My good friend and videographer Bela Molnar just posted a video compilation of his 14 hours with James Zabiela. In the 9 minute mini documentary James, an internationally renowned DJ, talks about his upcoming album “Life: Renaissance Master Series” (since released), his Nano sock, his sensual traveling buddy Jeremy and his enthusiasm about travelling onwards to Buenos Aires for Creamfields after his gig in Manchester.
James is one of the few rational, easy going and extremely talented artists currently out their in the DJ circuit. I have personally had the pleasure of photographing him at several events. James is very devoted to his music but also to his fans. Something that quickly becomes evident when he thanks his fans after every set.
Bela makes excellent work and this video shows only part of his full potential. Bela, owner of Hi-Fi Entertainment, an audio and video production company based in London, is a well known figure in the global dance scene and has worked for many big names such as Carl Cox [
It’s been a week since I signed up for a premium account at Spotify. A week of undisturbed enjoyment of Spotify here in the Netherlands. What has it meant to me? Has it changed my behavior? Has it changed the way I listen to and enjoy music itself? I might not be the most scientifically backed answer, but “yes it has”. Spotify has proven itself over the past week. It has given me the freedom to listen to what I want, when I want… all at a flat rate of €10 per month. Given the same average price of CD’s here in the Netherlands my decision to switch to Spotify was easy and without regret. So what has iTunes and the iPod application become for me? iTunes has fallen hard representing nothing more than a repository while my iPod usage has been reduced to only listening to Podcasts and bootleg material such as live DJ sets.
Perfection, it doesn’t exist so why worry
Is Spotify perfect? No, not 100% at least, but the benefits definitely outweigh the cons. The selection of music on Spotify is vast, this is an understatement by the way. Plenty of mainstream artists can be found, even national artists such as Marco Borsato, Blof and even Jan Smit. What were some of the pots of gold at the end of the rainbow for me? That would have to be the Smashing Pumpkins album “Rarities & B-Sides” (114 tracks) sold on Amazon for $74.18 (last year the price was more than $100).
With the premium Spotify account I could download the entire album in a snap and enjoy the tracks.
Mind you, not everything can be found on Spotify. One (box set) collection I was looking forward to finding was The Cure’s Join the Dots.
Even though I was unable to find the The Cure’s box set, you can clearly see that €10 a month is pennies when compared to physically (or digitally purchasing via services like iTunes) buying the music.
And now, in a moment of honesty…
“Hello, my name is Matthew and I used to download music”. Spotify has made me throw away my illegally downloaded music (mostly digital versions of cd’s I owned but got scratched up, but yes, I confess) and has put me back on the path towards righteousness… well, partially at least (see comment on ‘Backgrounder’ further down this post). I have often doubted what to do with my entire music collection as I don’t always (and often enough) listen to what I have. Music on demand is what Spotify has realized.
Some of my observations…
I really enjoy the Last.FM integration. It updates my profile automatically in the background.
Playback auto (re)starts when re-opening the Spotfiy app when previously closed during playback, something that can happen when receiving a phone call.
Unfortunately the Apple headphone remote control does not work with Spotify (only the volume function). It will close the Spotify app, but start up iTunes at the same time.
Just like the headphones, the audio control buttons on my MacBook Pro don’t work properly with Spotify. It will stop Spotify playback, but start up iTunes at the same time.
I can’t edit columns in the Spotify desktop application. I would like to remove the ‘buy’ column and show a ‘genre’ column.
The in-app search is very flexible, it includes auto suggestion when a possible typo is found.
The desktop app shows related artists when viewing an artist information page, something that is desperately missing in the iPhone app.
There is no landscape mode in Playlists in the iPhone app. This is a bit annoying, especially when some tracks have long names and there is now way to view them, not even during playback.
Can Spotify play tracks in the background?
An often asked question… Yes and no. I have a Jailbroken iPhone and use an app called Backgrounder. Backgrounder is an application that allows you to multitask, simply close an application and it will continue to run in the *background*. So unless you are willing to jailbreak you iPhone, you won’t have this luxury.
Harry Brignull over at “90 Percent of Everything” discovered an interesting user interface issue that can have a severe impact on Spotify’s ability to monetize their desktop application. He basically states that Spotify’s purchasing process throws up red flags. Read more on his findings on his blog.
How much are you willing to pay for actual (physical) possesion? Does this seperate the real music lovers from enthusiasts like myself? Thinking of the percentage of people who are as musically inclined as myself, I think many people would be more than satisfied with Spotify. My biggest joys the past week, listening to Fatihless’ new album The Dance and listening to several Smashing Pumpkins acoustic tracks such as ‘Cherub Rock’ recorded in Chicago in 1993.
I have reorganized my springboard (pages on your iPhone) and have docked Spotify in the place where I kept my iPod app. Why? It means more to me, offers more value for money and is leading edge. Will a movie/tv version of Spotify be next? Who dares negotiate with MPAA? But my biggest question of all is, how will Apple respond?
Try Spotify yourself, if you need an invite, I have 2 remaining, first come, first serve!
