I subscribe to all three of the above services which is probably a case of overkill. It does mean that I can listen to virtually any artist and any album I want from new releases to all time classics and it pretty makes my record and CD collection redundant. I play music either from my computer, via my Sonos system or on a number of portable bluetooth speakers which are paired with my phone and Ipad.
But what I want to talk about here is the thorny question of Neil Young and music quality. Neil Young is one of my top ten all time favourite artists, going back to the classis days of albums such as "After the Goldrush" and "Harvest." Such has been his musical output over the years that he has produced numerous classic songs, but also a fair amount of second rate driftwood. Much of his work has been sublime, but some of it is just pure junk. You really do have to be selective.
Up until a couple of weeks ago, virtually all of Young's material was available on what we shall call download services like Spotify. Then he decided the quality of that music was not sufficiently good enough and withdrew his music, thus preventing people like myself from dipping regularly into his back catalogue.
Mr Young is actually obsessed with the quality of music, which is rather strange when you consider that his 2014 album "A Letter Home", which consists of covers of classic songs, was recorded in a 1947 vinyl recording booth and is one of the worst produced records of all time. Young was trying to grab a piece of time when records were produced on almost home made booths and sounded rough to say the least. I understand what he was trying to achieve but to me that album destroys a number of classic American singer-songwriter pieces and I find it virtually impossible to listen to.
That makes it strange that the self same man should moan at the quality of music on downloadable sites. But there's another twist to this tale. Young has launched his own digital music player - The Pono - designed to take high quality downloads. So there's a financial inducement for Young in all this quality thing. He is trying to tell millions of us who were brought up on scratchy vinyl ( a medium about which he never complained) that we shouldn't accept the "poor quality" of download sites. I wonder whether a big financial stake in the Pono players has had anything to do with all this!!
The point is that the quality of music streamed through Spotify is perfectly acceptable to myself and millions of other music fans. It is certainly superior to much of what we have listened to on LPs and tapes over the past fifty years. My ear is not sufficiently developed I fear to be able to tell the difference between a Spotify downloaded track and tracks bought at a considerable price on the Pono system.
Of course I have no intention of shelling out for a Pono and I suspect that may be the problem. I don't know how many of these units have been sold, but I should imagine it's a low figure. Meanwhile Mr Young appears to have thrown his toys out of the pram again which is a bit rich from a man that has spent the past few years archiving all his music for posterity in order to make past recordings etc available to everyone, only then to deny people who subscribe to Spotift, Napster etc from hearing it. He is of course keeping his options open on this issue and could return to Spotify etc if the sound quality improves - or maybe that's when he's had enough of the silly idea of the Pono player.
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I see that the New Musical Express (NME) will be given away as a free magazine/newspaper from September after major falls in its sales. Sadly with the digital age, printed material is no longer the read of choice.
I feel an affinity with the NME which started publication seven months before I was born. It was part of my musical growing up and over the years has reflected music and fashion trends and been an important part of bringing new music to the masses.
At times the publication was in danger of disappearing up its own exhaust pipe thanks to some introverted writing where the journalist thought they were more important than the artists or music. But overall the NME has been a large part of pop culture. It is now suffering in the throw-away, disposable times in which we live. I do hope it will succeed in its new venture and not be cast into oblivion like so many other magazines, including the equally significant Melody Maker.
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Libraries is another thorny subject. Our present Government seems to hit on the arts whenever it wants to make cuts. This is counter-productive. Art in all its form is entertainment and so much more. It brings in revenue, it stimulates and it helps us all to stay active.
Libraries are often at the heart of communities and today are much more than places from where books can be borrowed. Sadly in many parts of the country, libraries are closing or having to be run by volunteers as part of cuts.
In Norwich we have the most visitied library in the country and the library service as a whole in Norfolk is still vibrant. It would be a disaster for the arts if libraries had to close. Recently on Breakfast Television there was a langthy and very intelligent debate between a children's author and the former CEO of Waterstones. Both agreed that the service is in crisis due to the mis-management of the Government Minister responsible for the service.
It is vital for communities that libraries stay open. We have a library in my home village that has had its hours cut but is still a vital part of the local community and now a meeting place for anything from toddlers and book groups to knitting circles. On a personal level, I do have a slight problem with the use of libraries as meeting places for groups. In essence I have no beef, but I do find it annoying when I can't get to certain shelves or areas because of other activities not directly linked to reading.
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I was sad to read that actor Stephen Lewis has died. He will only be remembered for one role - that of Blakey in the sit com "On the Buses" where his contorted face was heard every week to say "I hate you Butler." That became a catchphrase and is still used by people of a certain age today.
You could argue that sit coms are not an art form, but I would disagree. They have been part of our culture for decades and brought us some of the sharpest writing and wit on the planet. Who doesn't love Only Fools and Horses, The Vicar of Dibley, Dad's Army et al?
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I did say that today I would describe some of the writing projects I am personally involved in but I think this entry has been long enough and I will save that for tomorrow.