Spotify Envy

3 Dec 2021 — 2 min read

Spotify TUI

Around this time of year, people are always buzzing about their Spotify Wrapped playlists. They post screenshots of what songs are in them and discuss their year in music. I have to admit, as an Apple Music user, I get a bit jealous. The cool designs that go along with the Spotify Wrapped playlists are really well done and make you feel like this year-end ritual is something special.

Chaim Gartenberg writes about Spotify's yearly celebration of your personal year in music for the Verge.

2021 is no exception, with Spotify offering what feels like its most lavish recaps yet. My wife (who is a Spotify user) spent the morning showing off her bespoke playlist to me, which included (among other things) specially curated songs for specific moods, rankings of where she placed among global Doja Cat listeners, a color-changing “audio aura,” and an interactive quiz. All of it is designed to be shared and shown off on other social media platforms.

Gartenberg's tweet shows how left out he feels when he sees everyone else showing off their playlists and stats on social media.

Ah yes, Spotify Wrapped day, or as I like to think of it “punishment for being an Apple Music user while everyone else gets to have fun with their music recaps” day.
— Chaim Gartenberg (@cgartenberg) December 1, 2021

He goes into how easy it would be for Apple to do massive marketing for their music service by copying Spotify.

Spotify in the Terminal

Another reason I've been a bit green with envy for Spotify users: you can run Spotify in the terminal.

Spotify around here, today…

Thanks to Spotify TUI.
maique madeira https://maique.eu/2021/12/02/spotify-around-here.html

The bare text rendering looks fantastic with the Rigel theme.

Apple Music

I still love Apple Music, particularly for the way I can incorporate music that is not in the catalog from my own library. With some fairly esoteric music in my collection, this feature is invaluable. I can't help but look over the hedge at my neighbor's house, though. Especially since my son, who has Apple Music with our family subscription, still chooses to use the free version of Spotify with ads so he can see what his friends are listening to and display his "now playing" in a Discord chat. When someone prefers the free tier of one service over the premium tier of another, that's saying something.

Tech

Robert Rackley

Robert is an Orthodox Christian, software dev manager, inveterate notetaker, aspiring minimalist and paper airplane mechanic.

Tumbling Down

Jonathan Haidt and his colleague, Greg Lukianoff, believe that the enormous increase in mental health issues for young women who are identified as "liberal" has to do with going through a sort of reverse CBT process. CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) is one of the most effective tools for combating depression

14 Dec 2022

Paid Members Public

Is Mastodon Really Is The Spiritual Successor To Twitter?

By defining itself as the anti-Twitter, Mastodon feels like a reactionary platform.

8 Dec 2022

Paid Members Public

Rooted In Place

In a worship service recently, our pastor explored the genealogy of Jesus as presented in the book of Matthew. It was a thought-provoking homily about family ties. Alastair Roberts writes for Plough magazine about how we fit our own lives into the continuum of people that have come before us.