Topic: All About Streaming Music Services

[Brian]

Yep - in that case I would write "Shostakovich Haitink" and maybe the number 11 but skip the word symphony for sure. This is why I love using the label name for searches, also - typing something like "Bridge Chandos" really reduces the number of variables which can confuse the search engine.

[Mirror Image]

Yep - in that case I would write "Shostakovich Haitink" and maybe the number 11 but skip the word symphony for sure. This is why I love using the label name for searches, also - typing something like "Bridge Chandos" really reduces the number of variables which can confuse the search engine.

But this would bring up too many recordings. I like concise searching and, unfortunately, Spotify fails to deliver in this regard. Of course, the audio quality leaves much to be desired, too. If I was going to sign up for a streaming service, I would probably wait and see what this new Apple classical service will be like.

[Mirror Image]

I would never use that kind of a search since it includes too many terms. 

I tried "shostakovich haitink 11" and the first recording was Royal Concertgebouw with Haitink of the 11th symphony. The second recording was the complete symphony set of Haitink with the London Symphony Orchestra. After that the results became less relevant, but I got two recordings of what I was looking for at the top of the screen.

It's fine that Spotify works for you, but I wasn't impressed. We'll just leave at that.

[Madiel]

Did you turn off autoplay in the settings?

Yes, Autoplay is off. It has no effect on a podcast because it apparently thinks that consecutive episodes of the same podcast are like consecutive tracks of the same album.

[aukhawk]

But this would bring up too many recordings. I like concise searching and, unfortunately, Spotify fails to deliver in this regard. ...

The trick is - don't be a scholar, be a simpleton.  That is Spotify's target market after all.  I can see why this would be an irritation to some people, but the more search terms you use widens the search, not narrows it.  It's counter-intuitive in some ways.
I rarely have to type in more than one word (composer) and half-a-word (performer).  OK, 'beethoven karaj...' would go horribly wrong  but for example 'shostakovich dono...' gives me an instant 1-hit result.
I find it's a mistake to include a number of any kind.  Searching for 'symphony 4' will just invite inclusion of string quartet 4, piano sonata 14, opus 4, opus 42, opus 114 etc etc.  Don't be a scholar, be a simpleton.

I think from reading this and other fora that something that people really dislike is the inclusion of spurious and irrelevant items in the search results list - some pop album for example.  I ask myself, why can't they just ignore the things they don't want to see?  It's part of life, all the time we just filter out the stuff we don't like - noisy children, grocers' apostraphes etc etc.

[Mirror Image]

The trick is - don't be a scholar, be a simpleton.  That is Spotify's target market after all.  I can see why this would be an irritation to some people, but the more search terms you use widens the search, not narrows it.  It's counter-intuitive in some ways.
I rarely have to type in more than one word (composer) and half-a-word (performer).  OK, 'beethoven karaj...' would go horribly wrong  but for example 'shostakovich dono...' gives me an instant 1-hit result.
I find it's a mistake to include a number of any kind.  Searching for 'symphony 4' will just invite inclusion of string quartet 4, piano sonata 14, opus 4, opus 42, opus 114 etc etc.  Don't be a scholar, be a simpleton.

I think from reading this and other fora that something that people really dislike is the inclusion of spurious and irrelevant items in the search results list - some pop album for example.  I ask myself, why can't they just ignore the things they don't want to see?  It's part of life, all the time we just filter out the stuff we don't like - noisy children, grocers' apostraphes etc etc.

This is all fine and dandy for you, but I choose not to conform to Spotify's alleged "simplicity", because a search engine, IMHO, is something that should be more precise and this is where the Spotify developers dropped the ball. They didn't know what the hell they were doing, so they get a grade of F- in this regard, but it's also their audio quality that I have a qualm with. Anyway, I'm done talking about this now.

[Brian]

 

Sorry, this cracks me up. "Here is how to use the search engine." "I dislike and reject how to use the search engine." The great thing is, nobody is wrong! Aukhawk and San Antonio are right about how to search, and MI is surely right to live however he wants. But you have to admit... It is funny. Man's struggle against the machine continues 

[DavidW]

MI, I think you should try Idagio.  They have a free version.  If you start searching for a work it will identify it and then you can select and see all possible recordings.  Far smarter for classical music.

[Mirror Image]

MI, I think you should try Idagio.  They have a free version.  If you start searching for a work it will identify it and then you can select and see all possible recordings.  Far smarter for classical music.

Thanks, Dave. I tried Idagio already in the free version and the fidelity left much to be desired, because it still uses mp3, but if I upgrade, I'll be able to playback in FLAC.

[San Antone]

Sorry, this cracks me up. "Here is how to use the search engine." "I dislike and reject how to use the search engine." The great thing is, nobody is wrong! Aukhawk and San Antonio are right about how to search, and MI is surely right to live however he wants. But you have to admit... It is funny. Man's struggle against the machine continues 

I did the same search "shostakovich haitink 11" on Naxos Music Library and got the same results, i.e. exactly the same top two recordings and then other unrelated recordings.  Oddly the NML "Advanced Search" produced fewer results but the same two recordings, along with four mis-matches.  Amazon performed somewhat better, it also produced the same top two recordings but also a few earlier releases and couplings before offering wrong matches.

When I said user deficiency, and I taught new attorneys online research at a large law firm, people either construct too narrow or too broad of searches.  The first produces no matches and the second too many results.

[Mirror Image]

Sorry, this cracks me up. "Here is how to use the search engine." "I dislike and reject how to use the search engine." The great thing is, nobody is wrong! Aukhawk and San Antonio are right about how to search, and MI is surely right to live however he wants. But you have to admit... It is funny. Man's struggle against the machine continues 

Yes, the struggle is real! Power to the people!

[Todd]

But you have to admit... It is funny.

True.  I am happy that one of the annoyances I face is how to find one recording out of hundreds of thousands.  I contrast this with the dark ages - you know, the 90s.

[Madiel]

Contrast with searching Apple Music, where a search for Mozart’s symphony no.12 got me many hits for Mozart and symphony but no evidence of the actual work I wanted. Scrolling through pages of results.

Whatever you think of some of the other services, they still give you a way better outcome than THAT.

[DavidW]

Contrast with searching Apple Music, where a search for Mozart’s symphony no.12 got me many hits for Mozart and symphony but no evidence of the actual work I wanted. Scrolling through pages of results.

Whatever you think of some of the other services, they still give you a way better outcome than THAT.

Apple Music is by far the worst.  No wonder they bought out Primephonic!  They're like "we don't understand metadata, please help us!"

[Buster Machine]

I'm trying to listen to a 1970s recording of Haydn's The Seasons with the Szegéd Symphony conducted by Tamás Pál in Mediaklikk before it gets deleted in less than 5 hours, but today I'm not getting any audio from the website. The live stream (https://mediaklikk.hu/bartok-radio-elo) does work, but the archive's streams don't.

https://mediaklikk.hu/radio-lejatszo-bartok/?date=2022-07-15_13-18-00&enddate=2022-07-15_15-09-00&ch=mr3

I wonder if the error is in the website or in my PC, which had a Windows update yesterday. Does it work for you?