How I Listen to Music + Spotify
This past weekend, I properly switched from iTunes to Spotify, and I still won’t shut up about it. If you know me or follow me on Twitter (@AlanWilkis), you’d know that I’m constantly hunting for and devouring new music. And something about the ease, convenience, and available selection within Spotify has drummed up an excitement in me that I haven’t felt in years. Specifically, as I loaded up all this new stuff to listen to in Spotify, it was the closest I’d felt to when I used to go to the record store and blow all my money on a stack of CDs… and this got me excited… so much so that I felt compelled to write about it.
I also thought it would be a great opportunity to share my listening process with you. For the past several years, I have stuck to a few very strict and somewhat OCD rules for listening:
When I come across a new album or EP, I load it into a queue. I listen to each album 3 times, usually over the course of 1 to 2 weeks, and then I pretty much never listen to it again. I have found that 3 listens is just enough for me to take it all in. As I listen, I try to rate each song. By the iTunes 5-star rating system, I would give my favorite songs 5 stars, the decent songs 4 stars, and everything else, 3 stars or less… Though I so rarely come back to music once I’ve listened to it 3 times, I will ONLY come back to 5-star songs.
It ain’t perfect, but it works for me, and it has enabled me to digest a massive amount of new music, beyond a surface-level understanding and at a relatively fast rate.
Spotify doesn’t have quite as robust of a rating system – you can either favorite a song with a single star or not… But what it DOES have is wonderful social integration, and that’s got me super excited because I can finally share all this crazy awesome music that I’m always finding in such an easy way.
I’m going to continue starring things as I go, and then I’m going to share those findings in real-time in my public Spotify profile: AlanWilkis. And it may be a bit ambitious, but I’m going to try to publish my weekly or perhaps monthly favorites. You’ll be able to hear what I’ve been listening to and inspires me most, and maybe, just MAYBE, you’ll find some stuff you like, too…
That’s all for now, folks!
A
2 comments August 8th, 2011
