Ian Sidden

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What’s Wrong With Classical Music on Streaming Services

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Kirk McElhearn writes:

unCLASSIFIED, an affiliate of the Naxos Music Group, a large independent classical record label and distributor, creates playlists. They’ve been doing this for Spotify for a while, and they are now on Apple Music…

As the description says, whether you “need a soundtrack for studying…” As if there aren’t any other reasons to listen to classical music. Oh, wait, there are: there is “Serenity Now,” because classical music is “serene.” Or classical music for running, because, I don’t know, you run better with Mozart? And Supper Club, so you can seduce your date with some subtle Bach playing in the bachground.

I’d suggest that it’s marginally better on Spotify simply because public playlists on Apple Music are completely under their official curators’ control. Which is too bad since Apple Music has actually made some terrific improvements for classical organization. I’d love to see better playlists and even a Beats 1 classical show. 

That last bit might just be pie in the sky wishful thinking, but their other shows are often excellent, and seeing classical get the same treatment would be a delight.
Link: Here’s What’s Wrong with Classical Music on Streaming Services (Part Whatever)

‘The Anxious Ease of Apple Music’

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Alex Ross writing about Apple Music:

The majority of the population that ignores classical music will shrug and go back to the new Jamie xx record. (I’m enjoying his track “The Rest Is Noise.”) Yet Apple’s unwillingness to accommodate—in this first iteration, at least—defining features of a thousand-year tradition is symptomatic of general trends in the streaming business. You sense declining interest in the particulars of genres, in the personalities of artists, in political messages, in cultural contexts. Differences are flattened out: music really does stream, in an evenly regulated flow. One zone of Apple Music offers playlists tailored to various activities and moods: “Waking Up,” “Working,” “Chilling Out,” “Cooking,” “Getting It On,” and “Breaking Up.” All that’s needed is one for “Dying.” As the Times critic Ben Ratliff recently said, on the subject of streaming playlists, “I always feel as if I’m shopping somewhere, and the music reflects What Our Customers Like to Listen To. The experience can feel benignly inhuman.”

The more time I spend with Apple Music, the more I feel like I’m being marketed to. That is, of course, the case with just about everything online, but there’s something kind of blatant about the whole thing. For one, my “For You” area is full of well-known acts. I’m supposed to discover the “Deep Cuts” of Tupac or Kanye or Van Halen or the Doors or listen to Jimi Hendrix tracks arranged in an exciting new way.

Are my tastes really so main-stream? Or is there something else going on? I like these performers, but I haven’t listened to so much classical rock or hip hop in years.

Btw, I have yet to receive a single classical playlist as a recommendation even with all my little hearts being appropriately applied.

History of Music Notation Programs and Advice

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Bill Holab writing at New Music Box:

Sales of Sibelius and Finale are strong, particularly in the education market, and generate enough revenue that the companies that own these products (Avid for Sibelius, and MakeMusic for Finale) can afford to continue development and add features, support existing users, and maintain the software. Yet there have been big changes in these two companies.

I remember the day when Avid announced the closure of the London office where much of the Sibelius team was located. It was the kind of event that fundamentally shook your faith in a product, and by that point I’d been using Siblius more or less happily for some time to write my musical ideas. The new licensing scheme looks completely unappealing (how many software subscriptions do we need nowadays?), and I wasn’t happy at all when Avid stopped supporting Sibelius 6 entirely, which meant it had bugs after OSX upgrades. Additionally, all the new features of Sibelius 8 seem geared towards Windows tablet users, which I’m not.

His advice in the article regarding whether or not to upgrade or not is interesting, as is the follow-up article briefly mentioning LilyPond, the open source program.

At this point, it might be time for me to give LilyPond a try.

Classical Music for Elevators

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Kirk McElhearn writing on Kirkville:

I know Apple Music is just getting started, but they can certainly do better than just provide “Classical Music for Elevators.” Maybe Apple needs to hire some classical music “curators.”

I actually haven’t even received a single classical music playlist suggestion under the “For You” tab. So he’s ahead of me in this metric. It’s been all popular music like rap and classical rock even though I “love” (click or tap the little heart icon) many of the classical tracks I do find. I do get album suggestions.

They do have curators, but for some reason, the myriad playlists offered don’t actually make it to the “For You” section. Except for the elevator music one apparently.

Straws to the Rescue

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Julia Belluz writing for Vox:

Orbelo suggested the “straw technique” — strengthening your vocal cords by humming through a straw or blowing into one with a liquid (“like when you’re a kid and you blow bubbles in chocolate milk”).

Turns out, it seems everyone in the voice community knows about the magical straw technique — to “reset and free the voice” and “stretch and unpress” your vocal cords and folds.

The National Center for Speech and Voice says the method has “roots in Northern Europe and has been used for several hundred years.” Its popularizer, Ingo Titze — a vocal scientist and executive director of the center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City — has published academic papers on the approach.

Apparently, the straw technique can not only give you a voice that’s stronger and more difficult to lose, but it can also relieve a tired voice.

Yup. And here.

via @DrBaritone