Spotify

My brother-in-law asked me the other day, “What do you do to relax? What do you do to find a release?”  It was at that moment that I realized that, with the limited time I have nowadays, I have turned my attention from more time-consuming activities and have turned deeper into my love for music.

Seriously, music is basicly all I do right now.  From the moment I wake up, to the stretching hours at work, to just before bed, I have something playing on my phone or on my computer.  So, I am going to share with you my tool for consumption: Spotify.  

I have already shared with Brian and Mike, and I know a lot of you are Grooveshark users.  But I promise, if you invest just a little time in Spotify, you will love it.  Here are my reasons, including some drawbacks I have found (there are a lot of them, so if you don’t have the time, just know that I love Spotify):

Seamless Music

One thing that always bothered me about Grooveshark was that I would search for a song and I would get multiple hits for the same song, half of which were not at all what I was looking for.  I would also get multiple albums that were incomplete.  I would have to mix-and-match multiple sources to find all the songs I wanted. And songs seemed to fuzz out pretty often.

Spotify, while having a more limited selection than Grooveshark, makes sure that all the songs that are on an album are there where they are supposed to be.  I also know that I can click on an artist and find a more complete collection of that artists work.  It has been a great tool for me to discover lots of different types of music.

Easily organized playlists

This is the best reason to use Spotify.  It is so intuitive to create a playlist and start dragging music into it.  I can easily rename playlists and shuffle them around to make exactly the grouping I want.  Playlists sit right in my sidebar so that I can easily navigate.  Plus, if I am listening to Spotify radio on my mobile device, all I have to do is tap a button and I can add the song to my playlists instantly.  I found that Pandora made it difficult for me to keep track of the songs I heard and liked: I have that problem no more.

Plus it integrates your whole iTunes library into your collection.

Music sharing

Music sharing sounds better than it really is.  Unless you find someone that you have freakishly similar tastes with, sharing music can be frustrating (because the other person might not quite like that song as much as you did).  Spotify ONLY makes sharing easy with other Spotify users.  In fact, sharing Spotify songs outside of Spotify is a pain, and if I want to share on facebook, I always go back to grooveshark.  However, if you have a friend on Spotify, you easily send them a song that you like and attach a love note to it.

Also, Spotify has collaborative playlists, wherein multiple users can submit songs to a playlist in order to produce a robust collection.  Brian and I each have playlists of songs we think the other person would like.  It’s a very simple way to create a list of songs I think are perfect for Brian.  He can take them as he pleases.

Finally, when I am on, I can see exactly what Brian is listening to and what he is adding to his playlists.  I don’t know how many times I have snagged a song from Brian’s “New Oldies” playlist, but I know my “New Trends” playlist is populated heavily with them.  I like exploring new music through my family members.

Mobile features

I don’t know anything about Grooveshark mobile, but I know Pandora is mobile AND free.  That’s one up on Spotify, as you have to pay $9.99 per month for mobile Spotify.  But I love it (thanks Brian and Hayley!).  I can listen to playlists offline (which means I don’t get in trouble for streaming at work).  I listen in my car to and from work.  And I don’t have any commercials.  It’s sleek and smooth on your mobile device and its’ fun. Whee!!!

Stand-Alone feature

Spotify is a stand-alone program, meaning that you need to download it to your computer in order to enjoy it.  Some people may not like it, but I think it is a bonus.  I don’t ever have to rely on my browsers (which all seem to suck on a Mac) to listen to music.  Additionally, I never need to log on and I can unleash the full power of my already-out-of-date RAM.  Plus, I have a habit of accidently closing all my tabs in my browser when I only intend to close one, and it always threw off my Groove(shark).

Artist reimbursement

I recently conversed with a very low-key artist about reimbrsement from various media sources.  He indicated that the best bet for supporting your artist was to buy a CD or vinyl.  However, he indicated that, while he never saw any money from Grooveshark or Pandora, he did see money from Spotify.  I don’t know how Grooveshark works, but I have always felt it akin to the old Napster or Limewire, or Playlist.com.  I honestly don’t know how they get their music.  But I do feel better knowing that, to be on Spotify, you have to have a label and you have to go through the proper channels.  I like supporting the music industry (although I never ever buy CDs anymore; sorry music industry).

Apps

Spotify has in-program apps that can make your listening experience more enjoyable.  I love the lyrics app as it helps me quickly discard objectionable songs.  They also have music discovery apps, apps that keep track of your music, and apps that tell you what concerts around town you would like. Good fun.

Pandora-like radio, but more customizable

Pandora is awesome.  I loved how it would pick out the most perfect song for me.  However, sometimes I would “like” a song that would totally disrupt my perfectly harmonized station (for example, I only like one Shins song in the world, but when I liked it on Pandora, it started popping up strange songs I would never like).  I found it incredibly difficult to locate that song and remove it from my station, especially since I had literally “liked” 100s of songs.  With Spotify, I don’t have that problem.  I can easily sort all my playlists, find the offending song, and eject it.  I can start a radio station from any of my playlists and find music that fits just perfectly.

Anyway, this is long, but I don’t care.  I love music and I really enjoy Spotify.  And if you made it through all of this, you might just like it, too! Loves all!