I don’t understand business, but I can see that the old model needs to change. Perhaps it’ll involve direct micro-payments. Perhaps you’ll pay Apple or whoever a monthly flat fee to license all their content. Most importantly, I believe that the direct and deepening connection artists now have with their fans, be they independent bands or Hollywood talkshow hosts, will play a huge part. But one thing is for sure: artists will always make art, and money-makers will always find a way to make money. In the meantime, I’ll be suing myself for pirating my own show. And I’m pretty scared, because I have an amazing lawyer.
Gizmodo’s Peter Serafinowicz dumps the contents of his brain about illegal downloading and content theft. A great blog post which boils down to the everlasting problem of an old fashioned entertainment business way of thinking.
Piracy is piracy, but the EMI example explained by Peter is astonishing. With governments, banks and other ‘hidden’ communists working on globalisation, why is the entertainment industry having such a hard time getting on the band wagon and making their material available worldwide?
But often you can’t do it legally: I recently wanted to show my son Disney’s classic Jungle Book and intended to get it on iTunes. Unfortunately, it is currently incarcerated within The Disney Vault. So I’m afraid I simply DL’ed a pixel-clear pirate copy which arrived in seconds. My moral justification for this? I once bought the VHS. It’s your own vault, Disney!
It’s not like we’re not trying to do it legally, but if you don’t respect our demand, don’t expect our money!
“Spotify is launched in the Netherlands”. This was a great way to start the day this morning. As a music and gadget lover (and living in the Netherlands) I have been anticipating Spotify’s arrival for some time now.
I quickly downloaded the app for my iPhone and subscribed to their premium service at an acceptable cost of €9.99 per month. What exactly do you get for this money? Is Spotify worth the recurring monthly fees? After my first interaction with the service and software, I would have to say yes. I agree that enthusiasm is over-exaggerated in the initial use of something new, especially when the initial experience is a positive one. I have taken screenshots of the application to help share my experience with you.
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After installing the app on my iPhone I jumped right in. The app is simple, straight forward and rid of non essential ‘useless’ features. To share a cliche moment… ‘less is more’ and Spotify got it right with the application. After start up you will need to sign in with your account details. Soon after that hunting season is officially opened.
With the vast amount of albums, tracks and artists featured in Spotify’s database I actually found it hard to choose an album to download and test, oh the irony. I dived into the settings, while continuing to think of an album to download and discovered several great features. Spotify lets you choose your settings for streaming audio and download. I kept the default settings, low bandwidth for streaming and high for download. The second feature I saw and liked immediately is the Last.FM audio scrobbling option. I entered my account details and sure enough, the tracks show up on my Last.FM page. The third and final noteworthy feature was the iPod integration option. Spotify scans the tunes already on your device and matches these to Spotify database. What remained unclear was the exact reason this was (can be) done. The reason, as Spotify states, is to avoid duplication of tunes on your device.
Now that I have the settings that I want, I also have an album that I want to download Faithless’ latest album ‘The Dance’. I do a search for ‘Faithless’ and am served a long list of albums that I can view. I click on the ‘…’ button left of ‘Shuffle play’ which is Apple iPhone slang for ‘more options’ and decide to add the album to a playlist. I create the playlist, default title is the album name when downloading an album, then on the main page included the playlist as an ‘offline playlist’. Download the tracks and then when you’re done, listen to your heart’s content!
Sharing your tracks via Facebook and Twitter works via a Safari browser built into the app. I find this a bit disappointing to be quite honest, but I am sure that these features will be update/improved in the near future.
I am a person who listens to many different kinds of music, from dance to rock, oldies (hence the Frank Sinatra album) to modern music. Spotify seems to be an application (for both phone and laptop) that can really enhance my music experience, giving me a freedom in the industries tightly tangled rules, regulations and overpricing. The solution provided by Spotify is what I would call an honest approach in the music industry towards us, the consumers, the sheep. I am happy with a low monthly fee that gives me access to the music I want to listen to. I am surprised that the multi billion dollar music industry did not come with such a solution earlier and continue to drive in the slow lane on the information superhighway. A real shame, but on the other hand, a real bonus for the people behind Spotify.
It is with a little sadness that I am announcing the closure of my photography business. In 2005 I started doing commissioned work in the dance industry, photographing festivals, crowds and DJ’s. I really enjoyed it, I mostly enjoyed photographing DJ’s in action. Capturing their emotions, their energy and hidden driving force behind some of the greatest sets I have ever heard.
I was lucky enough to photograph many of the top DJ’s in the world, Tiesto, Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Carl Cox, Above & Beyond, David Guetta, Paul van Dyk, Sander van Doorn, Sasha, Moby, Axwell, James Zabiela and the list goes on. It was an amazing experience, one that took me to places like Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Poland and the UK.
Some photo’s can still be seen at my website www.ishootdjs.com although I will be putting this domain name up for sale soon. There are many people I want to thank for their support, James Algate (Angel Music Group), James Grant (Anjunabeats), Andrea Frey (Angel Music Group), Vincent van der Heijden (B2S) and Bela Molnar (Hi-Fi Entertainment) to name a few.
Any regrets or wishes? None really. The Miami WMC would have been a great place to do some work, but we can’t win them all. To all other aspiring dance event photographers I want to say good luck, be creative, be yourself, give the pro’s room to do their work and respect the DJ, the stage manager and yourself!
This interview with Stéphane Hamel, freelance consultant at immeria.net, was recorded during the Web Analytics Congres 2010 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Stéphane was the [continue reading]
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