OT: Is this a generational thing? Gig songs provided in playlists only.

[obxa]

I’m a free agent. Disclaimer: also boomer.  

 

Most folks I work with don’t send Mp3s (or links to them) anymore- it’s Spotify/Apple playlists.  Originals and cover bands. 

 

Pit /Show and Oldies circuit are still doing Dropbox/G-Drive live show files of audio & charts.     Churches: Planning Center, but now getting streaming playlists from a few.

 

I use Forsore.  Like to have Mp3s with the charts to learn the show.   Until I got a Spotify to Mp3 convertor, was taking longer to collect material than rehearse it.  Great for car listening,  but learning not so much.

 

 Asked some younger cats in few of the bands:  they say they just learn the gig on the streaming app player.  I find those players clunky.  Especially if needing to transcribe and make charts.    Like being able to tune/transpose or slow down the track.  I do welcome progress.  Old enough to remember when we were given CDs....and Cassettes! 

 

Are you seeing this too??   Like using the streaming apps, or old-school?      Not a rant, just genuinely curious. 

[Dave Bryce]

Yup, I just got a Spotify list for a gig later this month.  Old guys, though - no younger members.

 

dB

[JoJoB3]

Sidenote:
In this losing game of streaming, all one needs is YouTube Premium and you have everything possible (dump the limited rest)

[SamuelBLupowitz]

It depends on who my collaborators are, but making a Spotify playlist is often the easiest way, rather than having people click through a bunch of Google Drive or YouTube links while they are driving their car.

 

Though again, depending on who's in the project, sometimes it's just a mess of download/YouTube links, because if you don't have a premium version, you're stuck listening to ads or truncated versions of tunes.

 

Sadly, mobile devices make listening to music more convenient, but can really be a walled garden that makes it hard to simply create a playlist of MP3s -- they *want* you to stream. More money in *their* pockets. I just want whatever is going to make it easiest for people to listen to what they have to learn, and I haven't burned my bandmates CDs in a long time...

 

5 minutes ago, JoJoB3 said:

Sidenote:
In this losing game of streaming, all one needs is YouTube Premium and you have everything possible (dump the limited rest)

 

As an OG YouTube user, I *refuse* to give them money for continuing to deliberately make the service worse. Stubborn and self-defeating? Possibly. But I have my pride. 😆

[AnotherScott]

8 minutes ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

It depends on who my collaborators are, but making a Spotify playlist is often the easiest way, rather than having people click through a bunch of Google Drive or YouTube links while they are driving their car.😆

I think this points out that people's needs are different. Probably the main thing a singer needs is just to listen to a song a bunch of times, and a playlist they can load and drive to is perfect. But for charting stuff out, figuring out trickier parts, a keyboard player may not just want to listen a bunch, but as mentioned, slow it down, loop a small section to keep hearing it... you need something like an mp3 for that. OBXA, maybe the people sending just haven't thought about that, and could send MP3s if you just asked for them? Other than that, youtube at least has a nice player feature that allows you to slow things down, I've used that a bunch. 

[JoJoB3]

31 minutes ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

It depends on who my collaborators are, but making a Spotify playlist is often the easiest way, rather than having people click through a bunch of Google Drive or YouTube links while they are driving their car.

 

Though again, depending on who's in the project, sometimes it's just a mess of download/YouTube links, because if you don't have a premium version, you're stuck listening to ads or truncated versions of tunes.

 

Sadly, mobile devices make listening to music more convenient, but can really be a walled garden that makes it hard to simply create a playlist of MP3s -- they *want* you to stream. More money in *their* pockets. I just want whatever is going to make it easiest for people to listen to what they have to learn, and I haven't burned my bandmates CDs in a long time...

 

 

As an OG YouTube user, I *refuse* to give them money for continuing to deliberately make the service worse. Stubborn and self-defeating? Possibly. But I have my pride. 😆

??  They all have playlist making.  Just as easy to do in YTP.
In this losing streaming game it comes down to who has the library and bang4buck features. YT trounces Spotify in regard. Spotify is limited garbage. 
YT Premium IS 'everything' (music and videos) available. Spotify is a mere fraction in comparison
...plus YTP offers
- the widest compatibility of playback devices. You can use it from everything from desktop to tv.
- playback speed adjustment in player should you need
- offers users sizeable space to upload/cloud backup their own library. 
- also offers users their own YT channel of which they can monetize.
- includes YT Music and YT...all for the single low monthly price, family plans also available.
- all of this available AD-FREE (you will want for nothing. If it's encoded you'll likely find it).

  It's not even a contest (and there's no pride in anything 'Spotify'. That company is complete garbage).

