Welcome back to Can’t Get Much Higher, the internet’s favorite place for music and data. If you enjoy this newsletter, check out my book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves. It’s a data-driven history of popular music that I wrote as I spent years listening to every number one hit in history.
5 Music Streaming Features You Need to Be Using
By Chris Dalla Riva
It would be an overstatement to say that music streaming gets a bad rap. Last month, Spotify alone announced that they had 777 million monthly active subscribers, 300 million of which are paying (i.e., not using the ad-supported tier). In short, streaming is the dominant way to listen to music. That would probably not be the case if people genuinely hated it.
But at the same time, Spotify specifically—and music streaming generally—have faced their share of criticisms. They use deceptive practices to not pay artists enough. They were sluggish to combat AI impersonation. They make it next to impossible for artists to directly reach their fans.
Though I pay the rent working for a music streaming service, I am glad that listeners and fans want to hold the powers that be to task. The last four thousand years of human civilization have taught us that power can be used and misused. It would be concerning if everybody accepted the status quo.
Yet I do think that music streaming is an incredible technology. Not only did it end a decade of declining industry revenues, but it put (almost) the entire history of recorded music at our fingertips. I know that latter point has been normalized, but as I recall chasing down CDs and MP3s two decades ago, the present state still boggles the mind.
In many ways, streaming services are also getting better. Over the last two years, I’ve seen more exciting features rolled out across the streaming universe than the previous ten. Today, I want to talk about those exciting features, some of which may have escaped you.
#1 You Don’t Need the Title or Artist to Find a Song
Let’s say you have a lyric stuck in your head. You know it’s from a Beatles song, but you can’t remember which one. “All I do is hang my head and moan,” you keep repeating to yourself. It’s driving you crazy.
Decades ago, you might have had to dig through lyric booklets or call up that crazy neighbor who knew a little bit too much about The Fab Four. Now, just punch the lyrics into the search bar of most streaming services. Lyrics are indexed just like song titles and artists. In moments, you’ve found the earworm: “Tell Me Why,” the sixth song off of A Hard Day’s Night.
But this search result is even richer than just finding that unknown Beatles track. It shows that there is also a lyric match for David Allan Coe’s “Why You Been Gone So Long.” He also uses that “All I do is hang my head and moan” lyric right at the beginning of his country tune. Maybe he—or rather songwriter Newbury—was quoting The Beatles.
Look a little bit further down the list and you also see that The Beach Boys have covered “Tell Me Why” in a rich four-part vocal harmony barely a year after The Beatles released the song. Your search has not only answered your question, but it’s opened your ears to even more music.
#2 Context is Coming Back
Let’s say you’re enjoying The Beach Boys cover of “Tell Me Why,” so you decide to listen to the rest of the album it’s on, Beach Boys’ Party! You love it. It’s a bunch of loose, acoustic covers of 1960s hits. You’re familiar with all by the penultimate track: “The Times They Are a-Changin'.”
For years, Spotify has (rightfully) been criticized for obscuring song credits. Figuring out who wrote a song was difficult if not impossible on the platform. But the last few years have seen them make significant improvements. They rolled out songwriter pages. They expanded credits. And, most interestingly, they started testing a feature called SongDNA.
What’s Behind the Paywall?
The coolest uses of Spotify’s SongDNA feature
How to improve audio quality on your streaming service
Fun ways to use time-synced lyrics
How to get notified whenever your favorite artists releases a new song
A new and old song recommendation