Spotify instantly gives you what the record companies paid for the algorithm to give you.

“Digging” isn’t hard. Give it a go.

But it sounds like you’re listed to “tracks” not albums. Frankly that’s your biggest mistake.

If you like lots of tracks other people don’t, you’ll always be struggling against an algorithm trying to feed you 3 minute songs nobody hates.

Listen to albums and every time you follow a rabbit hole you’ll have 40-80 minutes of music to listen to at least once, multiple times if it’s good.

You’ll find albums that are worth listening to as a whole and some you’ll keep tracks in playlists.

Personally I moved from CDs to Spotify to YouTube music, to buying CDs again, soon to have them on Jellyfin.

Once you get into actually listening to albums, 3 or 4 albums from eBay or charity shops are what I’d have paid for a subscription and if I need to take a break I’ve still got my old music and don’t have any more to pay.

You can of course sail the high seas if you’re strapped for cash or want things instantly. I consider the big 3 labels harmful and have only bought second hand copies. I try to buy from independents and smaller labels when I can directly.

The harm of the major labels is pretty big and frankly streaming has become their most harmful tool. I want to avoid supporting that model or supporting the big 3.

1. Talk to other human beings about music.

Music is not meant to be a solitary hobby. Share what you like, they’ll share what they like.

2. Like a piece of music? Look up that producer, or record label if it’s small. Look up the session musicians. Don’t just look up the artist.

Generally it’s not just the artist that makes the music top tier. There are other great professionals involved in the background and good people hire other good people to work in the background.

This is easy. Once you start doing this you end up with a queue of albums you want to get round to listening to. It’s easy enough to find too much music yourself without an algorithm. You start finding the artist radio a waste of your time.

The rabbit holes I’ve been down following a producer, guitarist, or bassist, etc. are usually very rewarding and often you pop up in another place you knew already after finding out about some lesser known great music on the way.

I’m not sure that works. There were 20 shillings to the pound.

So £0.75 a week.

This inflation calculator:

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

£75 in 1843 is equivalent to £8,310.96

So 15s then is equivalent to £83.11 a week, £4321.72 a year.

40 hour week (which is implied to be too low). ~£2.08 an hour

So if he worked over 40 hours you’re talking a sub £2/hour wage. Around $2.70 in US money.

I suspect the stat relies on converting to dollars before applying inflation as GBP to USD was about 1 to 5 then instead of about 1 to 1.33

It’s fun but I wouldn’t want to denigrate Dickens by saying he got poverty wrong to make a political point.

With Dijon mustard!

Because Biden paid them with grants to build in the US. It’s that simple.

Beyond that there’s stability and the likelihood of not being invaded or facing natural disasters.

There’s meant to be government, legal, and financial institution stability too.

As well as intellectual property defense, trade secrets and NDAs.

Material supplies are meant to be stable too.

When you’re investing in something as specialised as chip manufacturing, labour is a fraction of your concern. Both short and long term.

Still an idiot.

“For the amount of space it takes to include a second speaker or second camera it doesn’t really make sense when you can just plug in an external one”

You sound like an idiot.

I can buy a phone from HMD that’s more repairable, more modular, and has sustainable features.

Fairphone has been a busted flush since they ditched the headphone jack. It’s just the most obvious sign amongst many they started making landfill phones.

Edit: Disregard. I have the 13, not the 12.

~~Normal laptop formfactor. You can have a touch screen as an option but it doesn’t do the full 360 fold round into a tablet.

I own one and the hinge goes 180.

It’s an excellent laptop, I grabbed one when the first AMD board was available and it runs Fedora flawlessly and has windows on an SSD when I need it.~~

No headphones jack.

Trash generating hypocrites.

HMD are doing everything better than fair phone now with their latest models. More repairable, more flexible, long term support and updates.

Cheaper too.

It’s the result of Netscape losing to anti-trust behaviour by Microsoft and open sourcing their code as a final parting gift.

Netscape was struck down Firefox rose.