If you like the streaming music platform Spotify and sound quality is really important to you, here are some ideas and tips for how to get the best listening experience.

Disclaimer

Firstly, the disclaimer.  This article in no way endorses, recommends, or favours Spotify over the many other audio streaming services that are available such as Amazon, Apple Music, Tidal, Primephonic, Deezer, Qobuz and more.  This is merely written to highlight ways that users of this particular (popular) streaming service can improve their experience.  Many points could apply to other music streaming services.

Spotify

Subscription music streaming service Spotify has 155 million premium subscribers and 345 million monthly active users. Spotify has a massive music catalogue with more than 50 million songs, with around 40,000 being added every day. In recent times and in a move to improve user engagement and get away from a reliance on music licensing, Spotify has been investing very heavily in podcasts.  There are now 2.2 million podcasts available through the platform and with the pandemic, podcast consumption is reported to be up by around 100 per cent compared to the same time last year.

Compression

Audio files are very large and in order to be able to reduce the size and the bandwidth required by audio files and to minimise data usage, audio files need to be compressed.  Lossless and lossy are the main types of compression for audio.  The difference is that lossless compression (as the name suggests) squeezes the file size without taking anything away from it (it’s a near-perfect copy), and lossy removes elements from the audio file in a way that may be almost imperceptible to the listener in order to shrink the file.

Bitrate

With Spotify being an audio streaming service, the bitrate also affects how a listener perceives sound quality.  Bitrate is the number of bits per second that can be transmitted along a digital network and a higher bitrate generally delivers better sound quality.

The highest bitrate supported by Spotify (for its Premium customers) is 320 kbps. Even lossy audio files can sound the same as lossless to listeners if the bitrate is high enough.

For most devices, the tiered default bitrate for Spotify’s ‘Automatic’ settings  are thought to be 24 kbps (for low), 96 kbps (for normal), 160 kbps (for high), and for very high, 320 kbps.

Wi-Fi

The quality of the Wi-Fi signal also affects data transfer and, therefore, could impact on the bitrate.  In short, a better, stronger Wi-Fi signal can contribute to a better music streaming experience.  It is worth remembering that Wi-Fi signal quality is affected by many factors including how many other networks are on the same Wi-Fi channel, how many users in the building are using the Wi-Fi signal (same network), the data rate of the backhaul network that connects the Wi-Fi network to the Internet, and more.

Speakers and Headphones

Once the Spotify audio is delivered to the subscriber via their receiving device, the type and quality of speakers or headphones is another factor that can impact on a Spotify user’s experience.

Spotify Connect

The Spotify Connect service, available to Premium customers, enables users to stream songs over wi-fi (no Bluetooth pairing) to any compatible audio product in the user’s home (e.g. wireless speaker, soundbar, AV receiver or smart speaker) with just two presses of a button, rather than listening just via mobile or desktop. Spotify refers to these as Connect-enabled speakers.

Listening to streamed music through these other speaker systems could, therefore, be away to improve the listening experience.

Spotify ‘Hi-Fi’ Lossless, CD Quality

In February, Spotify announced that beginning later this year, Premium subscribers in select markets will be able to upgrade their sound quality to Spotify HiFi.  Spotify says that this service will enable users to “listen to their favourite songs the way artists intended” and that Hi-Fi offers a “new high-quality music experience”.  The company says that this better listening experience will be possible thanks to what it describes as its “high-quality music streaming” as well as CD-quality, lossless audio format to the user’s device and Spotify connect-enabled speakers.

Perception

There is, however, some debate online as to whether users will be able to clearly distinguish between the sound quality of lossless through Spotify Premium and Spotify Connect.  For example, Premium already streams as 320 kbps (256 kbps on the web), which is the highest Spotify bitrate. Other variables such as a user’s hearing and a user’s audio/sound system could also make a difference.  ABX offers a page to test whether a user’s system is “ready for lossless sound” on Spotify here: http://abx.digitalfeed.net/spotify-hq.html

The point and difference about Spotify Connect is that it offers the convenience of being able to listen to music on different speakers around the home using Wi-Fi.

More Tips

Here are some other tips for getting the most from Spotify:

– On a mobile, in Spotify’s Settings (upper right of the app), scroll to find ‘Audio Quality’.  This gives the option of setting the quality to ‘Very High’.  In reality this decision should be balanced against a user’s data and storage space allowances.

