This is one of my peeves about digital music: multiple instances of the exact same song on different albums. I don't mind that they exist, just that digital libraries have a difficult time dealing with them.
What I mean is this. For every new song they choose to push, the record company will first release a single of the song, then they'll include it as the 'b-side' of another single, then they'll include it on an EP with a handful of other songs, then finally the album itself, then typically they'll follow up with a 'deluxe' version of the album that might include a few extra songs or remixes. So that's 5 instances of the exact same song across multiple albums. Not different versions, or remasters, or remixes, etc. - just talking about different instances of the exact same song. And 5 instances is kind of a minimum, it seems. Florence + the Machine's Dance Fever album actually has four different versions on Apple Music: the original album, a 'deluxe' version, a special "Apple Music" version, and finally (we assume), a "complete edition' version. That's in addition to singles.
So, you might ask what's the problem with that. Well, firstly, the problem is that if you've added one instance of the song to your library, Music will continue to recommend the song as if you don't own it, since Apple doesn't know they're the same song. A few weeks ago, literally 40% of my New Music playlist for the week was songs that I'd already added to my library. Or, if you don't remember you've added it, then you might add it again. Or, if you want both the EP and the album in their entirety, then you'll have multiple instances. And at least with me, those different instances inevitably seem to end up in different playlists, etc. In itself, none of that is terrible, just maybe a bit annoying for me, since I use a lot of smart playlists based on song ratings and such, and if I've got two versions of a song, then it will often show up twice on a playlist.
But, here's the real problem...the other issue with the music industry now is that none of those instances are sacred to anyone involved. And quite often, I'm starting to find, the instance that I happened to download will just disappear from Apple's library. And now your song is greyed out and 'no longer available'. Yes, it makes me sad when I see that, because then I've got to go find where the song still exists, figure out which playlists it was on, re-rate it, like it, etc. That's assuming I even notice - if not, then the song just disappears from memory. It's enough of an issue with big libraries that I actually now keep a smart playlist of songs whose iCloud status is "no longer available" so that I can go through every so often and find all the songs again. It currently has 70 songs in it.
Even that wouldn't be a terrible problem if it weren't for the fact that I know Apple owns Shazam, which gives them the ability to know that these song instances are all exactly the same, essentially aliases of one another. If they would just apply that technology to their own database, then this problem would disappear all together. It wouldn't matter which instance of a song you have, because Apple would know they're all equivalent - each instance would just point back to a master file. I suspect the issue, apart from technical, is that both Apple and the record industry still see The Album as somehow sacrosanct, and so they have to have separate files for each one, even if they already store the exact same file in four other places on their server.
Anyway, that was my minor music rant for the day. Maybe tomorrow I'll post about Apple's growing inability to post songs under the correct artist.
What I mean is this. For every new song they choose to push, the record company will first release a single of the song, then they'll include it as the 'b-side' of another single, then they'll include it on an EP with a handful of other songs, then finally the album itself, then typically they'll follow up with a 'deluxe' version of the album that might include a few extra songs or remixes. So that's 5 instances of the exact same song across multiple albums. Not different versions, or remasters, or remixes, etc. - just talking about different instances of the exact same song. And 5 instances is kind of a minimum, it seems. Florence + the Machine's Dance Fever album actually has four different versions on Apple Music: the original album, a 'deluxe' version, a special "Apple Music" version, and finally (we assume), a "complete edition' version. That's in addition to singles.
So, you might ask what's the problem with that. Well, firstly, the problem is that if you've added one instance of the song to your library, Music will continue to recommend the song as if you don't own it, since Apple doesn't know they're the same song. A few weeks ago, literally 40% of my New Music playlist for the week was songs that I'd already added to my library. Or, if you don't remember you've added it, then you might add it again. Or, if you want both the EP and the album in their entirety, then you'll have multiple instances. And at least with me, those different instances inevitably seem to end up in different playlists, etc. In itself, none of that is terrible, just maybe a bit annoying for me, since I use a lot of smart playlists based on song ratings and such, and if I've got two versions of a song, then it will often show up twice on a playlist.
But, here's the real problem...the other issue with the music industry now is that none of those instances are sacred to anyone involved. And quite often, I'm starting to find, the instance that I happened to download will just disappear from Apple's library. And now your song is greyed out and 'no longer available'. Yes, it makes me sad when I see that, because then I've got to go find where the song still exists, figure out which playlists it was on, re-rate it, like it, etc. That's assuming I even notice - if not, then the song just disappears from memory. It's enough of an issue with big libraries that I actually now keep a smart playlist of songs whose iCloud status is "no longer available" so that I can go through every so often and find all the songs again. It currently has 70 songs in it.
Even that wouldn't be a terrible problem if it weren't for the fact that I know Apple owns Shazam, which gives them the ability to know that these song instances are all exactly the same, essentially aliases of one another. If they would just apply that technology to their own database, then this problem would disappear all together. It wouldn't matter which instance of a song you have, because Apple would know they're all equivalent - each instance would just point back to a master file. I suspect the issue, apart from technical, is that both Apple and the record industry still see The Album as somehow sacrosanct, and so they have to have separate files for each one, even if they already store the exact same file in four other places on their server.
Anyway, that was my minor music rant for the day. Maybe tomorrow I'll post about Apple's growing inability to post songs under the correct artist.
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