Since 2016 Spotify is my main method to listen to music. Before that I used a combination of CDs, mp3s, YouTube and radio. Spotify cannot however serve as a full replacement to these methods, because some categories of tracks are not represented on the platform. Here’s a list of 10 tracks that I come back to with some regularity, that you can’t listen to on Spotify:
Bonobo - No Reason (KEXP version)
If I had to summarize what I like the most in music, it would be songs that both evoke powerful emotions and are at the same time highly regular and complex. That’s probably the reason why Bonobo is one of my favourite artists right now. His tracks are great, however live shows are on another level. In 2018, I had an opportunity to attend his concert in Poland with a live band and a British singer Szjerdene. Her performance beats the album version without any doubt. KEXP version is probably the best when it comes to quality and atmosphere.
Hania Rani - Komeda (KEXP version)
Hania Rani is the most recent entry on that list. I discovered her Cercle recording accidentally when listening to Stephan Bodzin’s Piz Gloria performance. Hania Rani is a pianist, but with a nice, warm voice and lots of love for atmospheric synths. She seems to be in an explosive, upward moment of her career, and releases a lot of new material. Her latest album Ghosts contains studio versions of many songs that were already performed live. I happen to like most of the songs in their previous arrangements more, especially the track Komeda which misses just one repetitive sound on the album, but becomes a different song because of that. Again I recommend the KEXP version.
Judas Priest - Cathedral Spires
Heavy Metal was the first music genre that I listened to back in primary school. I no longer listen to new heavy metal tracks, but I sometimes come back to the old ones. My first tape (cassette) was Judas Priest’s Painkiller. It’s one of the most iconic metal records of all time, with many classic speed metal hits. Compared to the Painkiller, next JP record - the Jugulator is much less popular. It was recorded after a long break, with a different lead singer, and with more thrash metal aesthetics. The album was released under SPV label, which went out of business in 2009. Because of that Jugulator is not available on Spotify or any other streaming platform.
Sear - Voices
This is most likely the least popular track on the list. In early 2000s Sear - Voices.mp3 joined my humble music collection. I have no idea where it came from - maybe from some Napster clone or metal fansite. Searching for ‘Sear’ band wasn’t very fruitful - there were records of Finnish death metal band going by that name. The track however isn’t metal at all - it’s a magical blend of synth, bass guitar and vocals. Only in 2015 the actual Sear band (from UK) uploaded their EPs to Soundcloud. It’s still unavailable on Spotify though.
Closterkeller - Syrenka
Closterkeller is a Polish gothic band that recorded many of their best tracks in the 90s including their best album - Graphite. Their early tracks do not appear on any streaming platform for some reason. They developed their distinct style, quite different from western gothic bands. Lyrics are in Polish, but they don’t make any sense anyway so no worries.
John Broomhall - Hard Driving (Transport Tycoon soundtrack)
John Broomhall is a genius composer, who scored classic Microprose hits like UFO: Enemy Unknown, X-COM: Terror from the Deep and Transport Tycoon. Most of the above soundtracks exist only in MIDI format and were never recorded with live instruments or even as audio tracks. However, in 2014 John Broomhall re-recorded his original Transport Tycoon soundtrack with live musicians for a mobile version of Transport Tycoon game. The soundtrack is much more jazzy and dynamic than the original MIDI tracks I remember. My favourite track is Hard Driving - I’m convinced that with any half-decent singer, this song can be remade into a future Billboard 100 hit. The whole soundtrack is available on YouTube, but not on Spotify or other streaming platforms. I really hope John Broomhall re-records his X-COM: Terror from the Deep soundtrack with real orchestra one day.
The Humble Brothers - Area 52 (Sim City 4 soundtrack)
This track is probably the closest to actually appear on Spotify - most of Sim City 4’s soundtrack is available on Spotify within Electronic Arts collection, however few of songs are missing. Sim City 4 is a game with singularly the best soundtrack in history of PC games. There are lots of great soundtracks out there, but none of them is as diverse and complete as Sim City 4. The tracks were created by a group of composers: Jerry Martin, Kirk Casey, Marc Russo and others - frankly these names mean very little to me, as their media presence is non-existent, and their other tracks are often completely different in style. However, if I had to keep one record for the rest of my life that would probably be it. Sadly the Sim City 5 soundtrack is a generic filler that doesn’t stay in memory at all.
Brian Tyler ? - Mokoko Village (Lost Ark soundtrack)
Lost Ark is a Korean MMO game and its main composer is Brian Tyler. I’m not sure who composed that actual track, as there is very little info in English about it. Of course nobody bothered to upload the soundtrack to Spotify (although Spotify seems to have some presence in Korea). The soundtrack is rather western in character, and this particular track feels like it could have appeared on Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. My daughter loves it.
London Grammar - Hey Now (Sasha Remix)
Remixing and modifying tracks is the soul of modern electronic music. Spotify doesn’t seem to be the best platform to track all the possible iterations of tracks - with its LP/EP based listings and pushing singles to the bottom of the list. My favourite remix not available on Spotify is Hey Now by Sasha. I have a special place in my heart for Sasha’s music, although I haven’t been to his live performance yet (Poland is not exactly a popular destination for electronic music artists). Ohh and London Grammar is an amazing band too - there’s probably no other band with so simple composition that’s so innovative nowadays.
VolcaNiced - Behringer Crave jam
Creating and releasing music nowadays is easier than ever, there are dedicated platforms for niche music like Soundcloud, many great tracks are also released in the form of YouTube jams. Such tracks are simpler and miss some level of refinement or post-production, but if only they have this magical spark, they can earn significant popularity. One of the tracks I keep coming back to was released by German musician VolcaNiced - it’s made with a single, cheap, monophonic synth, but it has already 50k views on YT, so I’m not the only one who keeps listening to it.
Bonus: Zoviet France - Another Soft Hellion
That track doesn’t even exist on YouTube, which is unfortunately a reminder that even the most powerful of platforms can’t contain everything. Nice ambient track - when I have some free time I intend to learn some music production and make a techno remix of it.
Is Spotify fair?
As a closing word I think I should mention the critique of Spotify and other streaming platforms. These platforms do not pay artist adequately and their business model doesn’t seem viable in the long term. I recommend great video on this topic by Benn Jordan.