Pretty much everyone in the world is using an app to stream music, mostly either Apple or Spotify, but I guess there are many others. Amazon has one, don’t they? (I wonder if Ricki C. streams music? He’s the coolest rock n roll dinosaur out there, ha ha.) (editor’s note; I am proud to say I have never streamed a single song in my life. - RC) My personal preference is Apple. I never tried Spotify. I think that’s because I was one of the earliest adopters of iTunes and iPods. Damn I loved my iPods. Maybe they’ll make a comeback like vinyl did, and now CD’s are gaining popularity again too. Anyway, let’s get to the point.
I often listen to a playlist or an artist for an hour or so and then whatever I chose comes to an end and the music just keeps on going, with the Apple algorithm picking the songs for me. I usually stop it and go find the next thing I feel like, but sometimes I let it try. It’s like having a DJ or listening to the radio, and sometimes it’s a great way to discover new music. Sometimes it does well, other times not so much. So, I decided to do a random test and share the outcome with the Pencil Storm faithful. I should preface this by saying that I know you can improve these outcomes if you take the time to “love” specific tracks in your music library—in other words, educate Apple about your musical tastes. But I don’t bother with that. If I have any songs in my music library that I have marked as “loved” it was likely an accident.
For my random test, I wanted to play an artist that is fairly obscure, and when the songs in my library by that artist run out, theoretically, Apple should start picking songs that are similar. I decided upon The Offramps. If you’re not familiar, The Offramps was a band fronted by Pencil Storm’s own Jeremy Porter prior to his awesome current band, Jeremy Porter & the Tucos. I played The Offramps’ two excellent records, called Hate it When You’re Right and Split the Difference. After those two records played, I started taking note of what Apple would do next. I figured I would simply determine “winners” versus “losers.” Here are the first five songs Apple picked for me that it deemed worthy of following The Offramps:
1. “This Time” by Southern Bitch from the album Snake in the Grass
Winner. This is a pretty damn good song. I later listened to the whole album and I downloaded four songs from it. Good start for Apple.
2. “All Washed Up” by Patty Hurst Shifter from the album Too Crowded on the Losing End
Winner. Wow, I’m impressed. I love this tune. A quick scan through the rest of the album yielded six downloads. Apple is two for two, and I am really digging the discovery of these bands I had never heard before.
3. “Gasoline” by North Twin from the album Falling Apart
Winner. Okay, this song isn’t as stellar as the first two, but it’s solid. No complaints from me. I also downloaded the title track from the record.
4. “Orphange” by Red Collar from the album Welcome Home
Winner. Much like the previous song, it’s not as good as the first two but I was happy to hear it, download it and check them out. I liked one other song on the record enough to download it.
5. “Governor’s Island” by Robert Bryan from the album Panama – Last Man Out
Loser. This track is not awful. I don’t hate it or anything. I’d would be happy to hear it sitting by the ocean sipping on a cold beer or a tropical drink. But it’s not great, and it really doesn’t jive at all with the Offramps sound I was seeking. The rest of the album yielded nothing of interest to me.
There you have it. My obvious conclusion is that the AI or whatever the hell generates the ability of Apple to pick songs I might like in the same general vibe as the songs I’ve been listening to is pretty damn good. But keep in mind, this is just one random experiment. I’ve had Apple do a terrible job in other instances. Also noteworthy is the fact that I got five songs by five bands I had never heard of before. Often, Apple will just pick other songs that are already in my library. I think the concept of using an obscure band for my experiment was an important factor.
I would highly recommend that you go check out The Offramps and the first four bands on this list. It’s really good stuff. Here’s a cool video to give you a head start.
JCE, or John to his friends, is 62 years old and lives happily in rural VA about an hour and half outside of D.C. His wife of 34 years says he’ll never grow up, and she’s exactly right. He attributes that to his lifelong love affair with all things rock n roll. Starting with 45 rpm Monkees records at a very early age to his present massive collection of vinyl, cd’s and a digital library of God knows how many songs, he’s a rock n roll lifer.