By Sarah Smith, Adult Services
When I find a song I like, I’m absolutely the sort of person who will listen to it on repeat for days or weeks. Which is probably why I didn’t go mad after years of working in retail where the official store soundtrack meant hearing the same songs over and over every hour for your entire shift.
Recently I was chatting with a friend who said that she’d been listening to Lizzo’s new album, “Special,” on repeat and that she wished she had a way to share it with me. Since I’m in love with “About Damn Time,” the album’s first single, and turn it up on the radio every time, I also wished my friend could share her copy of Special with me. Alas, we no longer live in the days of physical media and we can’t trade CDs or tapes – everything is digital.
Then I had a moment of brilliance and remembered Hoopla, the newest digital resource at the library. If you have a City of Dubuque resident library card with Carnegie-Stout, Hoopla gives you access to even more ebooks, audiobooks, streaming movies, streaming television series, and, yes, streaming music. Does Hoopla include “Special” by Lizzo? Yes it does!
The best part about Hoopla is that if you would also like to listen to Lizzo’s latest album, you don’t have to wait for me to return it to the library. All of the titles in Hoopla are always available, which is great if, for example, you want to start your own book club.
Like my friend, I found myself listening to “Special” on repeat, so I’ll probably buy my own digital copy of the album, but before I did, I thought I’d check out Freegal. Freegal is another app available to City of Dubuque resident library cardholders, and it lets you download MP3s of songs that you get to keep. Sadly, Freegal doesn’t have “Special,” but there is a ton of other great, new music.
I’ve used my Freegal downloads to grab copies of my favorite songs from Beyoncé’s new album, “Renaissance,” Camila Cabello’s “Familia,” and Harry Styles’s “Harry’s House.”
And for anyone who prefers physical media over digital, or who lives outside of Dubuque city limits, rest assured that the Carnegie-Stout collection includes the latest music, including these albums, on CD Audio.
- Learn more about Hoopla
- Learn more about Freegal
- Need help or have questions? Visit the Reference Desk on the second floor, call 563-589-4225, or send an email to yourlibrarian@carnegiestout.org.