Sunday 5 July 2009

Spotify

I was about to uninstall Spotify when I noticed it offers the complete recordings of John Coltrane... and the complete recordings of Miles Davis, too. Which seemed too good a thing to do away with. Then I found how to list by album, so tracks play in the intended order, and how to control the amount of hard disc space it uses. In fact it is a huge collection: 14,000 CDs were added to it one day at the end of June. The classical recordings aren't always the most recent, but it does seem to offer the entire Naxos catalogue and much else besides. Sound quality is adequate, but for £9.99 a month you can get close to CD quality, as well as freedom from ads. As for tango, Pugliese and Troilo are well served but there's no D'Agostino (apparently overshadowed by Latin singer Gigi D'Agostino). There are recordings by younger musicians: Orquesta Escuela, the bandoneon solos Instantaneas of Julio Pane, and several CDs of Orquesta El Arranque and Color Tango, but Rodolfo Mederos only appears through his CDs with Daniel Barenboim. So it is a patchy tango collection, but useful. At the rate it is being expanded it won't be long before the tango collection improves, especially if it is used. & it's entirely legal.

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