2025 was the year I got into jazz and Spotify, and it has had its adverse effects on both my budget and my mental health.
I never was one to utilize a music streaming platform. After all, carefully crafted YouTube playlists developed since I was in 6th grade always seemed like the most effective solution to my creative music taste. Platforms like Spotify could never hope to cultivate the same level of madness that brought me back to when I was a middle schooler.
Last year, my Spotify Wrapped could only functionally list a singular song which wasn’t even in a genre I listened to, because my friend used my free account to put on the most absurd song I had ever heard. When people asked me what my Spotify Wrapped looked like, I’d make up what seemed right based on the group. Nobody needed to know that the only song that came up was a science parody rap video.
But everything changed this year as I began listening to jazz. There was no real momentum for me to start. Getting a record player from The Crimson helped. As I’d pull up new records to discover how much of the music world I had missed without jazz, I felt a haunting repetition of Barry the Bee’s words linger in my ears.
“You like jazz?”
I suppose I do. But YouTube seemed to never offer the clean-cut records that I wanted. It never gave me the jazz recommendations that I craved, based on artists I had carefully cultivated. It was then I had to move on to Spotify. It was a scary move — YouTube was all I had known after all.
And Spotify was easy to utilize. It gave me recommendations that I liked. Organized playlists that I could share with friends.
Eventually, my jazz obsession overtook my sense of reason, and I decided I could no longer take ads on the platform, upgrading to a Premium account. It had an effect on my monthly budget, but the convenience of not having ads significantly upgraded my experience as a listener.
Hard bop overtook conversations. Indo-jazz fusion became a lifestyle. I had never been a jazz performer, but I had definitely become a fan.
And Spotify allowed me to make playlists with my friends. As of now, my magnum opus is a Tamil film song playlist spanning around 22 hours. I have never seen so much Tamil music in one place before, but now I drown myself out in it.
I haven’t forgotten about YouTube. But it hasn’t helped me explore genres in the way that Spotify has. It will always hold a place in my heart, and I hope that it knows the impact it has had on my development. I am unsure if this is a good thing.
Is there really an ideal platform for music? I would say that there is not. I think it depends on your interests and what you are looking for. After all, certain songs will never be on Spotify, so I suppose platforms like YouTube will always have that plus. YouTube will always have videos that get removed due to copyright issues, so it is a never-ending game.
I am unsure if this is a genuine revelation. I think I am just a grandma with technology. But I thank jazz for letting me delve into a platform that let me explore over 214 genres in one year, and for giving me a more advanced musical taste than simply video game soundtracks.
—Outgoing Social Media Executive Neeraja S. Kumar can probably be found selling tickets or helping with some arts production on campus last minute. If you really don’t see her, reach out at [email protected].