It’s ironic that as I write this, one among many of Spotify’s amazing playlists is running. It feels as if the music industry has become quite consumerist, and as Spotify hits Indian shores, it’s about to shake up even more.

But there is so much more to fear, to feel like its not necessarily in the best interest. For someone who wasn’t the iPod kid, and kept listening cassettes and CDs until the 2010s, there was some value I attached to music. Even in the later days, when we downloaded songs and kept them stored in pen drives and laptops, there was a sense, a sense that this music was personally valuable. Then came along an iPhone and I found myself considering Apple Music, which it turns out, is pretty great. For all the manual labour of downloading and putting songs on your iPhone from your laptop (thanks to Apple’s file system) Apple Music felt much more convenient and it kept the value intact. I started curating my own playlists, a past one I’d had back in high school, and new yearly ones I made, almost in a William Blake-y fashion.

Even though Apple Music had all these cool mixes and playlists, the main theme was always intact. You add value to your own music. The lists were there for you to make, the songs for you to pick. Sometimes when you’d want to listen to other people’s creations, you’d dabble into some of these mixes. But hey, Apple Music, even if foolishly, made me feel like a certain creator. Not of music, but at least of its role in my life. Songs in the lists and library were reminders of people, places, experiences. But turns out, all that is at threat.

My playlist from last year might not be one I love as much as the previous ones, maybe because it was the sense of this flux. That there is no one Vaibhav, no one homogenized music list you love. You can’t fit every damn year into the same 7 hour, 110 song format. It worked for 2 years, who says its gotta work for a 3rd or a 4th? Possibly, this perplexity of my relationship with music was when Spotify decided to enter the Indian market.

I downloaded it the first day, zero hesitation. Not premium, for I still have Apple Music. And there is so much to love about this, next level playlists every day, fast algorithmic mixes, new music for you to keep track of everyday. So basically, sit back relax, you’ll get a new set of songs. But hey, what about the personal touch?

It was only recently that I discovered how Apple Music had people curate the personalised mixes for you, whereas Spotify used algorithms. No wonder they’re faster, 6 daily mixes, as opposed to 4 weekly ones from Apple. But even if I were to be called sentimental for some handmade labour that can be replaced with computers, I’d say its not simply valuing these people’s efforts. I think its just that sense of creation, whose absence in Spotify bugs me.

Down goes a new Blake-y playlist this year, down goes musical creation. Down goes personalising music. I think it is this transition from being a creator, to being a mere consumer that is the most disappointing. And I guess that is the disappointment of Spotify-ing, at least whatever I have faced. Or who knows, I am lying and am just frustrated with the ads they have.