As a musician who has performed his fair share of acoustic covers (many of which are on YouTube by the way) I am always impressed when I see an artist take something popular and put their spin on it. Often the result is a creative re-imagining that stays true to the song whilst adding new variations to the genre or instrumentation.
Many others simply slow the beat right down, get all melancholy, and hope they can sell it to a perfume company ad campaign or the John Lewis Christmas ad but that is beside the point.
My questions is why an artist would both disrupting his or her acoustic music on Spotify with a cover of someone else? Should Spotify not be the place where fans can find all your own original music? Covers, in my experience, have always been something for fans who come to live shows or the very odd covers album (which is a whole different story).
Recently I went through a Spotify playlist of acoustic covers and was genuinely impressed by the massive talent that was on offer. The musicians are super talented, in particular the vocalists, but there was one glaring problem for me. I did not feel the urge to go and check out their own stuff. Instead I chugged along through 50-odd tracks of stuff I mostly knew like I was sat at an open-mic.
This goes for established artists too. One of the songs you will find on my official Spotify artist playlist is John Mayer's acoustic cover of Free Fallin' (original done by Tom Petty). I have listened to this a ton of times on my phone or at home, even whilst shaving. It is a superb cover of a tremendous song but it has not led me to delve into the back catalogue of Mayer. Someone I am sure would be a terrific artist to get into. Instead I keep listening to his rendition of Free Fallin'.
It would be interesting to get everyone's feedback on the use of acoustic covers UK on Spotify and also hear from artists who have uploaded their own. For now, I will be keeping mine on YouTube where the endless variety of clips and footage seems to be the best place for them.
Peace.
Chris Olson Music.