This is a sidenote/OT btw.

[ABECK]

I've had some playlist sent to me this way.  I don't mind so much....Allows me to easily review the tunes in the car.  I still get some playlists that are google drives with .mp3 files, but I can appreciate that is a hassle to maintain.  I've also had just a list of songs sent in a text, which basically means find em on youtube yourself.  I'm just happy that I don't get mailed packets with charts and a CD.  That seems so wasteful now.

[nadroj]

Our singer asked me to help with the admin for our rehearsals earlier this year.

 

I put all of the songs together in…a Spotify playlist. And a YouTube one, with some live versions for reference. It’s just the easiest thing to do, by far.

 

No one owns music any more. Hell, hardly any one buys music any more, and making a Spotify playlist is 100 x quicker and safer than downloading from some YouTube to mp3 site. 
 

if I need to slow down a piece and listen slowly (which I do regularly for solos) there are ways to do that myself. 

[Stokely]

I thankfully stick to my same old band, with the VERY occasional fill-in gig.   Even with the old band, we'll occasionally have some gig where they want us to learn some specific songs.  Like last weekend, it was a Kentucky Derby theme so we had six "horse" songs to learn   

Keeping in mind we do simpler stuff mostly, my song learning workflow consists of the following:

- find the song on Ultimate Guitar, hopefully it is there!
- make sure if it's a capoed song you transpose it to the actual key
- while looking at the resulting chords, play along with the song from regular old youtube

For anything remotely complex where I won't have it stamped in memory right away, or that I need to make notes on, I'll copy the ultimate guitar text into google docs which is shared with the band.

I've never even used spotify, these days I'm generally listening to audiobooks from audible or youtube if I'm listening to anything.

[JoJoB3]

And sidenote free...
Often times learning a song by ear 'can be' more beneficial (transcription of root movement, melody and form), otherwise you can usually find a chord chart in irealB to view alongside song playback (you'll know when/where there are occasional irealb chart errors).  If it's something more involved beyond the average pop/country/rock/standard cut then require a chart from bandleaders. It's usually understood.

btw: If you're using 'transpose buttons' ...don't (and watch your musicianship grow).

[Mighty Motif Max]

All my groups use either Planning Center (church stuff, with YouTube links) or Spotify playlists. If necessary, you can usually find the same song on YouTube to slow it down, or isolated stems (which are becoming more common). Uploading tracks to Google Drive or something seems like it might be problematic for copyright reasons.

[jerrythek]

The point has already been made that different people/roles require different things. No matter what, I would always find the YT link, download the file and work on it within some sort of transcription software (I have settled on Transcribe! after a number of years). No matter whether I can easily hear it or not, I have been making charts as a reminder of the chords AND the form of the tune. Coming into the gig I can easily listen and remember tunes, but then after not playing a tune for a year or two, coming back to it is often at least a temporary blank for me (I'm old enough to have forgotten more tunes than I can currently remember!). So my chart is a quick reminder for me, even if I don't need to keep looking at it on the gig. Just a good jump-start to get my synapses firing again.

 

I think a good leader would prep both a playlist and YT links, but whatever the case, I take care of what I need in my preferred fashion.

 

Jerry

 

 

[obxa]

10 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

maybe the people sending just haven't thought about that,

Now that I'm doing more freelance  bar/club stuff, plus my regular things,   kind of amazed how badly some band leaders, music directors and  artist management are about getting  material properly out there.  But yeah they probably just don't realize it. 

 

 I think Scott & Jerrythek  hit it on the head that our needs are just different from vocalist  or  bass player's. To paraphrase Mr. Spock:  "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the  keyboard few" 

 

I use the YT  speed and cue point thing a bunch, but still find the player a bit wonky. Plus if you don't have web access- ugh.    +1 on Transcribe, also highly reccomend Capo (free).   ForScore's player also has transpose, speed and tune.   

 

 

 

 

[CyberGene]

I’m not a gigging musician. I can speak from a user perspective though.

 

Like it or not, streaming is the norm. Nobody listens to MP3-s and CD-s anymore. It’s so much easier with streaming. You pay a very small subscription fee and can listen to anything. Somebody makes a playlist and sends it to you. You click on the link and you already listen to it. When I get in my car, my iPhone wirelessly connects to CarPlay in the car, then I can just say “Siri play Animals by Pink Floyd”, etc. 

 

With that in mind, nobody owns MP3-s anymore since it’s just too awkward to use and obtaining them is often illegal. Giving them away certainly is. When everybody listens to Spotify, it’s almost impossible to rip those into MP3-s. You have to be at a computer and upload them and whatnot. Much easier to make a Spotify playlist even on your phone and in the bus. And send a link to it to other people. Who just click on it. 
 

