Category: music

https://open.spotify.com/track/5xMSJXrVilwXm9eVcvbFSM?si=ByvxQb_MSfyXsAf_A1ev8A&nd=1

DJ Drama isn’t letting up.

Heating up the streets on projects with the likes of Jeezy, Snoop Dogg, and Dave East, Drama is keeping his foot on the competition’s necks with yet another Gangsta Grillz drop – this time, teaming up with Detroit’s very own Icewear Vezzo.

Vezzo, fresh off completing his Rich Off Pints trilogy in July, is back at the DopeHouse with the release of his new project, Paint the City. A 15-track affair, led by “One Time” with Jeezy, there’s also features from Future, 2 Chainz, Kodak Black, Peezy, and GT.

Press play and be sure to add Paint the City wherever you get music.

Icewear Vezzo & DJ Drama Link Up For ‘Paint the City’ Project was last modified: December 8th, 2022 by Shake

Spotify Wrapped has just dropped and, if you’re anything like us, you’re probably wondering how on earth you spent over 49,000 minutes listening to music, and why you listened to the same one song 181 times (Ari Lennox – Whipped Cream, for those of you wondering).

Spotify has long held the top spot of the ultimate music streaming service. It offers both free and premium subscriptions, it has an eclectic catalogue of music and podcasts, and it seems it’s a lot of people’s default choice. But is it the best?

Apple Music, which launched in 2015 in comparison to Spotify’s 2006 debut, is Spotify’s closest competition. The two streaming platforms share a lot of similarities, from recommending new artists and songs to creating personalised mixes. They also have a fair few differences, like audio quality, paid services, and sharing to social media. If you like to shout about the hot new track you’ve just discovered, this last feature is a big deal.

A monthly subscription to a music streaming service is the easiest way to consume music. But out of Spotify and Apple Music, which platform should you spend your hard earned cash on? We’ve analysed both.

More like this

Start a three month free trial at Spotify Premium

Start a one month free trial at Apple Music

For more music streaming comparisons, check out Amazon Music vs Spotify.

What’s the difference between Apple Music and Spotify?

Spotify offers a free entry-level subscription. You pay absolutely nothing, however, you’ll be met with adverts every approximately three songs, have six skips per hour, and the audio quality is worse than Spotify Premium.

Individual Spotify Premium will set you back £9.99 per month, and this gets you ad-free music, the ability to listen offline — it lets Premium users download and save up to 10,000 songs at any one time on up to five different devices — and unlimited skips.

The other Spotify Premium options include: Duo, a £13.99 per month service for two people living under the same roof; Family, a £16.99 per month subscription which has six Premium accounts and gives parents the ability to block explicit music; and Student, a discounted £5.99 per month service which still has the same benefits.

Apple Music doesn’t offer a free entry-level subscription. So, if you’d already mentally planned to not spend a single penny, head over to Spotify.

However, Apple Music’s paid packages are brilliant value for money. There’s the Apple Music Voice plan, which is £4.99 per month and is designed to only play music by using Siri; the £5.99 Student plan; the £10.99 Individual package; and the £16.99 Family plan.

The Spotify and Apple Music packages essentially offer the same things: ad-free, skippable listening, but you’ll probably have noticed the popular Individual plan is £1 extra on Apple Music. So now for the big question: is it worth the extra quid?

As well as the expected devices like phones, tablets, PCs and Macs, Spotify can be played on games consoles, such as the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. It also works on smartwatches, such as Fitbit, Samsung, Google and Garmin models.

Apple Music, unsurprisingly, can be played on Apple devices like the Apple HomePod and HomePod Mini, Apple TV 4K, and Apple smartwatches. It’s also supported on Sonos, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, PS5 (not PS4), Roku and even Android smartphones.

Start a three month free trial at Spotify Premium

Start a one month free trial at Apple Music

Do you enjoy live music? Stay up to date with our Going Out section for the latest releases like Red Hot Chili Peppers tickets, Duran Duran tickets and McFly tickets.

Apple Music vs Spotify

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty. In the red corner is Spotify with over 80 million songs, and in the blue corner is Apple Music with over 100 million songs.

