Spotify live performance reviews

I’ve lost count of how many times I discover a band through their live set and when I go to look them up online I find myself very disappointed. There’s something about the energy of a live show (especially with rock and hardcore) that’s difficult to capture in recording. On the flip side, many pop stars fail to deliver what their fans expect when they get up on stage.

A perfect example of this is Kanye West. I saw Kanye at the Forum back on his Life of Pablo tour in like 2017. It was an amazing show. A friend of mine had tickets for the next day. He returned from the show extremely disappointed because Kanye was hours late and only played a little bit before going on a rant on politics. Since then Kanye’s been on a steady downward trajectory.

This is easier to know in advance with large artists. However, with smaller bands, you don’t know what you’re getting into until you go to a concert. What if Spotify made it easier to tell who is great live by adding “live reviews”?

I generally think this is a bad idea. Yes, there are instances where maybe it helps highlight small bands that put on a great live show, but regardless discoverability is still a problem for these bands and reviews won’t solve it.

There are some bands I’d love to see reviews for though.

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