World is moving on and while I understand the tendency of people to stick to what they are used to with age (I’m 44 and know that very well myself), it’s beneficial to try to learn new things. It will not only help you work out your brain, it will also bring you closer to younger folks. 
 

BTW, I’m on Apple Music and not Spotify. In Apple Music you can download offline files. They are ACC which is the same and can be opened in Transcribe as far as I remember. You have to play them on an authorized computer but that’s usually the case. 

[BMD]

7 minutes ago, CyberGene said:

Nobody listens to CD-s anymore. 

 

Really? You've asked everybody, have you?

[CyberGene]

3 minutes ago, BMD said:

Really? You've asked everybody, have you?

Don’t take offense. One or two people in the world who still do won’t make a difference 😀

[MathOfInsects]

More people listen to the sound their Certificates of Deposits make, than Compact Discs.

I don't have YouTube Premium and don't enjoy having that be the ONLY way someone shares songs (i.e, instead of sending a master list that includes version/artist). But I certainly don't care if someone ALSO sends their YouTube playlist. I won't use it to listen with because of the ads, but it's easy enough to make my own Apple Music playlist from there, and it's not like I wasn't going to have to do a version of that no matter how the list came. 

To answer the general question, playlists are indeed increasingly common as a means of sharing repertoire. I only dislike it when people don't cultivate their playlists to make them specific to this gig, rather than all the songs they've ever done. (Easily addressed with, as mentioned above, a set list that applies only to this show/gig.)

I have a whole different peeve that maybe I'll start a thread about: one artist I play for only asks you to do gigs through a Google Calendar invite. So to say yes, you have to put the event on your calendar the way they have described it and spec'd it, and if you change it, it changes it for everyone, and if you remove it to put your own version up, it cancels it for everyone.

Then every update is a brand new invite that you have to say yes to! Sometimes it's a tiny thing like a change in spelling in the description. So if you want a specific piece of information, you have you read through 8 same-subject-line invites to find the one that has the specific info you might need. 

Sometimes, they list the event as an "all day" thing, because that's how they are seeing it. Sometimes it's only the time of the exact gig, when my own calendar might account for load-in times or the like (or might NOT account for it, if it's a venue I know well enough to plan around). 

All my calendar entries are color-coded and named in particular ways to make it maximally efficient and keep me from missing stuff. This makes me CRAZY. Anyone else?

[nursers]

For current band I have the repertoire on a YT playlist. Spotify playlist and Apple music playlist - with most members using the YT one but a couple use the others.

[RABid]

Our church uses Planning Center but the music director does not always send a mp3/YouTube link to every song. I get on Apple music, do a search for the song name, and usually find 20 or more versions. A few times I have guessed at which version to work on, only to arrive at practice and have to play something very different. The bass player finally gave me a tip, search Planning Center history for the last time that song was done at church, then view the service online and listen to the song. No more guessing.

[David Emm]

6 hours ago, Dave Bryce said:

Yup, I just got a Spotify list for a gig later this month.  Old guys, though - no younger members.

 

That makes me wonder about the point where we lose the last person who knows how to play a cello. 👻 Tracker enthusiasts aren't likely to take up the slack. 

 

I don't think people will ever give up on a mostly-pure thing of joy like music, but between the undercutting of music education in general and the disruptive side of consumer electronics, the avenues for bonding with an oboe over a Jupiter X are ever-shrinking. Real mastery demands immense sweat and commitment. Its something to consider.

 

[mcgoo]

47 minutes ago, RABid said:

Our church uses Planning Center but the music director does not always send a mp3/YouTube link to every song. I get on Apple music, do a search for the song name, and usually find 20 or more versions. A few times I have guessed at which version to work on, only to arrive at practice and have to play something very different. The bass player finally gave me a tip, search Planning Center history for the last time that song was done at church, then view the service online and listen to the song. No more guessing.

 

Shame on the music director for making you work that hard to figure out what he/she wants. 

 

I'm the MD at my church.  I don't use Planning Center because I've never seen the need.  I post a pdf book of the charts and provide mp3s of the recordings (CCLI Rehearsal License covers that) in a shared Dropbox Folder. I've thought about sending out a Spotify Playlist, but then I wouldn't be able to share edited versions of the songs.  I frequently edit recordings because they're insanely long. I also post transposed versions of the songs since much of the music gets transposed. So for me,  a shared Dropbox with mp3s seems to work better. 

[JoJoB3]

2 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

More people listen to the sound their Certificates of Deposits make, than Compact Discs.

