To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=164788
13 messages

Tech: 45,000,000 tunes

31 Aug 18 - 10:48 PM (#3947397)
Subject: Tech: 45,000,000 tunes
From: leeneia

I don't pay much attention to technology. I have my computer, and I use it for e-mail, YouTube, Mudcat, and Wikipedia. Just last month I asked somebody what was the difference between an ipad and an ipod. I've forgotten the answer. So that's where I'm coming from.

Last week I was leaving a restaurant, and on a TV I saw the following commercial, which said:

                Apple Whatchacallit

                  45,000,000 tunes

                  free 6 mos trial

Can somebody explain this to me? To start with, where would somebody get 45,000,000 tunes and who would play them all?


01 Sep 18 - 06:57 AM (#3947434)
Subject: RE: Tech: 45,000,000 tunes
From: JHW

I think an iplod is what the Law point at you if you're speeding?


01 Sep 18 - 12:28 PM (#3947483)
Subject: RE: Tech: 45,000,000 tunes
From: leeneia

That helps, but it doesn't explain the 45,000,000 tunes.


01 Sep 18 - 02:09 PM (#3947508)
Subject: RE: Tech: 45,000,000 tunes
From: Reinhard

That's actually an advertisement for Apple's streaming service:

Apple Music
45 million songs

I understand this is an offer for as much different recorded tracks, not necessarily as much different songs or tunes; and probably 99% of that is crap, and the back catalogue of your favourite artists will be either very patchy or missing.


01 Sep 18 - 02:41 PM (#3947512)
Subject: RE: Tech: 45,000,000 tunes
From: GUEST,Jerry

That last sentence goes for Spotify too; maybe 30 million albums are accessible, but not that many from the smaller labels that have recorded much of the best folk, blues and bluegrass as far as I have searched. If your tastes are more mainstream though, it’s like an Aladdin’s cave.


01 Sep 18 - 06:49 PM (#3947542)
Subject: RE: Tech: 45,000,000 tunes
From: leeneia

So I buy an Apple computer or phone, find the program that streams music, choose from among the 45,000,000 pieces, and it plays on that Apple device?

And I have to do this one tune at a time?

As Rabbit said in Winnie the Pooh, "I haven't the time." (He was trying to count how many pockets he would need if he kept each of his children in a pocket, like Kanga.)


01 Sep 18 - 07:28 PM (#3947547)
Subject: RE: Tech: 45,000,000 tunes
From: GUEST,Jerry

No, I thought it worked like that too, but you just name an artist or genre you are interested in and it lists out its findings. You then select which you want to hear, and it instantly plays on your device there and then, until you select something else, a bit like a jukebox in that you hear the recording without owning a copy.


02 Sep 18 - 05:54 PM (#3947710)
Subject: RE: Tech: 45,000,000 tunes
From: leeneia

OK, thanks. I'm still trying to get my mind around the idea that various people wrote, recorded and cataloged 45,000,000 million pieces of music.

Does this have anything to do with the staggering sameness of the music in the background at restaurants?


02 Sep 18 - 07:28 PM (#3947720)
Subject: RE: Tech: 45,000,000 tunes
From: GUEST,Jerry

I imagine that thousands of people have contributed to such an archive, so the number of different recordings would soon add up as an immense archive. Restaurants might well use similar sources of music for all I know, but not sure if that would account for sameness, other than it will play a recording in a similar genre or from a similar artist after your selection, presumptuously assuming you might want to hear say something by Steeleye Span after your requested Fairport Convention.


03 Sep 18 - 11:06 AM (#3947799)
Subject: RE: Tech: 45,000,000 tunes
From: leeneia

The public contributes? Are they mp3's or what?


03 Sep 18 - 05:19 PM (#3947870)
Subject: RE: Tech: 45,000,000 tunes
From: Zhenya

I don’t use Apple Music, but I’m using a similar service, Amazon Music Unlimited. Spotify is another similar service. They all have similar music available. These are subscription services, with monthly and sometimes discounted annual plans. You can listen to a particular artist, album, song, or genre. You can also save albums or individual tracks in playlists. Some of the services will also let you download music to listen when you're not connected to the internet.The services also have curated playlists and radio stations.

I mainly listen to different types of folk/trad/roots music, and I've found about 90% of the music I'm looking for on the streaming service. This includes some music that might be considered less well known (to the average listener), like French Canadian fiddle music, for one example. For the majority of albums, the full albums are available. But sometimes only partial tracks are available from an album. As mentioned above, the 45,000,000 tracks include many multiple versions of songs or instrumental works. I've sometimes used this as a way to discover new musicians, by searching on a song I already know I like, and listening to different versions.

Even with 45,000,000 tracks, not all the music I like is on there, of course, and I still buy some albums. Sometimes I use the streaming service to test an album to see if I like it, and then buy it even though it's on the service. (Things can disappear from these services, and if I really like an album, I'm assuming (I hope correctly) that the artist will receive more money from my album purchase than from my subscription payment.) I don't think these streaming services will ever completely replace having my own collection, but I can't buy everything, and I have found this useful as a supplemental way to listen to and discover music.


03 Sep 18 - 05:35 PM (#3947874)
Subject: RE: Tech: 45,000,000 tunes
From: GUEST,Jerry

I would agree with all that, Zhenya, despite being very anti such services until quite recently. I was very surprised to discover that much of the music I didn’t expect to be available was there if you searched deeply enough. However, it is also a marketplace for new acts, and presumably much easier to upload your own stuff than trying to get your records in nationwide record shops, hence my reference to multiple contributors.


08 Sep 18 - 08:54 AM (#3949002)
Subject: RE: Tech: 45,000,000 tunes
From: FreddyHeadey

"According to MusicHype CEO, Kevin King there are approximately 97 million songs in the world (recorded in the Gracenote* database), and counting (Marsband.com)." 
http://digiev.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-most-popular-downloads-in-sea-of-97.html 


*I don't see any figures actually quoted on their website
http://www.gracenote.com/music/global-music-data/