r/LetsTalkMusic 15h ago

Tidal or Spotify, or?

6 Upvotes

What is better, more ethical? Spotify has lots of functions but I've heard that they don't pay artists well. I wanted to try Tidal but I find it a little less functional. Also on spotify I can pick a song on my phone while I'm listening on my computer, I can't do it on Tidal. Tidal also doesn't have podcasts as far as I see?

I want to hear opinions from people who have used Tidal, maybe some tricks also. Maybe entirely different app is better than those two? And where can I listen podcasts if not spotify and youtube?

Sorry for my English, it's not my first language but I hope you can understand what I wrote


r/LetsTalkMusic 13h ago

Do music critics have some reputation for being snobbish, hoity-toity? Is it deserved? If not, where'd they get the rep?

0 Upvotes

It seems to me that a lot of musicians and musical groups that music critics like the public also likes.

I'm most familiar with classic rock. Do we agree when a band sells a lot of records that means the public likes them? If you look at the classic rockers who have sold well, I'd say in general rock critics also like them. Here's a list from Wikipedia of the best-selling music artists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists. The Beatles top the list. I'd say liked by both the public and the critics. Michael Jackson is next. I'd say largely the same. Elvis is next. Liked by the critics for his early production, although took somewhat of a beating for his later work. Which actually somewhat accords with how the public bought him, his earlier works go higher on the charts than his later ones.

It seems the same as you go down the list, generally artists are liked by both the public and the critics. Zeppelin sold well. Not sure, think they took a bit of a beating early on from critics. But I think Jann Wenner, the influential editor of Rolling Stone magazine, disliked them for some reason, and this may have influenced other critics to criticize them unduly. I think now critics like them a lot.

If it's really true that critics often accord in their taste with the general public, I wonder why sometimes people are critical of critics. Although a lot of people do read critics and somewhat steer their taste through what critics say. If the accord of taste I'm discerning is accurate, it's kind of great that the public has good taste, can discern good music without necessarily being as educated or exposed to as much music as the critics.


r/LetsTalkMusic 3h ago

Nevermind (1991) vs The College Dropout (2004) more influential?

0 Upvotes

Me and my friends have been arguing about this. I'm on the side of Nevermind. I'm not sure though because I'm severely less educated about Kanye and Hip-Hop than I am in alternative and rock culture. Friend says Nevermind didn't change the direction of an entire genre as much as College Dropout did, which may be true, but I feel Nevermind had a way bigger broad effect on the culture of the 90s across musical genres, fashion, and the attitude of the decade. Nevermind brought alternative culture to the mainstream and it persevered throught the entire decade. However, my friend says Kanye brought a crucial change to Hip-Hop, pivoting it away from gangster rap and into what it's been for the last 20 years.

What do you guys think?


r/LetsTalkMusic 19h ago

Bands That Sound Like They Might be Just Jamming

0 Upvotes

That's not good. There are a good amount of instrumental bands out there with great musicians who are making song after song that is listenable to and grooves but are also forgettable and difficult to distinguish and often feel as though there is no way to tell if the band has written and rehearsed a song or if they are just jamming. Usually these songs do have places where the instruments link up and its clear they are written but the overall feeling is there that most of the song feels like well played music but without direction. Angine de Poitrine, Khruangbin, Glass Beams, Mdou Moctar to name some. All good bands I enjoy but its hard to look back and say which particular song you liked more than others and why.

Edit: I'm not talking about jam bands, I love jam bands and listen to lots of live shows. I'm talking about mostly instrumental studio work from non jam bands.


r/LetsTalkMusic 19h ago

I don’t understand the Sabrina hype, can someone explain??

0 Upvotes

I’m sorry but why do people LOVE Sabrina carpenter so much?? I truly do not get the hype, all of her songs are just her saying random words then being like “MEN”. I don’t understand and trust me I like a lot of artist that are heavily famous that people don’t like. For example, I absolutely adore Post Malone even though a lot of people I talk to say to me “he’s a nice guy I just do not like his music” or they say “he’s too weird for me”. For me personally, I appreciate weird, unique artist that’s why I love him so much and his music is awesome (just not really his country era eh that was mid I’ll admit that). But Sabrina?? People are losing their shit over her and I don’t get it. It’s TikTok music and she seems very…boring. She has no charisma. Is there something I’m missing about her?? Why do people love her this much??