5 ms·

I honestly prefer Spotify. The reality is that I have 1014 songs on my playlist at the time of writing, and it sets me back the equivalent of about $5 PM (Conve

by Nodzi 7y ago

I honestly prefer Spotify. The reality is that I have 1014 songs on my playlist at the time of writing, and it sets me back the equivalent of about $5 PM (Converted from ZAR), and I get to be picky about what I listen to frequently. In an album from someone, odds are that I might like 2 of the songs at most, so buying a CD for only 2 songs is a pointless activity for me. This means that to collect 1000 songs that I like on CD I'll have to buy 500 CDS total. That's a lot of money. I also enjoy being able to mix up my music and not having to swap out discs when I get tired of an artist. I understand privacy is an issue for some, but I don't really care if Spotify collects the data of who I listen to, it only improves their algorithm and makes my music discoveries easier. The reality is that you're always connected to the internet, and even if you listen to CDs on your computer the media player is still collecting your data and behaviour.

Spearchucker 7y ago
Your comment about liking say 2 songs on a album is interesting. I bought the double disk Led Zep Remasters CD in 1992 just for Immigrant Song. And since then have grown to love all of their stuff. Sure, since ~1990 I have amassed lot of complete albums (almost 2,000 of them) which cost me a lot of money. Spotify Premium at €10/month for all those years is €3,480. Suspect Spotify is cheaper but I've developed this crazy distrust for anything I supposedly own but isn't DRM-free on my PC. Yoar approach is easier, no doubt.
tadzik_ 7y ago
> even if you listen to CDs on your computer the media player is still collecting your data and behaviour I'm not sure what OS or media player you use(d), but implying that it's somehow inherent to playing music on your computer in general is an overstatement, to put it mildly. As a counterpoint to your argument: I tried Spotify and went back to offline music. I don't use CDs of course, it's all ripped to MP3 and sitting there on my hard drives, with some of it copied over to my phone. The internet is always there except when it isn't – cross the border to a non-EU country with crazy roaming charges and suddenly you'd wish that you had stuff offline with you. On the other hand with online services the music collection you have “with you” is effectively infinite, as long as the data connection is up. There's ups and downs to everything. The thing that ultimately turns me off from Spotify is the client: I've come to expect the ability to add a few albums to a makeshift playlist, shuffle the tracks, remove some of them because I don't like them, reorder a few songs whenever I feel like it etc. Whenever I try out Spotify it seems like my options are either to listen to whatever The Algorithm[tm] serves me or painstakingly create a custom playlist every time I want to listen to something non-standard. The “Play Queue” management in Spotify is next to nonexistent (or hidden so well in the UI that I couldn't find it), and compared to regular desktop players like Cantata it's just annoying to use.
- JCharante 7y ago
  I started using Youtube Music last year. Recently I flew overseas, and for this reason I had downloaded some music (300+ songs) with their download for offline play feature. During my layover I connected to some airport wifi, and almost instantly I lost access to offline play of most of my songs because of licensing issues with the country that I was in. I've since learned to always use a VPN that terminates in the US before launching Youtube Music.
  - TacticalTable 7y ago
    I think this is more of a Youtube issue than a music issue. I can't imagine Youtube Music is going to exist for long, given that 90% of the GPM subscribers I've talked to would rather swap to spotify than use YTM.
- Nodzi 7y ago
  I run Spotify premium like I mentioned in the original post. This means that all songs I add to my libraries are automatically downloaded. Whenever my internet is down or my phone is away from WIFI I can continue listening to my music in the same way that you do, which is why I have no reason to use CDs for offline music
gman83 7y ago
Does Spotify notify you in any way if any song that you have in your playlist is removed from their library? I have playlists on GPM and sometimes songs just disappear because they've been removed from the service. No notification or anything, I just realize the song's gone after I check for it. I'm considering switching and if this is implemented better I'd definitely go for it.
- isolli 7y ago
  Deezer tells you (if you look): the song appears grayed out in the playlist. I like that because a playlist is also a knowledge repository; and if the song ever comes back it will hopefully be reinstated.
  - uhoh-itsmaciek 7y ago
    I've definitely had songs be deleted and then come back to the service under a different "identity", so that my playlist still contains the old deleted song and the replacement version of the same track on the same release of the same album is playable in the service but is not on my playlist.
- Nodzi 7y ago
  Though they don't explicitly notify you, they keep the song on your playlist, they just gray it out. That way you can know when it's been removed, but unfortunately it's still inconvenient.
matwood 7y ago
Agreed. I have Apple Music. $99/year, and it's easy to find $100 iTunes gift cards for $85 (sometimes even $80) each year to renew. So ~$7/month is a great value and less than a new CD each month.
asdff 7y ago
I do have spotify and it's nice to have basically legal limewire, but I've started to buy vinyl too. My dad unloaded his amp and speakers on me so the start up cost was basically my first record and a stolen milk crate. I used to build very intricate playlists years ago on itunes but I don't really have the motivation or time for that anymore and spotify radio and a lot of user playlists has me reaching to skip songs quite a bit. I got into vinyl because there are a few artists I like where I prefer listening to an album all the way through (Kendrick and Frank Ocean in particular). It's not a smattering of random songs like a pop album, but a whole 45-1h narrative, balancing energy and calmness, transitioning from one emotion into another, telling a different story about the people in this world. It made me like songs I used to skip over because I had been listening to them without their necessary context. Pulling a record out of the sleeve and dropping the needle turned listening into a conscious ritual, forcing my engagement with the storytelling, and gave me a deeper appreciation for the efforts of the artist. When I dig through my crate I'm met with memories and feelings with each album I own, like going through a box of photos. Vinyl isn't cheap, but buying a record a month isn't much more than a spotify or netflix subscription.

