Musical Overload

Oh yes, do definitely sign up for a Spotify account.

For those even slower off the mark than myself, Spotify is a free and legal way to listen to music streamed to your computer. It's like being left alone in a massive record library. Or like finding Steve Jobs' iPod.

At first, it seems like every piece of music ever sung, struck, plucked or blown is available, but you soon find gaps where certain records labels have not signed up. No Beatles, for example.

They do have the current Numbers One and Two (Flo Rida "Right Round" & The Saturdays "Just Can't Get Enough") and they've got the originals from Dead or Alive and Depeche Mode that these two are based on. A while ago I was eyeing up the soundtrack album from the first series of "Teachers", which contains a fair cross-section of what I was listening to in 2001. Spotify had 9 out of 16 of these tracks. Pretty impressive, and I'm sure they'll fill in the gaps before long.

It's churlish to complain what's missing when the sheer volume of what's available is exhilarating. For example, tonight I listened to Jack Teagarden, Billy Connolly, a half-dozen different versions of the "Queen of the Night" aria from "The Magic Flute", Philip Glass and now I've got the entire works of Jacqueline Dupres lined up to calm me down for sleep.

Which is what I think I'll try to do now.

Update : just as I typed the above, the late great Ms. Dupres started playing the Bach Cello Suite #1 - which is my ringtone and so not all that restful.