Why You Should Be On Spotify & Other Music Streaming Platforms

A few weeks ago we announced that our antiracism and antidiscrimination song In Harmony will be released on Spotify as well as other music streaming platforms like Amazon Music and Apple Music. This also influenced us to get very active on social media by expanding our reach to Instagram and TikTok. Previously we had only been active on Facebook.

However, since it takes time to build anything up on new social media, our presence is still highest on Facebook. The main issue though with this is unlike the younger generation on Instagram and TikTok, most of our Facebook audience are older and not big users of music streaming platforms such as Spotify.

In fact, many ‘boomers’ and above aged folks are probably still listening to the same music they listened to while they were in college, university or even high school. Boomers are not known for checking out new music these days and when they do listen to their favourite tunes, it’s usually still on CDs (or even vinyl or cassettes!).

So I’m going to outline some advantages with music streaming platforms that might open up new ways to listen to both new and old music.

More Access To Artist Catalogues

I’ve been on Amazon Music (but not the Plus version) for awhile now since it’s included in my Amazon Prime membership. One of the interesting features with Amazon Music and now most recently on Spotify is that quite often with many artists even those I have CDs with, it that I get access to artist catalogues that contain songs I don’t have in my own physical music collection. So by using music streaming platforms, I’m able to check out songs by some of my favourite artists that I never really heard much of since I don’t have them in my music collection. I can also access songs by artists I never bought a CD, vinyl or cassette of.

For example, many years ago I saw a brilliant Latin guitarist perform at a small club in Pasadena, California. I was so impressed that I made a point of approaching him for a chat (since this was just a small club). I bought a cassette from him directly through the mail a year later when he began to record his songs but because he never reached mainstream level, I never really kept tabs on him since.

When I got on Spotify, I looked him up to see if he was on there and to my pleasant surprise, he’s got quite a lot of music available for streaming on that music platform. So now I’m able to go back and listen to some of his best musical work over the years right on Spotify without having to purchase any physical CDs. For any of you who might be interested in some really awesome Latin American acoustic guitar playing, feel free to check out Nocy on Spotify – of course this means you need at least a free account at Spotify first!

Listen To High Quality Sound Better Than On YouTube

The sound quality of music streamed on Spotify and the others are much better compared to music on YouTube which compresses audio. This means that when you listen to songs on Spotify, you can hear a fully range with better bass lows and upper highs. YouTube and radio are very mid range focused. This is especially apparent when you listen to streaming music on earphones as you will get the similar sonic range as when listening to CDs except you won’t have to do it through a CD player.

The Ease Of Putting Together Playlists

Perhaps one of the biggest advantages with music streaming platforms is that you can put together playlists of your favourite songs by your favourite artists with just a few clicks. With physical media, you would have to make your own mix CDs or cassettes in order to have a playlist of your favourite tunes. With Spotify it’s just a matter of adding different songs into different playlists and you can change the order of songs quickly.

You can also create multiple playlists organized anyway you want. Some users make playlists based on favourite artists, musical styles or even moods. Try doing this with any physical media very quickly = impossible!

An example that illustrates the use of playlists is let’s say you want to put together a greatest hits collection of songs by one of your favourite artists. That particular artist already has such a greatest hits album but since you know much of this artist’s history of songs, you don’t necessarily agree with the selection of songs the record label made and would rather see a few other tunes by that artist on such a greatest hits list. Well with Spotify playlists you create, you can simply do just that, ie., make your own version of a greatest hits collection with all the songs you consider that should be on it for your personal listening pleasure!

So far I’ve created various playlists on Spotify that includes one about the best Canadian songs (in my opinion), songs by my favourite guitarists (or bands with them in it), another one just of my favourite instrumentals and one that lists some of my favourite cover songs side by side with their original artist versions. I’ll be creating more playlists over time. If you are already on Spotify and would like to get links on any of these playlists I’ve created, just contact me through this website.

Free Accounts

Spotify and Amazon Music both have free as well as paid account memberships (Amazon Music included with Amazon Prime). The paid versions have wider access to music catalogues, no advertising and better download features but so far I’ve been happy with the free versions.

So with these free accounts, you can listen to music wherever you have wifi access. During travels for example, I’ve been listening to music I previously downloaded to my iPhone and iPad but now with wifi in my hotel room, I can just use Spotify and Amazon Music for a wider range of music when I’m away from home. Of course I’m starting to use these music streaming platforms more and more these days even when I’m at home rather than digging up a CD.

So hopefully I’ve opened up some ideas for everyone with how you can use music streaming platforms. To start off on Spotify, just hit the link and sign up for your free account. If you can think of additional benefits with music streaming platforms I did not cover, please add them in the comments section below.

Of course starting October 14 this year, our first release In Harmony will be on Spotify and most other music streaming platforms too. This would be the only way to listen to our tunes with highest sound quality since we don’t plan on putting out CDs since the world has moved to streaming music as the main form of music consumption.