– On the Web app, whereas a free version of Spotify plays at a 128kbps bitrate, Spotify Premium plays at 256kbps which may sound better.  The web app also uses the more efficient AAC, which may contribute to a better sound than the desktop and mobile apps.

– On the desktop and mobile apps, leaving the ‘Normalize Volume’ control on helps to keep the volume/even up the different volumes of different songs so that user hears them all at one level (songs are mastered at different output volumes). This can be very helpful with playlists where there may different songs from different albums and different artists. Premium subscribers have the option of setting the Normalisation to ‘Quiet’, ‘Normal’, or ‘Loud’. The ‘Normal’ setting covers the dynamic range for most music and ‘Quiet’ offers the largest room for variations in dynamic range (e.g. for listening in a quiet setting).

In Summary

There are many variables at work in getting the most out of Spotify or, indeed, many other music streaming services. Paying for services where there are higher bitrates and lossy compression, delivered with strong Wi-Fi signal and played through high quality audio equipment appears to the way to increase the possibility of getting a better listening experience.  However, the ability for each individual to clearly hear the difference between the quality offered by different types of compression on audio is something that’s open to discussion.

If you’re using Microsoft’s Edge browser, a handy organising feature means that you can easily get a full, instant view of every window you have open and quickly tab between them. Here’s how:
– Press Alt + Tab.
– Holding down Alt, click Tab to move between the windows and to select the one you want.
– To configure you’re the settings or turn off the feature, go to Settings > System > Multitasking, and see the dropdown menu for options of what Alt + Tab can do.

As Google has announced an end to third-party cookies, we look at the issues that have led to the decision, and at what may replace these cookies.

The Difference Between First and Third-Party Cookies

A cookie is a piece of code (used for tracking) that takes the form of a small text file that is stored on the browser of someone who visits a website. A ‘first party’ cookie is only generated when a person visits one particular website (domain) and is only used for finding out what that person did when they visited that site, recording how often they visit in future, and for recording details such as remembering passwords, basic data about the visitor, and some other preferences. This type of cookie does not record details about a person’s activities when they go on to visit other websites after leaving that website (i.e. websites that are not affiliated with the first website).

A third-party cookie, on the other hand, is created by a third-party, perhaps an advertiser, and is placed on a visitor’s computer when they visit your website and other websites. Its main purpose is to track a web user and gather data about their activities and preferences (e.g. websites they visit frequently, what they purchased online and what they show interest in). This enables the building of a visitor profile which, in turn, leads to them being shown ‘relevant’ targeted adverts.  For example, after showing interest in products on one particular website one day, they can then be shown adverts about that product type when visiting completely different websites at different times.

Google’s Announcement

Google announced that it will not only get rid of third-party cookies but that it will not use other technology to replace these cookies or build features into its Chrome Browser to allow itself access to that data. Google plans to not simply remove third-party cookies but to phase them out over two years before rendering them obsolete. The reason for the slow phase-out is given as allowing time to develop workarounds that address the need of not just users, but also of businesses, publishers, and advertisers.

Why?

There are many reasons why Google is phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome.  These are essentially the same reasons why other browsers such as Firefox and Safari have already phased out third-party cookies.  For example:

 – Legislation. Improved and new data privacy laws. The introduction of GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and others have meant that tech companies can no longer track everything that users do without permission and share that data with multiple other third parties as they wish. For example, in the UK, websites now have cookie consent and privacy information displayed on the home page following the introduction of GDPR.

– Privacy Campaigners. Many privacy campaign groups and others have challenged tech companies and advertisers over the years about privacy and tracking users.  For example, in November 2020 Big Brother Watch, Oxford University and UCL were among 38 signatories of an open letter to the UK charity sector asking them to look at how advertising companies are allowed to build profiles of users based on sensitive information gained from trackers in websites and the impact that cookie consent processes had on these trackers.

– High profile Criticism. Among other things, in January the UK Competition and Markets Authority started investigating whether restricting cookies on Chrome could help Google increase its dominance in the online ad industry. For example, some commentators have questioned Google’s motives for removing third-party cookies, suggesting that forcing a reliance upon first-party cookies may simply be a way for Google to get more of a grip on the ad market and receive the revenue that would have been spent on third-party platforms.

