Stream To Discover
In the event that you have been hiding under a rock or this is the first time you are reading our blog, The Fuss is at first and foremost a music blog. To be more specific, The Fuss is a blog which aims to explore, exhibit, and examine the South African cultural landscape through the medium of music.
I spend the majority of my life consuming music, whether it’s at a live performance or for personal listening. My taste in music is something I take pride in and something which defines the person that I am. The only thing I enjoy more than discovering and listening to music is sharing it with others. That is why I started this blog, and that is why I am also a DJ. It is a wonderful feeling listening to good music, but the feel is all the more exaggerated when it is shared with others.
It was my snobby and condescending ways with music (along with a couple of other factors) that initially prevented me from subscribing to and downloading Deezer. But on the 29th of March, I decided to bite my upper lip and click “Get” in the app store next to the Deezer Music icon. I subscribed for the Deezer Premium+ version and today I take satisfaction in the decision.
In light of this, I thought I’d write a list for you which deals with some of the myths and details which initially prevented me from downloading the app. Also, this is the only chance I’ll ever get to challenge Jay Z in any way — cause I know how terrible of a rapper I am.
Here are 5 reasons why you should download Deezer.
- “It’s Expensive?”
Being a South African, frugality is ingrained in my genetic code, so this was always going to be the first stumbling block. Free things feel better. I was using the free desktop version of Deezer for a couple of weeks before moving on to Premium + which costs me R69.99 each month. The free version was convenient but limited. I could stream on my desktop computer, but I could not stream on my mobile. Subscribing gave me access to stream on my phone and this meant that I could have access to what is currently the biggest music library in the world in the palm of my hand to take anywhere in the world with me and listen at any time of my convenience.
The Deezer music library is currently 35 million tracks. If you do the math, it costs me approximately R 0.000002 each month to have each song in the Deezer library at my disposal. To put the figures into layman’s terms, I decided to take 3 beers off my monthly entertainment budget and invest it into a different kind of entertainment.
Vodacom is also giving all the new subscribers 2 months free subscription. You choose.
- “It’s Still Expensive Dude. Data?”
Frugality strikes again. South Africa has one of the highest costs for data in the world and this was haunting my mind when considering streaming. The haunting was quickly exorcised by a simple audit of my cellular data usage behaviour.
I’ve been using Deezer religiously for 2 months now and according to my iPhone, the app has only used 696 MB of cellular data in that time. Considering that my total data usage in that same period has been 21 GB of data, Deezer is a miniscule 3% of my total data usage. If anything, what I need to worry about is the Facebook app which took up 6.3 GB of my total data usage.
But everyone has their own data usage patterns and behaviours and yours may differ from mine. But if data usage really is one of your worries, then Deezer has you covered with their offline mode. Premium subscribers can sync their favourite songs to their mobile device and listen to them without an internet connection.
- PCAdvisor advises it.
I have absolutely zero knowledge when it comes to reviewing and comparing apps. So if I was to do a full review of the app, it wouldn’t be objective. So I found a comparison reviewing the major options when it comes to music streaming services.
Having read the comparisons and the comments on PC Advisors review, I got the sense that I had made the right decision in subscribing to Deezer. If you don’t believe me you can read the article for yourself.
And if you still aren’t convinced you don’t really have a choice.
Spotify is not available in South Africa, YouTube Music Key is still in beta, and Jay Z wants us to pay him R170 per month so he can be the second rapper to become a billionaire – frugality my friend.
- Flow
Being a DJ, I like to think that I take my music discovery seriously. It’s important for me to find and stock music in my ‘digital crate’ that nobody else has. I spend hours online with multiple tabs open scouring for gems on blogs, YouTube, Soundcloud and various other websites.
The problem here is that there is so much shitty music available online that it can take hours and sometimes days to find what I like to call a ‘game-changer’: that rare track which I’m obliged to add in my next DJ set because it’s so damn good. The search sometimes takes the enjoyment out of listening to music as I have to go through so much noise to find a game-changer. It can feel like a burden and sometimes I lose motivation and just revert to listening to the older music I know is good – losing any chance to find that game-changer.
And then Flow changed the game.
Flow is a Deezer feature which creates a playlist based on your music library and listening patterns. It plays a mix of the music in your library and suggests other music and artists based on your library and the songs you have been listening. Flow feels like Steve Jobs sat me down to get an understanding of my musical tastes and preferences and created a shuffle mode which knew which of the 35 million songs in my library I’d enjoy. Flow has brought back the enjoyment in music discovery for me by taking away the need to go through songs I did not enjoy to find game-changers.
The latest game-changer in my arsenal I have to thank Flow for is this.
You can even set a cross fader in Deezer and pretend you are a DJ cause everyone wants to be a DJ.
- The Fuss #GetMusicRight
The final reason I think you should you download and subscribe to Deezer is very simple.
How else would you listen to this Deezer playlist I created?
It’s a curation of electronica influenced South African music you need in your life.
My own little future sounds of Mzansi playlist featuring Beatenberg, Fantasma, John Wizards, Petite Noir, Nonku Phiri, Card On Spokes, Anatii, Okmalumkoolkat, Sibot, Riky Rick and Cassper Nyovest.
You can listen to the playlist below and download Deezer by clicking on the image below.
