So, what have we got this time then? A new premium-quality music streaming service; well, that’s just what we need; isn’t it? Especially when you line up a bunch of superstar investors for a launch event that makes the service sound like it’s going to put an end to world conflict. I’m not even giving you a link to the video of the launch because on the tedium scale it’s somewhere between a party election broadcast and watching custard set. Here’s the summary: two minutes of introductions (to a crowd that apparently hasn’t heard of any of the celebrity stakeholders), ten minute ‘inspirational’ speech from Alicia Keys, two minutes of signing ‘the document’ and two minutes of standing around looking embarrassed while someone tries to find a border collie or a cattle prod. Sixteen minutes and Madonna only hogged the limelight once; that has to be a record. I’ve had more fun at the dentist.

Just take a look what this motley crew (they’ve got one thing in common, but we’ll get to that) are so evangelical about; what are they actually trying to sell you? Basically, the sales pitch is that it’s like Spotify but better, which means you have to pay twice as much for it. I’m not saying Spotify is perfect but if the alternative is punters downloading illegally and artists being paid bog all, then I’m on the side of Spotify. Tidal isn’t an attempt to address the big issue of music having no value because you can download it free from any number of illegal sites, it’s purely about commercial rivalry; we’re better than Spotify but that’s reflected in the subscription price. Unlike Spotify, there isn’t a ‘free’ version of Tidal, you buy in or you don’t.

And then there’s “lossless” compression. In the words of John Lydon, ‘ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated’ – there’s no such thing as lossless compression. You can compress something so that it sounds reasonable on a phone or a media player, but why not try playing that same file through a decent hi-fi setup. No, don’t, that was rhetorical, it’s going to sound horrible; if you take information out of an audio file, it’s going to be noticeable eventually if your ears do more than keep your head balanced. If you stream audio, the higher the quality, the more problems you’ll have with buffering so you wouldn’t want to make things more difficult by introducing video playback, would you? Yeah, you just might, and you might want to introduce social features (nothing new) and have the music carefully curated (obviously not patronising at all – we’ll tell you what you should like) while you offer exclusivity (you can hear the new Beyoncé song here first).

So, the bottom line is that you can pay twice as much as you would pay for Spotify for the dubious privilege of “lossless” streaming which will sound just the same on your earbuds or PC speakers; anyone buying in to that yet? Thought not; how about new artists, surely an ‘artist-owned’ service would help to bring new talent through the system. No, not even a mention, so who benefits from this premium service? Easy, the bunch of artists on the stage at the beginning of this piece. The bunch of artists who have one thing in common; against the odds in the twenty-first century, have already made huge amounts of money from the dying embers of the music business. None of the artists involved in this enterprise actually need more money, but they’re happy to take if they can get it.

Maybe Jay Z’s pissed off that Dre managed to corner the market in headphones, but that’s no excuse for launching this ill-conceived ‘premium’ service. No-one involved with this project comes out of it with any credit.

 

It’s fair to say that things have been a bit serious around here recently, so maybe it’s time to inject a bit of fun back into our lives and I can’t think of a better way to do that than with the latest single from the 2014 debut album by Space Elevator which ties in with a spring and summer 2015 mini tour (details below)There was some debate over whether to choose album tracks “Loneliness of Love” or “Oils and Bubbles” for the next release, so the band has opted to release both songs (with a little bit of editing for radio) as a digital double “A” side.

“Loneliness of Love” is in the classic eighties power rock tradition with drums like heavy artillery, pumping bass, and big harmony guitars and keyboards sitting underneath The Duchess’s laserbeam vocals, while “Oils and Bubbles” is indebted lyrically and musically to mid-seventies period Queen. Its extended piano intro and layer upon layer of harmony vocals would sit comfortably on “Sheer Heart Attack”, “A Night at the Opera” or “A Day at the Races”. Whatever you think of their reference points, the truth is that these songs are well-constructed, superbly played, and they’re a lot of fun. The multi-layered vocal arrangements on “Oils and Bubbles” (written and sung by The Duchess) are the cherry on top of the icing on top of that particular camp confection. I think Freddie would have loved it.

Anyway, it’s released on April 22 and if you want to see the band play live (I certainly do) you can see them here:

Garage, Highbury                               April 22

Railway Venue, Bolton                       April 25

King Billy, Commercial Street           April 30

Northampton

Arts4every1, High Wycombe            May 9

 

Homefest, Buckinghamshire            July 19