by Nodzi 7y ago

Spearchucker 7y ago

Your comment about liking say 2 songs on a album is interesting. I bought the double disk Led Zep Remasters CD in 1992 just for Immigrant Song. And since then have grown to love all of their stuff. Sure, since ~1990 I have amassed lot of complete albums (almost 2,000 of them) which cost me a lot of money. Spotify Premium at €10/month for all those years is €3,480. Suspect Spotify is cheaper but I've developed this crazy distrust for anything I supposedly own but isn't DRM-free on my PC. Yoar approach is easier, no doubt.

tadzik_ 7y ago

> even if you listen to CDs on your computer the media player is still collecting your data and behaviour I'm not sure what OS or media player you use(d), but implying that it's somehow inherent to playing music on your computer in general is an overstatement, to put it mildly. As a counterpoint to your argument: I tried Spotify and went back to offline music. I don't use CDs of course, it's all ripped to MP3 and sitting there on my hard drives, with some of it copied over to my phone. The internet is always there except when it isn't – cross the border to a non-EU country with crazy roaming charges and suddenly you'd wish that you had stuff offline with you. On the other hand with online services the music collection you have “with you” is effectively infinite, as long as the data connection is up. There's ups and downs to everything. The thing that ultimately turns me off from Spotify is the client: I've come to expect the ability to add a few albums to a makeshift playlist, shuffle the tracks, remove some of them because I don't like them, reorder a few songs whenever I feel like it etc. Whenever I try out Spotify it seems like my options are either to listen to whatever The Algorithm[tm] serves me or painstakingly create a custom playlist every time I want to listen to something non-standard. The “Play Queue” management in Spotify is next to nonexistent (or hidden so well in the UI that I couldn't find it), and compared to regular desktop players like Cantata it's just annoying to use.

JCharante 7y ago
I started using Youtube Music last year. Recently I flew overseas, and for this reason I had downloaded some music (300+ songs) with their download for offline play feature. During my layover I connected to some airport wifi, and almost instantly I lost access to offline play of most of my songs because of licensing issues with the country that I was in. I've since learned to always use a VPN that terminates in the US before launching Youtube Music.
- TacticalTable 7y ago
  I think this is more of a Youtube issue than a music issue. I can't imagine Youtube Music is going to exist for long, given that 90% of the GPM subscribers I've talked to would rather swap to spotify than use YTM.
Nodzi 7y ago
I run Spotify premium like I mentioned in the original post. This means that all songs I add to my libraries are automatically downloaded. Whenever my internet is down or my phone is away from WIFI I can continue listening to my music in the same way that you do, which is why I have no reason to use CDs for offline music

gman83 7y ago

Does Spotify notify you in any way if any song that you have in your playlist is removed from their library? I have playlists on GPM and sometimes songs just disappear because they've been removed from the service. No notification or anything, I just realize the song's gone after I check for it. I'm considering switching and if this is implemented better I'd definitely go for it.

isolli 7y ago
Deezer tells you (if you look): the song appears grayed out in the playlist. I like that because a playlist is also a knowledge repository; and if the song ever comes back it will hopefully be reinstated.
- uhoh-itsmaciek 7y ago
  I've definitely had songs be deleted and then come back to the service under a different "identity", so that my playlist still contains the old deleted song and the replacement version of the same track on the same release of the same album is playable in the service but is not on my playlist.
Nodzi 7y ago
Though they don't explicitly notify you, they keep the song on your playlist, they just gray it out. That way you can know when it's been removed, but unfortunately it's still inconvenient.

matwood 7y ago

Agreed. I have Apple Music. $99/year, and it's easy to find $100 iTunes gift cards for $85 (sometimes even $80) each year to renew. So ~$7/month is a great value and less than a new CD each month.

asdff 7y ago

I do have spotify and it's nice to have basically legal limewire, but I've started to buy vinyl too. My dad unloaded his amp and speakers on me so the start up cost was basically my first record and a stolen milk crate. I used to build very intricate playlists years ago on itunes but I don't really have the motivation or time for that anymore and spotify radio and a lot of user playlists has me reaching to skip songs quite a bit. I got into vinyl because there are a few artists I like where I prefer listening to an album all the way through (Kendrick and Frank Ocean in particular). It's not a smattering of random songs like a pop album, but a whole 45-1h narrative, balancing energy and calmness, transitioning from one emotion into another, telling a different story about the people in this world. It made me like songs I used to skip over because I had been listening to them without their necessary context. Pulling a record out of the sleeve and dropping the needle turned listening into a conscious ritual, forcing my engagement with the storytelling, and gave me a deeper appreciation for the efforts of the artist. When I dig through my crate I'm met with memories and feelings with each album I own, like going through a box of photos. Vinyl isn't cheap, but buying a record a month isn't much more than a spotify or netflix subscription.