On listening at low volume

Most curation gets done at normal listening volume, but most of the listening happens lower than that. People put music on while they work, or while they eat, or in a room that already has a conversation in it. The music has to do its job at the lower setting.

What changes at low volume is mostly the frequency response of the ear. High frequencies thin out. The very low end disappears almost entirely. Close vocals retain — they sit in the same range as a person talking — and become surprisingly loud against everything else. Anything that leaned on bass weight is now hollow.

The test I use is simple. Turn a candidate down to the point where it's barely there. If it still sounds like itself, it stays. If it sounds thin, or if a vocal jumps out as the only thing left, it goes. Most of the music people call loud is also bad music for quiet rooms.

A lot of the tracks that survive the test are ones that already live in the middle of the frequency range — soft synths, light percussion, Rhodes, breathy vocals that don't lead. None of which is a coincidence.