每日英語跟讀 Ep.K119: In Streaming Age, Classical Music Gets Lost in the Metadata

When Roopa Kalyanaraman Marcello, a classical music aficionado in Brooklyn, asked her Amazon Echo for some music recently, she had a specific request: the third movement of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto.

最近，布魯克林區的古典音樂愛好者魯帕．卡利亞拿拉曼．馬切羅要她的亞馬遜智慧音箱Echo播放一些音樂時，她具體地說出要求：貝多芬《皇帝》協奏曲的第三樂章。

“It kind of energizes me, motivates me to get things done,” she said.

她說：「它讓我精力充沛，激勵我把事情做好。」

But the Echo, a voice-activated speaker, could not find what she wanted. First it gave her the concerto’s opening movement; then, on another try, came the second movement. But not the third.

但Echo這個聲控喇叭找不到她想要的東西。它先播給她協奏曲的開場樂章， 然後在另一次嘗試中播了第二樂章，但都不是第三樂章。

Exasperated, Kalyanaraman Marcello gave up.

憤怒的卡利亞拿拉曼．馬切羅放棄了。

“Just play something else!” she recalled saying.

「就播點別的吧！」她記得自己這麼說。

Her frustration may be familiar to fans of classical music in the streaming age. The algorithms of Spotify, Apple and Amazon are carefully engineered to steer listeners to pop hits, and Schubert and Puccini can get lost in the metadata.

對串流媒體時代的古典音樂愛好者來說，她的挫折感並不陌生。Spotify，蘋果和亞馬遜的演算法是經過精心設計的，引導聽眾點擊熱門歌曲，而舒伯特與普契尼則會迷失在描述資料中。

Classical music has always been a specialized corner of the music business, with a discerning clientele and few genuine blockbusters. But by some measures the genre has suffered in the shift to streaming. While 2.5% of album sales in the United States are classical music, it accounts for less than 1% of total streams, according to Alpha Data, a tracking service.

古典音樂一直是音樂產業的一個專業領域，有著挑剔的客戶且很少有真正熱賣的唱片，但從某種程度上來說，此一音樂類型在轉向串流市場時受到挫折。根據追蹤服務公司Alpha Data指出，美國唱片銷量雖有2.5％是古典音樂，但它在整體串流市場的占比不到1％。

Two new companies, Idagio and Primephonic, see an opportunity in the disconnect. Both are challenging the big platforms by offering streaming services devoted to classical music, with playlists that push Martha Argerich over Ariana Grande, and databases tailored to the nuances of the genre.

兩家新成立的公司Idagio與Primephonic在這種斷線中看到了商機。兩家都透過專門提供古典音樂串流服務方式來挑戰大型平台，有著將阿格麗希排在亞莉安娜．格蘭德之上的播放列表，以及依據音樂類型細微差別量身訂做的數據庫。

“The mission we are on is to turn the tide for classical music the way Spotify has done for pop,” said Thomas Steffens, the chief executive of Primephonic, which is based in Amsterdam and went online last fall.

總部設於阿姆斯特丹、去年秋天上線的Primephonic執行長托瑪士．史特芬斯說：「我們的使命是以Spotify為流行樂所做的那樣翻轉古典音樂。」

For most of the music on Spotify or Apple Music, a listing of artist, track and album works fine. But critics of the status quo argue that the basic architecture of the classical genre — with nonperforming composers and works made up of multiple movements — is not suited to a system built for pop.

對Spotify或Apple Music上的大部分音樂來說，歌手、曲目與專輯的列表運作得很好，但批評現狀的人認為，古典音樂類別的基本架構並不適合於為流行樂而建的體系。該類別的作曲家並不表演，且作品由多個樂章組成。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/4047663

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