Competition Between Browsers

Some browser companies have been publicly at the forefront of restricting the use of third-party cookies e.g., Safari (Apple), Mozilla’s Firefox (Mozilla) and Brave.  This has put pressure on the browser market-leading company Google to follow suit.

Interim Measures

As part of the phasing out of third-party cookies, Google is putting some Interim measures in place.  These include Google’s Chrome limiting insecure cross-site tracking (started in February 2021). For example, Google’s Chrome is treating cookies that don’t have a SameSite label as first-party only, and requiring cookies labelled for third-party use to be accessed over HTTPS, thereby making third-party cookies more secure and giving users more precise browser cookie controls for now. Also, Google is trying to stop covert tracking using new anti-fingerprinting measures (to launch later this year).

Replacements?

Although the phasing out of third-party cookies by Google was not unexpected, it has, of course, worried advertisers, publishers and owners of ad-supported websites who need to know how they can continue to rely upon the generation of effective adverts and revenue.  For example, Google Ad manager data shows that when advertising is made less relevant by removing cookies, funding for publishers falls by 52 per cent on average.

Although Google has said that it doesn’t plan to use other technology to replace third-party cookies there are alternatives.  These include:

– Google’s Privacy Sandbox, which it originally announced last August, and touched upon again on in January this year.  Google describes this as “a new initiative to develop a set of open standards to fundamentally enhance privacy on the web” and a “a secure environment for personalisation that also protects user privacy”.  Exact details are thin on the ground.  The idea of Sandbox, however, is to move all user data into the Google Chrome browser where it can be securely stored and processed so that it stays on the user’s device and is, therefore, making it compliant with privacy laws. It is understood that the Privacy Sandbox may also include an algorithm to group people according to their common web browsing and thereby create ‘clusters’ of people (who can’t be directly identified) with similar interests. These clusters can then be targeted by adverts without affecting the privacy of the individuals in a cluster.

– Systems made by rivals of Google Ads (e.g. Trade Desk Inc) where people can protect their privacy by logging on to websites using encrypted copies of email addresses. Also, Criteo SA, an AdTech company is reported to have developed a possible alternative.

Looking Ahead

Even though this is a big change, it is not unexpected and it will take place over a two-year phase out period within which time alternatives will have been introduced. Getting rid of third-party cookies is going to have the biggest impact on third-party ad platforms that are reliant on cookies for their revenue and for those who rely upon lots of data for their online advertising, pop-up ads, or a really focused audience-targeting strategy. For everyone else, considering third-party cookies aren’t used by most other (admittedly less popular) browsers, it’s unlikely to have a massive impact. It’s worth remembering that first-party cookies will still be used for Google Ads and that Google is likely to be investing money and effort into getting its alternative Privacy Sandbox tools up and running.

The first UK pilot scheme using CCTV to specifically target motorists who throw litter from their cars will shortly begin in Maidstone, Kent.

LitterCam

The Maidstone Borough Council is enlisting the help of LitterCam technology, which uses AI to remotely detect vehicle-based littering, and number plate recognition to identify cars involved in littering.

LitterCam is a third party, private company that offers a “complete vehicle-based littering solution for street scene, enforcement and highways maintenance professionals” with the aim of helping them to “Improve environmental quality and reduce the risk of litter clearance”.  According to LitterCam, its remote littering-spotting camera solution “includes all hardware, software and services – from detection device to the point where a debtor makes an appeal”.

Fines

The video evidence from LitterCam, combined with a DVLA check of the vehicle owner (based on the numberplate recognition images) can then be used to back up the issuing of an automatic £90 fine. If unpaid after 15 days, the fine will rise to £120.

The Problem

There has been a 500 per cent increase in littering since the 1960s (CPRE figures) and Highways England reports that it picks up more than 200,000 bags of litter from the roadside each year. The problem of littering from cars is reported to have become worse during the pandemic lockdowns, with reports that it has increased in the Maidstone area (where the LitterCam pilot is to be run) by almost 250 per cent.

In addition to looking untidy, littering is responsible for causing:

– Large clean-up bills and usage of resources for local authorities.

– Injuries to wild animals, particularly birds.  The RSPB reports 5,000 calls a year regarding litter and 14 calls a day regarding animals affected by litter.

