Mix Albums

[daiybo]

Hi all,

I listen to a lot of dj mix albums such as FabricLive, where the dj who has made the mix album mixes the tracks together. When I use spotify and try and listen to a mix album the songs are presented as single full length unmixed tracks. Does anyone know if there is a way to listen to the album in the way the dj who made it intended for it to be mixed. I know that you can select gapless playback, but this only fades in and out the previous song with the next song.

Thanks

[user-removed · Accepted solution]

@daiybo

Sadly probable not. Artist and labels get their revenue from each song that is played and how many times those tracks are played on the Spotify service. So continuous mixes make it rather hard for the artists who might have worked on the recording project, and also the labels to get the revenue they are looking for when adding content to the Spotify service from each song that might be played from a release if releases are mixed for a continuous playback.

For an  example some progressive rock music releases work like this, with the music almost being a seamless continuous piece of music, e.g. Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon, each track has to have it's own time stamp even though the music works as two continuous pieces of music from the original 1973 release, an A/B side of the music work, so the label making the music available can get the correct revenue from each track that is played separately from the whole full release that is available, which many Spotify users might not often play the full release completely through most of the time.

Also another example, some Progressive Rock band/artists are known for recording really long timed songs, songs that stretch beyond the often common 3-5 minute song limits, some music tracks stretching 20 or more minutes in recorded time. There are some tracks because of their time lengths that have not been made available to the Spotify service, even though the rest of the artist's music of that said release is available on the spotify service currently.

The only suggestion I can make is to play around with the Crossfade time selection in the Spotify apps, until you get the right Crossfade time chosen that seems to work for all the tracks together in a seamless mix on that release?

[daiybo]

Hi,

Thanks for that superbly explained response. It looks like I may have to put streaming on hold and stick to downloads.

[ewok2uk]

if you have an iphone try pacemaker app it lets you add spotify play list amd mixes them 

[PascalSL]

I too find this a big disadvantage from Spotify, mixed albums are some much beter that playing the seperate tracks. And the no gap feature is by far not the same. 

Albums have track lists and timelines Spotify can figure something out with continues mixes and when a new track is played in a continues mix and provide revenue based on that.  

[Sirhara]

I don't really understand this answer.

What I am looking for, and I imagine the original poster, is individual tracks comprising the mix which together form a mixed album.

This is the way such albums used to work in digital mediums until streaming services came in. I don't see why a track cannot exist within the context of an album. If someone decides to skip and listen to track 6 then the credit can still be given to that artist.

What I'm finding now when purchasing such an album from iTunes, Amazon, etc. is individual tracks and then one long track of the full mix. I don't want either of these I want the full mix split into the individual tracks when they come in - as good old CDs worked!

Thanks.

[Sirhara]

I'll clarify with another question:

If the reason for not offering full mixes is due to licensing then what's the problem with taking a full mix, splitting it into tracks where they come in, and giving artists credit when their track is listened to as with any album with separated tracks?

[Cutsdeep]

This doesn't make sense. There is a record label that pays the artists (and the dj) for tracks on the mix cd, ie fabric. Wouldn't/couldn't Spotify pay the label, rather than the artist?

What happens when you buy a fabric mix cd?

[keepittidy]

This must be down to the individual label that's releasing the album not spotify, I have a lot of DJ mixed albums in my playlist that are split into individual tracks however play as one long gapless mix with the correct "gapless playback" option set in the Spotify preferences.

This one is an example

[Tim1975]

It seems like there are coming more double albums. A mixed and a unmixed full track version. Armin van Buuren has a lot of them in his State of Trance series. Defected has them to. For example: 

Defected Presents Franky Rizardo In The House. When it states (Mixed) it is seperate tracks but fully mixed and gapless.