead Girls and Hammerlord on there - both are good enough to warrant buying their albums.

It’s so much fun to explore and find stuff you’ve forgotten about or songs you’ve always wanted to check out that you know you’ll never hear on radio.  The fact that they have C.W. McCall’s Convoy should tell you all you need to know.