Note on Spotify Integration

This book uses a fair number of Spotify playlists, particularly in the exercises. We do this because it is a relatively straightforward and simple way to curate music for you to work with in a manner that satisfies copyright law. However, we know that Spotify does not pay artists what we think they are worth. We encourage you to purchase albums and tracks when you find something you really like to work with or listen to.

To use the playlists in the text, you will need a Spotify account. If you don’t have an account, you will only be able to listen to a short, pre-determined sample of each song. This will work okay for a few exercises, like determining the overall meter of a song, but most exercises will benefit from being able to listen to some specific portion of the song, most often the beginning. A free account will work just fine, though it’ll play you ads. If you do not want to sign up for a Spotify account but do want to take advantage of the playlists, you should be able to look up most of the songs elsewhere—this just requires a bit more work.

Note that even if you have a Spotify account and are logged into the app, the embedded playlists may treat you as if you don’t have an account. When you happen upon a playlist, to go beyond the predetermined sample of each song, you’ll want to click either the playlist title or the playlist’s icon in the upper left. This will open the playlist either in the Spotify web player or in the Spotify app, and if you’re logged in, you can then work with it however you like.

If you want to work with a given playlist multiple times, you may wish to click the heart-shaped button in the web player/app. This will save the playlist to your account so you don’t have to find it through the textbook next time.

Finally, you can also “follow” the Spotify account Foundations of Aural Skills to access the playlists through Spotify.