2021 in Music

1/9/2022

David A. Windham

2021 in Music

I make a new playlist every month while I’m at my desk and about this time every year, I do a round up of my listening habits from the last year. I mostly try to add new releases and throw in any older songs I may have on repeat. I still try to listen to complete albums as they’re published, but I’ve found that so many artists are just releasing a track at a time prior to the album so I end up hearing several tracks before the complete album is out. And before you murmur to yourself… yes I agree the artist royalties are terrible for streaming and I would argue that they’ve been poor since the beginning and until artist go direct to consumer there will always be a cut. The problems is that the listeners need a way to find music and that will mostly be done where there are large libraries that act as a discovery mechanism. The reason I originally switched to streaming is that the cost of listening to hundreds of albums a month is much much cheaper and I still listen to streaming radio to discover new music so I’m not pigeon-holed into the streaming provider’s algorithms.

I think the big music news this year was everyone selling their catalogs. Simon, Dylan, Springsteen, and Young sold everything last year₁. Although I don’t understand it completely, I can see where the art is already out there and that’s the only thing the artists is really concerned about. Who and how money is made from it when they’re long gone doesn’t seem to be a concern. I suspect that in the coming years, music streaming services will fragment like streaming television has done with more and more music publishers like making standalone streaming apps. I’d imagine that even the even independent record labels who’ve managed to sell download make far more from merchandise, LPs, and CDs. Part of me hopes that eventually the publishers will figure out the technology and they’ll be able to compete with the likes of Amazon, YouTube, Apple, and Spotify but I don’t see it happening anytime soon if ever because the consumers will take the path of least resistance.

I started out this year listening to Paul Simon and The Beatles discographies in chronological order because I recently listened to Miracle and Wonder₂ by Malcolm Gladwell and watched Get Back₃ by Peter Jackson. I’ve noticed that because of it, Paul Simon is now outnumbering Bill Evans in my charts. The last part of 2021 was dominated by me listening to music my brother liked so there is a lot of Dmitri Shostakovich and Glen Gould in there. I think 2021 was a pretty slow release year overall and even though I still peruse the charts and the end of year reviews, I don’t give them any precedence unless I respect the author’s tastes. I suppose music charts have always been reduced to the lowest common denominator and because they’re tracked worldwide in almost real time now. I try to remain open minded about all new music even though I have however many listening years under my belt. I’m pretty quick to critique and cut off a track just 10 seconds in. I’ve really started to focus on one particular artist at a time and I’ve started doing it with filmmakers and writers too.

The main way that my listening habits changed last year is that I started listening to more audiobooks and podcasts while I’m working. While thinking about how I’ve archived my music listening habits, I may have to switch this annual post from music playlists to podcasts, audiobooks, what I’m reading and watching too. I think that the best way to handle it will be to publish a non-linear list of recommendations. I’ve always planned on using the data I’ve collected to create a singular playlist of my music tastes. I’ve listened to just enough music now that the majority of popular music from the last century is starting to sound like the same song. I’m really hoping to see some good work from artists in 2022. I mean… the last couple years have been pretty serious. I’m kinda over any sorta cliché sound at this point and I really look for artistic integrity and sincerity in both the music and lyrics.

On a technical note, I started using an Apple One account alongside of Spotify mainly because of the new Dolby Atmos lossless audio codec₄ at my desk. The 24-bit/192 kHz ‘high-res lossless’ is stellar but it doesn’t support Bluetooth in the car where I’m still using Spotify. Unfortunately Apple Music doesn’t not offer the ability to plug into the Last.FM API₅ and I have to use a standalone app to stream the data. This also got me to thinking about my data portability because I don’t want to be locked into any particular service provider for my playlists and tracking. I found a couple apps₆ that can export the data into a raw format for me to keep indefinitely irregardless of service. I’ve embedded my Spotify playlists below and you can see everything I listen to @ https://davidawindham.com/studio/music₇