– Pollution and damage to the environment. For example, this can be plastic waste finding its way into rivers and the sea and being swallowed by animals resulting in injuries and death, and toxic pollution of the land and water from chemicals such as that caused by polluted runoff from litter (petrol and consumer waste) infiltrate the soil and water supply. For example, polluted water can affect the environment and can be ingested by fish, other animals, and humans.

Unpunished

Many environmental commentators see the reasons for the problem reaching its current scale as not having an effective tracking and deterrent/punishment system in place (until now), priority and money being given to tackling other issues, people being careless and lazy in a throw-away society, people being able to quickly distance themselves from the results of their littering (being in cars), as well as people not understanding/underestimating the negative impacts of littering.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Technology related to CCTV surveillance has become much more sophisticated and widespread in society as a whole as its benefits have been realised (e.g. reducing and deterring crime) and protecting business premises, saving money and resources, and gathering accurate evidence. The environment is now recognised as being a very important issue as more facts about the surprising effects of littering have been acknowledged (e.g. huge amounts plastic waste in the sea). Motorists littering has also been a real challenge to local authorities with stretched resources in terms of clean-up bills and difficulty in catching the mobile culprits and being able to conclusively link them to the offence. Advanced AI technology (used in conjunction with remote CCTV) is proving to have many varied benefits in various different environments and settings. If this pilot proves effective, it could be rolled out in other areas, thereby benefiting society as a whole and creating new business opportunities for companies offering similar and related services to those of LitterCam.

Amazon has opened its first ‘no-till, just walk out’ grocery store in London where customers are automatically billed on exiting the store.

Frictionless

The new Amazon Fresh store offers a “frictionless” experience to shoppers as they are given what feels like an incredible level of trust and hopefully save time in the shop thanks to the use of some serious surveillance technology.  After registering that they have entered the store by scanning a barcode from their account on the Amazon Shopping app on their smartphone, customers are only required to place the groceries they require in a bag (or carry them by hand) and then simply walk out of the store.

Technology

The technology at work in the Amazon Fresh store to enable the removal of tills includes cameras and depth-sensors as well as deep-learning and AI-based software, similar to that used in the first Amazon Go stores in the US.

Own Brand Too

In addition to the groceries from Morrison’s, Booths and other supermarkets that Amazon has arrangements with, around one-third of the products in the Amazon Fresh store in Ealing are Amazon’s own-brand products.  These include staples such milk and eggs, sourced in the UK, as well as an “Our Selection” sub-brand for premium products.

Concerns

Some of the main concerns about Amazon’s new ‘frictionless’ store idea becoming more widespread in the future include:

– Worries that it could mean job losses.  For example, Paddy Lillis, general secretary of the USDAW union has expressed concern that an expansion of this kind of concept could see a number of retail jobs in the high street disappear, ironically not long after the same key workers had been hailed as heroes in the pandemic.

– Although Amazon has said that it will only keep shopping data in a customers account for 30 days, there are still concerns about privacy, liberty, and rights groups (e.g. Big Brother Watch) about the privacy implications of tracking shoppers and what the records and analytics could be used for.

Amazon in London

Amazon has had a presence in the grocery market, and particularly in a ‘bricks and mortar’ way in London since it launched Amazon Fresh there back in 2016.

Also, Amazon had previously operated its own ‘Amazon Restaurants’ food delivery service in London, but this was closed in December 2018 following strong competition from Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat, among and others.

Fast forward to 2020 and in April, the Competition and Markets Authority announced that Amazon could invest in food distribution company Deliveroo. Also, in July 2020 the Amazon Fresh grocery service was re-launched in London and parts of the home counties so that Amazon Prime customers could buy groceries online and have them delivered same or next day for free (for orders over £40). This put Amazon in competition with the supermarkets and Ocado.

In the US in 2017

Amazon made some big moves into the grocery market in its home country of the US back in 2017 when it extended Amazon Fresh to bricks and mortar locations in its home city of Seattle. Also, in June 2017, Amazon acquired struggling grocery chain Whole Foods Market Inc for $14 billion, thereby giving it a base to start taking on bricks-and-mortar grocery giants such Wal-Mart.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Amazon has had its ups and downs trying to get into the bricks and mortar groceries market in the UK and this latest move shows very clear intent while firing a shot across the bows of grocery competitors in the UK in terms of demonstrating how technology can now be used to up the game, yet again, for customer convenience.  It may also be a way to showcase the technology that could be sold to rivals along the way. Although the ‘totally frictionless’ experience is reported to have been a little strange for the first customers, after a pandemic (where not touching things and minimising contact with others has been important) this type of shopping experience may be something that looks particularly valuable looking forward. It is understood that Amazon intends to open more of these stores, most likely in the centre of cities, and although many good sites are already taken by express versions of competitor supermarkets, the effects on the high street of the pandemic in terms of store closures may make other sites available. This may give competitors cause for concern in the near future and/or may make them investigate investing in technology to perhaps create their own versions.

