Niels Niessen is preparing a lecture on Spotify, but normally he ignores this online platform. 'I much prefer listening to music via radio. My assumption is that a human-made playlist produces a more surprising combination than an automated stream from Spotify.' Niessen's preference not to use Spotify is further fuelled by the way Spotify runs wild with users' data.
Key point for Niessen is the influence of streaming services like Spotify on listeners' associations. 'When you play Spotify you get to hear one like-minded song after another.' Rather than judging this, Niessen tries to understand what this does to music taste, and to the way bands produce their music. 'One of the developments we are seeing is the rise of self-produced music, often with a very intimate sound.'
Billie Eilish
Niessen mentions another important development: music streaming is going more through individual songs and less through concept albums, for example. 'Whereas with an LP or CD you listen to an entire record, Spotify serves you a sequence of songs. Of course you can also listen to entire albums via Spotify, but streaming as a medium breaks through that traditional album structure.'
Central to Niessen's lecture at Radboud Sounds is Billie Eilish, precisely because she knows how to integrate the old and new worlds of music: 'She makes concept albums and is one of the most popular artists on Spotify at the same time.' Niessen refers to the release of her album When we all fall asleep, where do we go? in 2019, which was promoted via Spotify with a virtual tour of a house, with each room decorated to the mood of a song. 'She is a both timeless and contemporary album artist in the streaming age, outspoken feminist and climate activist. She is a contrarian sound on Spotify and thus a voice of her generation.'
Radboud Sounds, the Science of Music. Friday 12 May, from 8 pm until 1 am, Doornroosje, Nijmegen.
Photo: Marcela Laskoski via Unsplash