Favourites on Qobuz

In the good old days, your favourites list was on your shelves: it was your CD and/or vinyl and/or tape collection. Some of it, anyway. It isn't a real record collection if you don't have a couple of drunk-purchase clunkers in it.

I've been experimenting with streaming. I didn't get it with Tidal, because, well, you know, Tidal's preferred genre. I didn't get it with Spotify because I couldn't break free of the playlists. With Qobuz, I've found a way of working.

Browse in the record store, choose one CD by a composer or artist, if it's good, stream the rest. And I'd like to add those composers or artists to a list.

I browse in the record store because the online sites have not managed to reproduce that experience and functionality.

Why don't I take a photo of what takes my attention and stream it later?

First, that's a grift.

Second, the fact I have some money in the CD means I will spend more time and attention listening to it.

I wrote off Lars Graugaard's Engage and Share CD as a bad choice after a first listen. I gave it another whirl when I had moved my Marantz system around, and it sounded a little better. I gave it another whirl on the Hegel / 6000CDT, and it was much more interesting. I may well stream some more of his work.

I don't need to build up a favourites list of everyone I have CD's by: that's what the CDs are for.

There's another way of discovering new music that I'd forgotten until I bought a copy of Gramaphone and DJ Mag recently. Old-fashioned print. By people whose job it is to seek out new bands and listen to new releases.

That's what I want to put on my Favourites list - assuming Qobuz have them. I want to be reminded that Coil is a band well worth listening to more often.

As ever, I have to massively over-think this first, before doing what some teenager would do by instinct, and I'm sure I would do by instinct if I was a teenager now. But I'm not.