New features for Microsoft’s Teams include cross-organisation channel sharing called ‘Teams Connect’ that has been likened to a very similar feature in Slack.

Announced at Ignite

At Microsoft’s ‘Ignite’ annual conference, held online this year, Microsoft announced a number of new collaborative working features for its Teams platform.

Microsoft Teams Connect

One key new feature (available now in private preview, with full rollout later this year) is Microsoft Teams Connect, which allows users to share channels with anyone, internal or external to an organisation. The shared channel appears within a user’s primary Microsoft Teams tenant next to other teams and channels, thereby giving easy access. The shared space enables users to chat, meet, collaborate on apps, share, and co-author documents in real-time in addition to giving admins access to granular controls, thereby enabling them to control how external users access data and information.

Like Slack Connect

Tech commentators have noted the similarity of this new feature to competitor Slack’s Connect feature which was introduced in June 2020.  Slack’s version also offers a secure environment/channel where an organisation can connect with up to 20 external partners, clients, vendors, and others.

Other New Features

Also announced at Ignite were a number of other new features for Teams including:

– Interactive webinars. These can be held with up 1,000 attendees from inside or outside the organisation. The 1,000 can be “seamlessly” extended to a 10,000 or 20,000-person view-only broadcast if necessary.  The webinars include “custom registration, rich presentation options, host controls such as the ability to disable attendee chat and video, and post-event reporting”.

– Microsoft PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams. Presenters can lead more engaging meetings and feel more confident due to being able to see notes, slides, meeting chat, and participants all in a single view. Also, attendees can personalise and have more control over their experience by privately navigating the content at their own pace or using the screen reader to make content accessible.

– Presenter mode. This feature allows presenters to customise how their video feed and content appear to the audience. For example, ‘Standout’ mode displays the speaker’s video feed in front of the shared content, Reporter mode displays content above the speaker’s shoulder (like a news broadcast) and ‘Side-by-side’ mode puts the presenter’s video feed alongside their content.

Hardware Too

In addition to the new software features, Microsoft has announced that it will also soon be launching Teams-focused hardware including Teams Intelligent Speakers. Microsoft says that these can identify and differentiate between the voices of up to 10 people talking in a Microsoft Teams Room and have been created in partnership with EPOS and Yealink, and allow attendees to use the transcription to follow along or capture actions, by knowing what was said in the room, by whom.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Remote working resulting from the pandemic lockdowns has seen the war between remote, collaborative working platform competitors Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams intensify, with all platforms trying to match their competitors’ features while introducing some new ones of their own.  The pandemic brought huge popularity to Zoom. For example, in September last year where it raised its annual revenue forecast by more than 30 per cent as, in addition to receiving a huge boost in user numbers, it converted much of its vast free user base to paid subscriptions.

Slack reported having a massive 12 million daily active users back in October 2020, a number which had been increased by 2 million since January 2019 and has been rising through the pandemic. Slack is known for its stickiness, strong user engagement, and for being a very useful chat app, but its challenge has been convincing big businesses that it is adding enough value and features to justify it being a worthy, paid-for alternative to Microsoft’s Teams.

The Microsoft brand and the proliferation of Windows has given Teams huge user numbers and as far back as pre-pandemic December 2019 it reported having 20 million daily active users. When the first lockdown hit in March 2020, Teams reported such a boost in user numbers that is saw a massive 12 million user boost in one week as a result of the switch to remote working. The latest introduction of features is the next competitive step in Microsoft’s ongoing battle for users and market leadership with the big remote, collaborative work platform competitors. Making sure that the platform at least has the features that competing platforms have and the capacity and the flexibility to keep introducing more convenient and relevant features in line with changing customer needs and designing platform features that become so embedded in customer workflows are things that Teams is looking for to keep gaining numbers and deter switching. For business users, Microsoft is a trusted brand but the war with Zoom and Slack is set to continue.