I don't have YouTube Premium and don't enjoy having that be the ONLY way someone shares songs (i.e, instead of sending a master list that includes version/artist). But I certainly don't care if someone ALSO sends their YouTube playlist. I won't use it to listen with because of the ads, but it's easy enough to make my own Apple Music playlist from there, and it's not like I wasn't going to have to do a version of that no matter how the list came. 

To answer the general question, playlists are indeed increasingly common as a means of sharing repertoire. I only dislike it when people don't cultivate their playlists to make them specific to this gig, rather than all the songs they've ever done. (Easily addressed with, as mentioned above, a set list that applies only to this show/gig.)

I have a whole different peeve that maybe I'll start a thread about: one artist I play for only asks you to do gigs through a Google Calendar invite. So to say yes, you have to put the event on your calendar the way they have described it and spec'd it, and if you change it, it changes it for everyone, and if you remove it to put your own version up, it cancels it for everyone.

Then every update is a brand new invite that you have to say yes to! Sometimes it's a tiny thing like a change in spelling in the description. So if you want a specific piece of information, you have you read through 8 same-subject-line invites to find the one that has the specific info you might need. 

Sometimes, they list the event as an "all day" thing, because that's how they are seeing it. Sometimes it's only the time of the exact gig, when my own calendar might account for load-in times or the like (or might NOT account for it, if it's a venue I know well enough to plan around). 

All my calendar entries are color-coded and named in particular ways to make it maximally efficient and keep me from missing stuff. This makes me CRAZY. Anyone else?

 

Some very valid peeves in here. I think I've seen them all.

 

One correction though. There are no more ads when paying for youtube premium.

[MathOfInsects]

3 minutes ago, JoJoB3 said:

 

Some very valid peeves in here. I think I've seen them all.

 

One correction though. There are no more ads when paying for youtube premium.

Correct, and I don't pay for youtube premium, so don't like playlists that come that way. 

[JoJoB3]

12 minutes ago, MathOfInsects said:

Correct, and I don't pay for youtube premium, so don't like playlists that come that way. 

You don't subscribe to a streaming service?

[MathOfInsects]

3 minutes ago, JoJoB3 said:

You don't subscribe to a streaming service?

Apple Music.

[obxa]

4 hours ago, RABid said:

Our church uses Planning Center but the music director does not always send a mp3/YouTube link to every song.

Going off my own topic.   Sorry to hear that.  I see that all too often.  Tell him/her to contact me,  happy to show how it fully works, no charge.       Forgive my partiality: also  MD at my Church, and do a fair amount of consulting for other churches on how to fully use Planning Center.   Beta testing on the apps.    Most just use it as a service order set  list with email and never go any further.   I often wish there was something like it in the secular world.   The integration of it's music stand app (similar to Forscore and Paperless music) ability to store/segregate arrangements, Pro Presenter, Song Select lyrics, all kinds of housekeeping with tracks, video,   band/tech/clergy scheduling,   CCLI reporting and polling, and more .. is pretty amazing.

[AnotherScott]

18 hours ago, JoJoB3 said:

Sidenote:
In this losing game of streaming, all one needs is YouTube Premium and you have everything possible (dump the limited rest)

 

Heck, I didn't even know youtube had a streaming music service. Thanks for the tip!

[cphollis]

Band members get PDFs from me (chords, lyric, performance notes) with a link to a reference YT video in the title. 

 

When I sit down at my instrument to learn something, that's what I need.  If someone wants to listen in the car, they can put together their own playlist using their own service, etc. 

[obxa]

17 hours ago, CyberGene said:

it’s beneficial to try to learn new things

I agree, and good to be reminded.   I totally get the way things have progressed.   i opened this topic that I wasn't ranting, mainly asking  if this is the new norm.   At least for certain gigs it appears it is.  As others have mentioned, you find ways to adapt if you need a certain workflow.     I don't see it changing for pit-show stuff,  that's still a byzantine world of copyright and performance use.    BTW- any Spotify to Mp3 ripping I'm doing is with Artist blessing.  Not using it for covers.  

 

 

[JoJoB3]

5 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

 

Heck, I didn't even know youtube had a streaming music service. Thanks for the tip!

Well, more than just music, it's 'everything' AD-FREE with YouTube Premium. Access to the largest catalogue compared to all others.
Music, video (and videos that can be played music only), players for nearly every device,  playlist galore, excellent curation, user space to upload your library, background playback. Just about everything one needs at a low monthly. 

I'm not in love with any of these behemoths, I'm just saying given streaming is the new norm ad-free YTP becomes serious and obvious bang for the buck.  Can (easily) replace the need for those stuck with the cable/direct tv snakes for most as well.