Blog1 min read
On classical music on a streaming service
Wrong metadata, inverted priorities, and volumes from different decades. The rooms borrow carefully, one track at a time.
Classical music on a streaming service is a difficult listening experience. The metadata is wrong about half the time; the performer often matters more than the composer and the platform usually inverts the priority; recordings from different decades sit at radically different volumes.
For the rooms here, the practical answer is to use classical sparingly and very deliberately. A specific recording of a specific piece, picked for the room. Not a 'classical' playlist auto-generated from a composer tag. The auto-generated version will be loud, jumbled, and out of order.
What works well: slow movements from chamber pieces. Solo piano of the contemplative sort. Modern classical, which sits in a streaming context more comfortably because it was usually recorded recently and meant to be listened to as tracks rather than as movements. The full symphonic repertoire mostly doesn't fit; it's meant for a different kind of attention.
The streaming platforms have promised better classical support for years. It might come. Until then, the rooms here borrow from classical a track at a time, with the performer named where the platform will allow it.