I am really enjoying this community website. Many are serious about vinyl, spending about as much as I paid for my whole system on a stylus; my vinyl stopped with an LP12 with an internal PS basik arm, blue point high output moving coil and a Bal Canto head amp. Maybe that was a bit too lo-fi to really appreciate vinyl’s subtleties but now I’m strictly Qobuz.
When I had a NAS its greatest attribute was the ability to create playlists, something I had not done since creating reel-to-reel tapes of party music & for me the Qobuz experience is all about creating playlists without having to own the music and of course searching out new music.
The searching out new music is always a challenge, for me going back to the Old Grey Whistle Test & in NZ radio with pictures & music nights at hi-fi stores. Now this forum is a great way to be introduced to other people’s favourite music.
In the interests of sharing, here is one of my playlists entitled “smooth” - knowing full well that there will be a wide range of opinions on its merits or otherwise. Here goes:
Scissors cut - Art Garfunkel.
New York State of mind - Billy Joel.
Tender Trap - Paul Young.
Magnolia - J J Cale.
Shape of my heart - Sting.
Love’s strange ways - Chris Rea.
Life on your own - Human League.
Sailing - Christopher Cross.
Waiting for a girl like you - Foreigner.
Brand new me - Alicia Keys.
I heard it through the grapevine - Marvin Gaye.
Ain’t no sunshine - Michael Jackson.
Father and son - Cat Steven’s.
The boxer - Simon & Garfunkel.
Part time lover - Stevie Wonder.
Your Song - Elton John.
On reflection this is a bit bland - I have many other playlists that I will share if this thread gets some traction.
Cheers!….. Tom.
I do not really create my own playlists, but I do listen to playlists. The only thing that is always an issue is the difference in volume of tracks in playlists. I use Spotify playlists for casual listening while working and Qobuz playlists for more serious listening. Spotify has a much larger choice in playlists. Qobuz playlists are great to discover new music. Mostly Jazz, Soul and Folk for me.
I notice something similar, seems to be more of a problem with re-mastered tracks; in general the biggest re-manufacturing change is to make it louder…..
That is probably true, but I like the Naim idea because people prepared to spend Naim money are probably more interested in music per se and, dare I say it, more discerning. Of course being discerning doesn’t mean I would like their choices but I still see it as a way of being introduced to new and interesting music.
certainly i make my playlists public - but be careful about making them collaborative - it means people can delete as well as add tracks.
i usually use for recommendations - eg tracks played on radio 3 record review over a few months and play them with shuffle turned on so i don’t know what is coming next. also useful for some of the threads here on the forum. be aware that naim only allows 500 tracks - it ignores any over 500
So far I have not found the area in Qobuz where I can access playlists generated by the general public, but I normally use the F&N app unless I’m travelling overseas.
The 500 maximum was something I also didn’t know - is this per post, per thread, a maximum lifetime limit per member or some other permutation?….. Cheers! Tom.
Thanks for the advice regarding access to Qobuz playlists. We are currently travelling but I will give it a go when I get back home & to my system. The 500 track limit is far in excess of any of my playlists!
I tried Search in the Qobuz app and than select Playlists. It does show public playlists from users, but in most cases you first get a very long list of Qobuz curated playlists. There is no option to browse playlists by genre etc. Very rudimentary functionality in the Qobuz app.
I’m mainly an ‘album’ listener and rarely create playlists (probably because I’m not that organised), but Qobuz do have some great shared playlists I dip into from time to time.
I do use Favourites however to store/bookmark albums I like and might purchase if they retain my interest down the line.
Typically if I have a listening session I will dip into various Qobuz playlists and new albums & I use my own playlists to kind of wind down for half an hour at the end. I also like my own playlists when I’m reading or otherwise occupied though I’m often stopped by a melody or phrase that catches my attention.
Last year we did a train trip round Northern Europe (fantastic experience) and my playlists were great when on the trains as it’s not a great situation for random browsing.
And of course my playlists expand as I hear new music I really like.
Isn’t it funny how one’s musical tastes develop? I am a complete philistine when it comes to classical music; I grew up in a house where that was the only music that was ever played and it seemed to me that it took forever to get to some sort of musical conclusion such as a crescendo and then off it went again, but of course I would never decry those who absolutely love it. At the time the same went for artists preceding the time when I really started listening, such as Elvis Presley & then I started enjoying “Blokey” music, Free, Led Zeppelin and that sort of genre. Fortunately the range expanded over time.
There is a theory that you reject music for a period of several years at early middle age. For me that started with the Smiths and that monotone disinterested style of vocals (to my ears) that seemed to dominate the Britpop era before I started listening to modern music again.
I was amused to read through the posts regarding the top 10 albums of 2024 which seemed to descend into a slanging match about Charlie XCX. As a “dipper” rather than a student of music I did experience a track of hers about how men fantasise about women’s underwear. I’m pretty sure that’s true, the track was well put together in the way that modern music is produced today and I am sure the subject matter is relevant to a section of society, but I’m not in that sector so not really interesting to me, but once again I can’t decry those who like this sort of music.
Anyway, here’s a few random tracks from my playlists that are a bit more eclectic; a kind of closing off post as I didn’t generate enough interest for others to actually nominate some music.
Slightly Hung Over - Bob Walsh
Need her so bad - Aynsley Lister
Greed - Tash Sultana
Way down we go - Kaleo
Because you love me - Kaz Hawkins
Family portrait - Pink
Coupe de Ville - Neil Young
Sing - Travis
What I feel - R Kelly ( quite prophetic)
You & me - Meute
Don’t let me be misunderstood - Brian Newman
Don’t speak - Leela James
Strange Relationship - Darren Hayes
Bad news - Kaye West
Egyptian Reggae - JonathanRichman
Almost like the Blues - Leonard Cohen
Now that we found love - Heavy D & the Boyz
Love$ick - Mura Masa
Limit to your love - James Blake
Days like this - Kenny Lattimore
Safe Word - serpentwithfeet