Ding ding ding. What about podcasts? Spotify boasts 4.7 million podcast titles, whereas Apple Music doesn’t have any. Instead, there is a separate service called Apple Podcasts.

Next round is streaming quality. Last year, Apple Music updated its entire catalogue to give it high-res audio quality (24-bit/192kHz). Spotify streams songs at three different rates: 96kbps, 160kbps and 320kbps, all in the OGG Vorbis audio format. The highest rate is exclusive to Spotify Premium subscribers.

Apple Music continues to offer lossless streaming and spatial audio support as standard. If crystal-clear audio quality is important to you, opt for Apple Music.

Start a three month free trial at Spotify Premium

Start a one month free trial at Apple Music

Apple Music vs Spotify verdict: which music streaming service should you buy?

Like we said earlier, if you’d rather not pay to stream music, Spotify is the way forward. The adverts are tedious but not diabolical, and the lesser audio quality is noticeable but not unenjoyable.

If you’re going to spend money on a music streaming service, we’d recommend subscribing to Apple Music. The audio advantage is worth the extra quid for the Individual plan, however, if you opt for the Family or Student package, you’re paying no more money than you would be for Spotify, except the listening experience will be better.

Spotify Wrapped is a huge part of the music experience: it’s an annual round-up of your top artists, songs and genres, as well as how many minutes you’ve spent enjoying listening to music and what new things you’ve discovered. If you’re swapping from Spotify to Apple Music, you’ll be pleased to know Apple Music offers Apple Music Replay which is essentially the same thing as Spotify Wrapped.

Start a three month free trial at Spotify Premium

Start a one month free trial at Apple Music

Spotify vs Apple Music free trials

Spotify is offering three months of free music on its Individual plans up until 8th March next year. You can also bag one month of free listening on the Duo, Student and Family packages.

Apple Music offers a one month free trial on all of its plans, too.

Start a three month free trial at Spotify Premium

Start a one month free trial at Apple Music

If you also enjoy audiobooks, be sure to check out the best Audible deals for this month. Plus, take a look at our deep-dive into ‘What is Amazon Music Unlimited?’ and if it’s worth your money.

This might be the only art show here where the curator tells you to sit on a display. Mabel Tan’s Itchy Butt, a ceramic version of a doughnut cushion, does not look particularly comfortable, but is actually not as prickly as one might expect.

It is one of many charmingly intimate items in this small show. The Esplanade’s chief executive Yvonne Tham instigated the project by writing a detailed prompt for artist friends from Singapore and the region during the pandemic lockdown. Inspired by time capsules, the prompt asked artists to make objects to mark the year from August 2021 to September 2022.

The result is a hodgepodge of surprisingly accessible and endearing art objects, all of which are up for sale. Tan Zi Xi’s quirky ceramic versions of items ranging from a lotion bottle to an instant noodle cup represent the rooms where she spent the most time in during the pandemic.

Carpenter Kim Choy offers three objects, including a beautiful Existential Chair reminiscent of elegantly austere Shaker-style furniture.

There is even abstractly gorgeous jewellery from home-grown brand Argentum. Jeweller Shing Lee has cast delicate silver objects from a tomato calyx for this series.

All the objects and their stories are captured in an art book ($80).

Where: Lower Gallery, Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Film, 155 Middle Road
MRT: Bras Basah/Bencoolen
When: Till Dec 18, Tuesdays to Saturdays, noon to 7pm; Sundays, noon to 4pm; closed on Mondays
Admission: Free
Info: www.objectifs.com.sg/a-year-made-object

Singapore Chinese Music Competition Finals

With his sophomore album set to debut atop the Billboard 200 chart in its opening week, Metro Boomin has shared a “Heroes Version” of Heroes & Villains.

The first of two alternative takes on the project, the “Heroes Version” comprises the instrumentals of the original 15 tracks.

“This is the second out of a trilogy,” Metro said to Apple Music’s Ebro about the album (which began with his 2018 project, Not All Heroes Wear Capes). ” I’m going to see how this flow, because I really want to shoot a lot of videos to this one, and I’ve put a lot of time into this body of work. So I really want to stretch it, and not just throw out the third one.”

Stream the “Heroes Version” below.

