Rishav Dasgupta I am a fan of music. In fact, I am quite the fan music. I’ve tried every medium of sound available, from the record player in our drawing room, to Spotify and Apple Music. Now, a new contender has entered the game (drumroll s’il vous plait!) – YouTube Music. Finally I can use YouTube while having my iPhone locked. I won’t have to worry about searching and playing a new song every time another ends. Alas! If only YouTube Music were without its faults. To begin, I am a person with a very specific taste in music. I listen only to Western classical music (including Baroque and Opera), Indian classical music, Rabindrasangeet (a form of traditional music from India), and some Chinese opera. I was delighted to see that YouTube Music had a “station” for each song and so I sat back and just listened to the music. By the time the last cannon had been fired in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, I expected for something along the lines of The Hungarian Dances or Handel’s Water Music to start playing. But to my horror, it was Lean On by Major Lazer. I was furious and switched to another song. This time it was the Marche Slave. But just as it ended, I looked down into the “song station” and it was about to play Happy by Pharrell next. Heresy! I immediately closed the app and put Swan Lake on the turntable; changing a record every half hour seemed like less work compared to this ordeal. Were they telling me what to listen to? Were they sellouts? Even those who indulge in other forms of music seemed to have dubious opinions of the new app. El Buchanan, a junior and avid music lover said that, “There are a lot of streaming sites right now and it has become harder to listen to music you want to because of artists only releasing to one site. The more streaming sites there are, the more complicated it gets for everyone else.” Well at least I don’t have to worry about that. A ‘new release’ comes out in the world of classical music every 2 or 3 years. And it’s easily available at the store of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.]]>