When Spotify finally came to the US I was quick to jump on it. I like using streaming, subscription music services a great deal. I like the flexibility. I love being able to download and listen to pretty much whatever I choose for a small fee each month. Sure, I already have a huge music collection but there’s a ton of music I want to hear that isn’t part of it and there are enough tunes that it would cost me a small fortune to purchase all of them. I tried Rhapsody for a while and while I got hooked on the subscription idea I didn’t like the service too much. That let me to my current faves –Slacker Radio, Pandora, MOG and, for a time, Rdio. Slacker is at the top of my list but because it doesn’t work with Sonos its stock is a bit lower than it would otherwise be when it comes to my music portfolio.
Then came Spotify. It was much hyped and it had the added benefit of working with my Sonos system right out of the gate. I wondered if Spotify would be able to replace all of my other subscription services.
Well, last night I canceled my subscription and here’s why.
This is what Spotify looks like on an iPad. Nice huh?
Spotify has a good deal to offer. It’s got a huge record collection and it works quite well. It’s available on my iPhone and my iPod touch and even on my iPad but that is just the iPhone version. Yes, there’s no iPad version. Thing is, I’m not in love with the iPhone apps interface. That wasn’t a deal breaker for me but this was- after using Spotify for a bit I missed the social and playlist aspects of the service. I found that Spotify is great if you know exactly what music you want but it is not nearly as good for discovering new music. It doesn’t hold a candle to Slacker, Pandora, MOG, OR Rdio. The fact is, for me Spotify didn’t bring too much additional to the table and it actually took a few things off.
To be fair, as Mike pointed out to me there are some ways to bring this social element into Spotify. He pointed me to this post and this post as just two examples of what is possible. But those are WORKAROUNDS and when I’m paying a monthly fee for something I don’t want to have to go in search of workarounds especially when there are other services with the functionality built right in. (I would also point you toward this post by Mike “Music Diary Notes: The Four Reasons I Chose MOG Over Rdio” as it offers some additional insight into which service offers what features.)
Then yesterday saw the arrival of an iPad version of the Rdio app. It looks slick, works well, and it got me back using the service. Sure, Rdio doesn’t have the largest selection of tunes but it has more than enough for me, has a great iPad app AND works with Sonos.
So here I am. I was ready to cancel one or two of the services in favor of Spotify when instead I went and cancelled Spotify. For me it is Rdio, Slacker and Pandora and once Slacker works with Sonos Pandora may be gone too.
How was your experience with Spotify been? Which service do you prefer? Why? Let us know in the comments…
Tags: Apple iPad Applications, Apple iPhone and Touch Applications, Apple Mac Software, Cloud Computing, Digital Music, Digital Music Player Gear, Digital Music Players
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