Bobbyisms: Be your own taste-maker
I write about random things a
lot. I write a lot about random
things. Did you know that Rick
James and Neil Young were in a
band together before either of them
were famous? They were both at
one time a part of The Mynah
Birds, an R&B group in Toronto
from 1964 to 1967. The band never
released an album, but instead is
notable for some of its alumni.
James had joined the U.S. Navy to avoid conscription but went AWOL and fled to Canada instead, forming The Mynah Birds. He was eventually found and served time, even moving back to Toronto afterward to reform the band, and all before becoming a funk superstar years later.
It's difficult to imagine how hard it must have been to be a music geek before the Internet came along. Unless you were a nightclub mainstay, the only way to discover new music back when The Mynah Birds were active was to listen to the radio or rely on a small handful of variety shows on television. The real taste-makers were controversial, far more local and often off the beaten path.
Now it's easy to find the tastemakers; with smartphones and social media, it's easy to tap directly into the music network and satisfy your tastes. Even better, music geeks themselves are often at the helm of these new projects and devices, further sweetening the deal — on August 30, TechCrunch reported that the music-streaming service Spotify had struck a deal with Deutsche Telekom to bundle the streaming service together with phone plans in Germany beginning in October (tinyurl.com/dt-spotify).
Spotify is a subscription-based music service that allows you access to full catalogues of albums by artists and labels all over the world, on your computer or smartphone — unless you live in the U.K., where the service is offered to cable television subscribers by Virgin Media. It's like iTunes in that it's an application you download and install on your computer as opposed to a web-based service.
The service offers several tiers of subscription, the least of which is a free account that plays an audio advertisement after every five songs. Paid accounts remove the ads, and a premium account includes the complete mobile experience, access to your account and unlimited streaming music on your phone.
The principle way that the new deal with Deutsche Telekom differs from the current Spotify app for iOS is that the new plan won't draw data usage from cellular data plans, meaning that you won't deplete your monthly data allowance by streaming music on your phone. The current app is like any other, drawing on your data plan where no Wi-Fi network is available.
Deutsche Telekom owns TMobile, and considering Spotify's own slow rise in Europe and reluctant migration to North America, it's not unreasonable to hope that such a package will appear soon as well. Further, considering that the streaming service only launched in Germany this spring, it seems optimistically plausible that a similar plan could be made available to Canadians once Spotify is finally able to offer us service.
Thankfully, until that time, we have other options to combine our online savvy with our capable devices. Canadians already have access to several types of musicstreaming sources online, roughly all of which fall into one of two categories: they are either artistcentric or playlist-centric.
Rdio is a web-based service that works on an artist-centric model. Most such sites are subscriptionbased, and whether they have a free account option or not differs from service to service. These sites encourage you to search for artists or albums you would like to listen to and plays them for you.
On the other hand, playlist-centric sites are often free for use (though they offer logins and cross-network with all your social sites all the same). One such service is Songza, newly available in Canada this summer.
Songza is unique with its concierge-style model: when you visit the site or open the app, it greets you with playlist options based on the time of day or your possible mood, quickly and easily selected with your fingertips. Songza also features exclusive playlists curated by music notables and celebrities, a feast for music geeks' minds and ears.
In the spirit of music discovery, check out a new streaming website or other source for music and take a chance on something new. Keep your ear to the ground, though; with the release of some pretty advanced new phones of late, the potential to further define our music tastes and experiences grows and grows.
For more of the latest music news, reviews and more, consider also following this column on Twitter @fsu_bobbyisms. Happy listening, I'm out of words.
James had joined the U.S. Navy to avoid conscription but went AWOL and fled to Canada instead, forming The Mynah Birds. He was eventually found and served time, even moving back to Toronto afterward to reform the band, and all before becoming a funk superstar years later.
It's difficult to imagine how hard it must have been to be a music geek before the Internet came along. Unless you were a nightclub mainstay, the only way to discover new music back when The Mynah Birds were active was to listen to the radio or rely on a small handful of variety shows on television. The real taste-makers were controversial, far more local and often off the beaten path.
Now it's easy to find the tastemakers; with smartphones and social media, it's easy to tap directly into the music network and satisfy your tastes. Even better, music geeks themselves are often at the helm of these new projects and devices, further sweetening the deal — on August 30, TechCrunch reported that the music-streaming service Spotify had struck a deal with Deutsche Telekom to bundle the streaming service together with phone plans in Germany beginning in October (tinyurl.com/dt-spotify).
Spotify is a subscription-based music service that allows you access to full catalogues of albums by artists and labels all over the world, on your computer or smartphone — unless you live in the U.K., where the service is offered to cable television subscribers by Virgin Media. It's like iTunes in that it's an application you download and install on your computer as opposed to a web-based service.
The service offers several tiers of subscription, the least of which is a free account that plays an audio advertisement after every five songs. Paid accounts remove the ads, and a premium account includes the complete mobile experience, access to your account and unlimited streaming music on your phone.
The principle way that the new deal with Deutsche Telekom differs from the current Spotify app for iOS is that the new plan won't draw data usage from cellular data plans, meaning that you won't deplete your monthly data allowance by streaming music on your phone. The current app is like any other, drawing on your data plan where no Wi-Fi network is available.
Deutsche Telekom owns TMobile, and considering Spotify's own slow rise in Europe and reluctant migration to North America, it's not unreasonable to hope that such a package will appear soon as well. Further, considering that the streaming service only launched in Germany this spring, it seems optimistically plausible that a similar plan could be made available to Canadians once Spotify is finally able to offer us service.
Thankfully, until that time, we have other options to combine our online savvy with our capable devices. Canadians already have access to several types of musicstreaming sources online, roughly all of which fall into one of two categories: they are either artistcentric or playlist-centric.
Rdio is a web-based service that works on an artist-centric model. Most such sites are subscriptionbased, and whether they have a free account option or not differs from service to service. These sites encourage you to search for artists or albums you would like to listen to and plays them for you.
On the other hand, playlist-centric sites are often free for use (though they offer logins and cross-network with all your social sites all the same). One such service is Songza, newly available in Canada this summer.
Songza is unique with its concierge-style model: when you visit the site or open the app, it greets you with playlist options based on the time of day or your possible mood, quickly and easily selected with your fingertips. Songza also features exclusive playlists curated by music notables and celebrities, a feast for music geeks' minds and ears.
In the spirit of music discovery, check out a new streaming website or other source for music and take a chance on something new. Keep your ear to the ground, though; with the release of some pretty advanced new phones of late, the potential to further define our music tastes and experiences grows and grows.
For more of the latest music news, reviews and more, consider also following this column on Twitter @fsu_bobbyisms. Happy listening, I'm out of words.
