Raymond Blanc ou Raymond Vert

Although I’m a self-confessed technophile, I’m also a bit of a Luddite about.

music delivery. I’m the fussy audiophile who sees compressed formats such as MP3.

as a step backwards, not to mention a risk or inconvenience in terms of backup.

and security. The CD delivers uncompressed audio and physical backup ­ plus an.

attractive booklet in the sleeve..

But one service has made me rethink the way I listen to music. Spotify is an.

enormous online jukebox that was made available to UK listeners last year. You.

use the Spotify application to search the collection, click the track or album.

you want to hear, and moments later it starts streaming to your computer..

It’s 100 per cent legal and if you’re willing to listen to occasional.

adverts, it’s free. You can eliminate the ads by paying for a 99p day pass or.

£9.99 monthly subscription..

Like all streaming services, there are pros and cons to the approach. The.

obvious cons are that you don’t own the music and you’ll need a permanent.

internet connection to hear it. Since Spotify also uses peer-to-peer technology.

in addition to streaming servers, some of your personal bandwidth will be used.

for uploading, so those on metered connections or mobile networks will need to.

work out if it’s affordable or practical..

The pros are having instant access to a vast music collection without needing.

to pay, download or wait for anything; and while collectors such as myself will.

lament the lack of ownership, the counter-argument is not having to store and.

rip discs or worry about backing up the data. Hard disk crashed? Using a.

different computer? No problem ­ just fire up the application and play..

The success of these services clearly depends on the collection itself and.

the ease with which you can navigate it ­ and in both respects Spotify excels..

There are obvious gaps in the collection, the most famous missing names being.

The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, but it’s impressive what is on there..

Your first few hours with the service inevitably consist of trying to catch it.

out. Specialist genres, such as heavy metal and obscure 12in dance records,.

occasionally return blank results but I found most of what I was looking for..

The real triumph, though, is the Spotify front end which is clean, easy to.

navigate and surprisingly responsive; it’s so fast at reacting to searches and.

track changes, it’s easy to forget you’re not playing a collection stored.

locally..

But what about the sound quality? I’d love to say Spotify delivers lossless.

audio, but of course it doesn’t. The company has, however, opted for the fairly.

respectable open-source Ogg Vorbis running at Q5, or 160Kbits/sec with the files.

sourced from the record companies..

Quality obviously depends on the source, and if you head straight for.

nostalgic classics of the 1970s and 1980s, you may be disappointed. Find higher.

fidelity source material, though, and Spotify can sound pretty good, although.

like all music with lossy compression, it’s lacking the impact, depth and.

involvement of a decent lossless or uncompressed source, especially for jazz and.

classical music. I’d also recommend switching off Normalisation in the player.

preferences for improved quality..

What Spotify really needs if it is to take off in the living room is the.

ability to stream to non-PC devices such as the Logitech Squeezebox, or at least.

offer a Media Center-style ‘six-foot interface’. And if we’re really allowed to.

wish, how about an extra-premium option with lossless audio?.

But this is me with my audiophile hat on, testing the system on high-end.

equipment. Use Spotify under less demanding conditions and it sounds fine, and.

at least as good as any digital radio..

It’s also amazing how quickly it can take over your casual listening hours..

It’s so quick and convenient, I can’t imagine anyone downloading pirated music.

in preference just to avoid some ads. I’m getting to try lots of albums before.

buying and my CD purchases have increased as a result..

Yes, I’m still buying CDs. I’m an old-fashioned guy who likes collecting.

physical media and if I find something I like, I want the best-quality version..

But, like Google Maps, Spotify is addictive and great fun. I hope the financial.

model works and missing artists co-operate, because as far as music fans are.

concerned, it’s close to perfect.

Taken from here