I have some big news to share this week: I have finally joined the 10’s and started listening to streaming music. 😂
I have taken my music collection very seriously my entire life. Even after digital music arrived on the scene, I was precious about my ‘collection’. I can recall hours/days/weeks/months of time spent digitizing tracks; backing up drives multiple times to safeguard my digital goods. As the streaming platforms emerged I tried them but was reluctant to totally cut the cord and just “rent” my music.
We finally bit the bullet and got a Spotify family plan. What can I say? Spotify is one of the greatest apps I’ve used in my life. As a music geek it allows for endless exploration, although it almost makes it so easy to get sucked down rabbit holes that I feel like I’ll need to work hard to curate some of my long time favorites into my workspace/playlists/whatever. It’s been lots of fun.
That said, there are a bunch of things I’m still working to figure out, and I figured that if I posted my questions here, some folks might help me out in the comments.
- Local Music With Spotify – It seems that Spotify found playlist files on my computer from iTunes or elsewhere, and while it seems to identify the songs and artists and track lengths on them, it does not seem to be able to play those tracks. Does that sound right? Is Spotify supposed to recognize local music collections? Or do I really have to add all my existing playlists and music back bit by bit in the Spotify UI?
- Finding Friend’s Music Activity – Spotify clearly seems to be aware of some of my Facebook friends, and gives me what they’re listening to in my right hand activity bar. That said, when I ask it to find friends, it seems to hang forever but never do anything. Has anyone else experienced this?
Overall, very happy to have jumped into the Spotify pool. I have lots to say about how great of an entertainment platform I think it is, but I’ll save that until after I’ve spent a bit more time, and perhaps even after I’ve taken in Stay Free: The Story of the Clash, narrated by Chuck D!