Does anyone actually use BBC Playlister?

[Dave2002]

After reading some comments on another topic I started listening to Scriabin's piano concerto from last Tuesday's afternoon program on Russian music during the Great War. I was distracted by the information about the BBC Playlister which appears on that program page.

In the short term this was disruptive, as my listening to the piano concerto was stopped/suspended as I clicked on the links. I'm still not quite sure what the BBC Playlister does - on my machine it appears to link into Spotify. I don't think it necessarily links to the exact same items or performances as played on the radio - but that may depend on how it's set up.

Does anyone here actually use it, and if so, is it useful? It may be, but without more detailed guidance and experience of using it myself I can't be sure.

[french frank]

I have occasionally given it some thought because you can't miss the reference every time you consult a (post-broadcast ) playlist. I assumed, and from what you say I'm probably wrong, that it extracted that single piece from the LA which you could also bookmark to make it easy to LA again for ever (hadn't thought that through, obviously). If I heard something on the radio mentioned or played, I'd probably go to YouTube to see if there was a complete performance. But that wouldn't be just to listen to it on that occasion for enjoyment/pleasure/entertainment but to see whether a recording might be worth buying.

[Dave2002]

What seems to happen is perhaps not terribly interesting or useful at present.

Data from the played item is stored - probably in insufficient detail - see below.

It is possible to get a printout or listing - here is what I get - the pdf and listings are very similar:

Your Playlist

1.
Davidde Penitente (K.469)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
2.
Das Anstatt-dass song, from 'Die Dreigroschenoper'
Kurt Weill
3.
Die Sieben Todsunden [The seven deadly sins] - spectacle in 1 act
Kurt Weill
4.
Piano Concerto
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin
5.
Symphony no. 4
Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky

As you can see, there are no artist or orchestra details. If the playlist is linked to an external tool, such as Spotify, then that tool will do a search to see if there's anything similar. There is thus seemingly no guarantee that the same performance will be found.

Where the playlist is of pieces played from BBC in house recordings it is unlikely that Spotify will find anything similar. Thus Playlister does not, at present, provide a way of saving recordings from BBC programmes, and users will still have to find their own ways of listening to broadcast material, using iPlayer, RadioPlayer or other.

So, on balance Playlister appears to be a minimalist form of notepad - without enough details to make it really interesting, and with only a limited use for repeated listening.

Oh - I almost forgot - it does look as though it's possible to listen from the BBC's websites, but what happens then seems to be that you will hear a short fragment of what the original music might have been - not necessarily from the start - so basically that feature seems to be useless.

[antongould]

Having been reminded by this I recalled that I had a "play" a while ago and went back to my list this morning and added a track from the Ivor Gurney COTW which I was pretty sure had not been commercially recorded.

What we seem to get is about 15 seconds of the original Radio 3 broadcast and you are then offered the chance of finding your Playlist in Spotify, YouTube etc. I tried You Tube and it came up with 2 of the 5.........

Presumably if when downloading of BBC Radio output is "legal" it will be better?

P.S. Cross posted with Dave2002's much fuller report

[Roslynmuse]

But isn't the (supposedly marvellous) presence of Playlister the reason given by the BBC for the reduced (and increasingly inaccurate) information being provided for each programme? IIRC that was the official line when the quality went right off earlier this year (and it was never without error).

[Dave2002]

But isn't the (supposedly marvellous) presence of Playlister the reason given by the BBC for the reduced (and increasingly inaccurate) information being provided for each programme? IIRC that was the official line when the quality went right off earlier this year (and it was never without error).

If so, seems very shoddy.

Ideally serious collectors and listeners would want much fuller information, including most of the following:

Composer, Title of work, movement if only part played, performers - including soloists and orchestra etc., date of recording [even if only approximate, as there could be more than one recording by the same artists], location of recording [helpful], CD or record (publisher) label, CD or record (publisher) number, and maybe a few more.

Programmes such as the mid morning programme which was oince introduced by Rob Cowan used to have much of that data, and it seems possible that for serious programmes the BBC would have appropriate meta-data which could be used for providing the playlist details. It is sad that what might have been an interesting and possibly useful innovation appears to be associated with a lowering of standards. Perhaps this is also associated with cost reductions.

[french frank]

Ideally serious collectors and listeners would want much fuller information,

Immediately noticeable, now I've been switching to R3 (in the gym - I wouldn't if I were at home: just thought I'd explain) for Breakfast there are also no on-screen performer details at all. Composer, title (plus BC, if applicable). Will check to see if the pop stations have them (but presumably in the majority of cases they only have to list the 'song' and "everyone knows" who's performing it?).

[DracoM]

Usually because, unlike great jazz etc standards, most are stand alone, so that knowing a song IS almost invariably to know who is doing it, whereas with a Mozart symphony there are zillions of possible interpretations on CD etc? Just a thought.

And R3 is increasingly like CFM in that the particular interpretation on CD of a symphony etc matters far less - if at all - than the fact that it is being played

[french frank]

I checked Radio 1 - yes, they do show the performers (there was Thrift Shop by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis Ft Wanz) and Gecko (Overdrive) by Oliver Heldens and Becky Hill, neither of which (judging by the ease in finding them on the internet) would actually have needed the details to be supplied, since anyone listening to Radio 1 would already know them. Probably composers and performers are more likely to be the same in pop music. So, another example of where th latest music technology doesn't suit classical music?

Meanwhile, on Breakfast a piece of music was played without intro and the screen kept alternating with the words 'Breakfast' and 'Petroc Trelawny plays the Best of British Music' (or some such). The music had ended before anything had appeared on screen and all I gathered was that it wasn't L'Arpeggiata but some other group (Armonica something?). I don't see it in the playlist so I don't know what other ensemble I should dislike, as well as L'Arpeggiata .

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

this is presumably the issue set that Wright referred to when he said that the 'meta data for classical music must be sorted' rather gnomically a while ago

i do not use Playlister it is bad for Jazz [no performers] and i am unsure as to what it does if anything .... looks totally whizzy though eh

[french frank]

this is presumably the issue set that Wright referred to when he said that the 'meta data for classical music must be sorted' rather gnomically a while ago

Like not displaying the composer/performer details in Cyrillic or Japanese characters?