Metro Boomin Shares “Heroes Version” Of ‘Heroes & Villains’ Album was last modified: December 6th, 2022 by Meka

 
K-pop music charts are generally known for their fast-paced changes. But this time around, Korea’s general public, not K-pop fandoms, seems to be in control unwittingly as many hits from the summer continue to reign in the top spots domestically. But for the international audience, things look quite a bit different.
 
On Melon Chart, Younha’s chart-climbing ballad “Event Horizon” maintained the No. 1 spot. The song, released in March, did not initially see much popularity after its release but started gaining word-of-mouth popularity after the singer performed it at numerous university campuses during the fall festival season. It dramatically “climbed the charts,” as K-pop fans like to call it when a late-bloomer song becomes a hit months or even years after its original release.
 

Melon Chart as of Tuesday noon [SCREEN CAPTURE]

 
The Melon Chart, which had not been seeing much change for about a month, recently saw some new tracks breaking into its top 10. “My Way” — a song on Mnet’s hip-hop competition show “Show Me The Money 11” performed by rappers Justhis, Don Malik, Huh!, Khan, Mckdaddy and Los — came in at No. 4 as of noon Tuesday after being premiered on the show’s sixth episode last Friday.
 
BTS member Jungkook’s “Dreamers,” from the official soundtrack of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, sits at No. 9. The song has been experiencing popularity globally ever since dropping on Nov. 20 and topped the weekly Global top songs chart last week.
 

Jungkook’s “Dreamers,” from the official soundtrack for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, is seeing domestic and global popularity thanks to the synergy between the BTS member and the World Cup. [YONHAP]

 
But apart from the few new breakthroughs, long-running hits that have been in the top spots since the summer still have a stronghold on Melon Chart. After “Event Horizon,” No. 2 was “Antifragile” by Le Sserafim, followed by NewJeans’s “Hype Boy,” “My Way,” (G)I-DLE’s “Nxde,” Lim Young-woong’s “Love Always Runs Away,” IVE’s “After Like,” Lim’s “Our Blues, Our Life,” “Dreamers” and Zico’s “New Thing.”
 
The usual volatility of K-pop charts is often due to intense organized streaming efforts by fans, but ever since fall the domestic charts have been showing a rather long period of stability. The chart toppers this time around are numbers which gained popularity even among the general public, not just fandoms, and are therefore played frequently in everyday life in Korea and are relatively less affected by the ups and downs in fans’ streaming.
 

Circle Chart’s Global K-pop Chart as of Tuesday noon [SCREEN CAPTURE]

 
Meanwhile, Circle Chart’s Global K-pop Chart showed a noticeable difference from Melon Chart, as the former tallies worldwide streaming and tends to reflect the tastes of non-Korean listeners. The two major charts usually show differences, but this week’s contrast was stark following BTS leader RM’s solo release.
 
As of Tuesday, six of the top 10 songs on Circle’s Global K-pop Chart were by RM, who became the third BTS member to officially begin solo activities by dropping his full-length album “Indigo” on Dec. 2. The lead track “Wild Flower” was at No. 1 on the global chart, a stark contrast from No. 42 on Melon Chart, suggesting that RM’s new release has not gained near as much popularity among the Korean general public. “Wild Flower” was the only other song from RM’s new album that made it onto Melon Chart’s top 100, while all of his 10 new tracks ranked above No. 17 on Circle Chart.
 

Trot singer Lim Young-woong [NEWS1]

 
Similarly, trot singer Lim Young-woong’s highest-ranking song on Circle Chart currently is “Love Always Runs Away” at No. 103, while the same song is at No. 6 on Melon Chart. He has no songs on Circle Chart’s Top 100, yet he has 14 songs between No. 6 and 31 on Melon Chart as of noon Tuesday. Lim specializes in a music genre called trot and has a large fan base of predominantly middle aged and older Koreans domestically, but has little presence in the global K-pop scene which shows a strong preference for idol groups’ dance numbers.
 
Apart from RM’s new music, Blackpink’s hits “Shut Down” and “Pink Venom” from September retained its high ranks at No. 6 and 10, as well as NewJeans’ summer hit “Hype Boy” at No. 5.
 

Girl group Blackpink [YG ENTERTAINMENT]

BY HALEY YANG [yang.hyunjoo@joongang.co.kr]