Music: New Life For an Old Dog
I have a 12 year old Bose AWMS, which, despite its age, is still as impressive as the day I bought it. People who've never seen or heard it before are always impressed. It's funny to see the look on their faces when I bring it out ("what the hell is that!?") and how then their expressions change when I turn it on and crank it up.
Bose get a poor rap (apparently, if you read in-depth audiophile reviews) but I can't fault the AWMS and have since bought a pair of Bose Companion 5s for my desk, which are equally as impressive.
But anyway. The AWMS has been rarely used over recent years. That whole business of finding a CD and changing it when it's done makes it just so last decade.
Now, I'll be the first to admit I have questionable taste in music. Nothing I'm ashamed of. Just certain things that people don't get (cough, Jean Michel Jarre, cough, Pet Shop Boys) and, admittedly, are kind of embarrassing.
We had a few friends over for a BBQ the other day and I brought out the AWMS and a 3.5mm to RCA convertor I'd bought. I then put on all 4 of the Way Out West albums I own on repeat via the Twonky media server on my QNAP NAS and the Aria media player on my Nexus 7. For the first time ever, nobody, most noticeably Karen, complained. In fact people said they liked the music!
I've since decided to upgrade how I consume (provide?) music. First off I've bought a Logitech Bluetooth media receiver, so I can beam straight from my mobile device to he AWMS. Second, I succumbed and signed up to Spotify Premium, which now supports Android.
The new setup now looks like this:
All I need now is nicer weather so we can have more people over for barbecues. Or dinner parties. Any excuse to have people listen to my choice of tunes. Chances are it will be mainly used for pass the parcel at the kids parties.
Wow, though. Spotify is amazing! I'm amazed and addicted. I love finding new music. Something that's kind of hard to do the old way with CDs and whatnot.
As my friend who has been trying to talk me in to Spotify for years has always said "the CD is dead". It's just that I'm a stick in the mud and a bit old-fashioned. I like owning the hardcopy CD. Or at least I did. I'm a convert to streaming and not-owning now.
I just wish this revolution in technology had happened 10 years ago when I was a bit more... erm, happening.
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Jake,
I recently dropped Spotify I got a bit fed up with the outages. It wasn't much but my tolerance for a paid streaming service is nil.
If my broadband is up then so should they - if your whole business is based on a cloud service then there better be enough redundancy to survive any issues.
I also found the desktop client needs a bit of an overhaul - I much prefer http://rdio.com but of course they have a limited catalog in the UK at the moment.
Finally the last thing that bugged me - which is true of Rdio & Spotify is I don't see why I should pay more to be able to stream via my mobile device under wifi. If I want to send the music stream from my wifi Ipad to the Apple TV I have to pay for the premium level which is nuts.
I have a Synology NAS which comes with a good audio application and mobile apps which means I can use that to stream my music library anywhere.
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As somebody who has every JMJ album, along with Vangelis, Enigma, Clannad, and a few other assorted items (A lot of JPOP/JROCK, REO Speedwagon, Cafe del Mar etc.), I do not find your taste in music questionable in the slightest. I applaud it.
I'm not particularly a great fan of Spotify. But you will find me plugged into http://www.getworkdonemusic.com or http://somafm.com/groovesalad/
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I'm also old fashioned in the sense that I like the idea of an "album" and listening to it front to back - whether it's on CD or mp3.
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You purist you.
I used to think like that. Seems so backward (sorry) now. No going back. Just like the Kindle means I'll probably never buy a paper book again, Spotify means I'll never buy a CD again.
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I used to use spotify for pub quizzes. I could compile a play list on my desktop, then turn up and click on the link on my laptop and there is the quiz music ready and waiting. It is also perfect for finding annoying music to play at halftime during a quiz (look up "Never mind the panpipes") and for sound effects. The bizarre stuff on there is mind-blowingly diverse!
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