Be careful how you use streaming music as a practice tool.
I recently had a mini-crisis regarding one of the albums released by The Rockford Aces. Our 2017 album, Get Ready, contained a recording of Jacob Arcadelt’s TTBB “Ave Maria” that I programmed last year with my ensembles (specifically so it could be sung in St. Peter’s Basilica, because Arcadelt was a longtime member of the Sistine Chapel Choir in the Vatican.
The track was flagged by Spotify earlier this year for “irregular streams” that they suggested were artificially inflated through an illegal stream-buying service. In reality, the two massive spikes coincided with the week before the Aces first performed it last October, and again before the RAMChoir performed it in May. But without evidence to support that, the entire album was pulled by Spotify and we were threatened with fines.
As of today, the album is being reinstated. (Hooray!) But it makes me reconsider being more mindful of how I recommend students practice.
Don’t point them to Spotify recordings – you might find yourself accidentally getting another ensemble in hot water with Spotify! Find a more diversified way to point them to quality recordings, and let them know that too many streams too soon can be problematic.