Richard Book is Innocent (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
oxfordtweed) wrote2012-01-31 07:28 am
oxfordtweed) wrote2012-01-31 07:28 am
Entry tags:
Comparison of Subscription Music Services
I love iTunes. I swear by their Genius feature. I love that thing, but it is rather restrictive, in that it only works with what's on your hard drive. Which, sure. I've got close to 12,000 songs in my iTunes, so I get a great selection with the Genius feature. But I still only hear what I've already got. So, I set out to find something new that works on a similar level. Using iTunes as my control, I tested Last.fm, Pandora, and Spotify.
I went looking for several key features:
Most important for me were the listen to what I want when I want factors. I tested this by inputting Journey's Don't Stop Believin' and telling the services to give me music based on that song.
iTunes
Genius: In main music menu, search for 'Don't Stop Believin.' Select song, play, click Genius button, and 100 songs are populated. First five songs on the list:
Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
Ataris - Boys of Summer
Kansas - Carry on my Wayward Son
The Beatles - All You need is Love
Foreigner - Jukebox Hero
Mobile use: Functionally identical. Searched Don't Believin. Select Song. Click Genius. First five songs on the list:
Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
Golden Earring - Radar Love
Kansas - Dust in the Wind
Foreigner - Jukebox Hero
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters (Elevator Version)
Primary drawbacks: Only populates up to 100 songs, and can only use what's already in your library. Occasionally forgets what it's doing, and thinks that a remix of Disturbed's Stupefy belongs on the same playlist as Journey and Kansas.
Additional pros: Available offline. iTunes store makes purchasing new music easy (but can get expensive). Can save what Genius creates as a unique playlist. Genius populates a slightly different playlist (this really only works if you have a massive library. It's great on my computer. On my phone, not so much).
Last.fm
Last.fm Radio: Searched Journey - Don't Stop Believin'. Error message: This station does not have enough playable content.
Searched Don't Stop Believin. Same error message.
Searched Journey. First five songs to play:
Journey - Who's Crying Now
Bad English - When I See You Smile
Night Ranger - (You Can Still) Rock in America
Survivor - The Search is Over
Steve Perry - Oh Sherrie
Note: I've been trying this all month, and this is the first time it's ever actually played for me the artist I told it to play.
Mobile use: Type in Journey - Don't Stop Believin. Gives me a list of all the albums on which this track has appeared. Select first option. Get new option to play Journey radio. First five songs played:
Asia - Voice of America
Def Leppard - Love Bites
Whitesnake - Is This Love
Toto - I'll Be Over You
Sammy Hagar - There's Only One way to Rock
Primary drawbacks: Cannot search for specific tracks easily. Cannot listen to specific tracks without dicking around with playlists.
Additional pros: It does seem to have fewer of the lolwut moments common with Genius, but that's not enough to keep me.
Pandora
Pandora Radio: Searched Journey - Don't Stop Believin. Selected Songs. Could only find the 2008 re-released or the Glee recording. Selected 2008 re-release. Selected Create Station. First five songs played:
Relient K - Manic Monday
Favorita - Now
Our Lady Peace - Angels Losing Sleep
The Afters - Tonight
Shooting Star - Love is a Shield
Mobile use: Searched Journey - Don't Stop Believin. Selected the '08 re-release. First five songs played:
The Outline - Shotgun
Saosin - You're Not Alone
Armchair Martian - Give In
Joey Tempest - Forgiven
Journey - Where Did I Lose Your Love
Primary drawbacks: Nothing but lolwhut moments. Too many clicks to play a station. Doesn't seem to actually know who Journey even is. Mobile version doesn't even work in the back of my apartment, on either of our phones.
Additional pros: I can't find any. Good if you like to be surprised, I guess.
Spotify
Spotify Search: Searched Journey - Don't Stop Believin. Gave me the Glee recording. Searched Journey. Clicked on Journey. Clicked Don't Stop Believin. Right click on track, select Start Radio.
Doing this interrupts the song and starts something new. This does not stop you from listening to the song and then going back and starting the radio station later.
Spotify Radio: Clicked create new station. Searched Journey. First five tracks played:
Journey - Wheel in the Sky
38 Special - Hold On Loosely
Toto - I'll Be Over You
Billy Joel - It's Still Rock and Roll to Me
The Hooters - Satellite
Searching for a specific song seems to break the radio feature. As in, tell it to play Don't Stop Believin, and get nothing but 80s synth-pop. Although, I feel being able to search for specific songs and jump off of those makes up for this weird fault in the radio feature, though.
Mobile use: No radio feature. Can still search for specific songs and artists as well as sync your playlists.
Primary drawbacks: No radio feature on the mobile app. Spotify radio interrupts the song you're playing, rather than building around it. Occasionally has the sort of lolwhut moments that will randomly put classical music in your classic rock station. Doesn't seem to know who the Eagles or Led Zeppelin are.
Additional pros: music can be made available offline. Fulfils the what I want, when I want criteria almost perfectly. Can listen to entire albums and build specific playlists, or just 'star' tracks that you like to make them available later.
While I still love iTunes, Spotify is a very close second for me. The fact that the mobile app lacks a radio function, and their lack of certain artists is keeping them from becoming my primary music service, however.
I went looking for several key features:
- The ability to listen to a specific song, artist, or album at any given time
- The ability to create a 'radio station' based on the selected song, artist, or album
- The created radio station to start with the specific song or artist I selected to build upon
Most important for me were the listen to what I want when I want factors. I tested this by inputting Journey's Don't Stop Believin' and telling the services to give me music based on that song.
iTunes
Genius: In main music menu, search for 'Don't Stop Believin.' Select song, play, click Genius button, and 100 songs are populated. First five songs on the list:
Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
Ataris - Boys of Summer
Kansas - Carry on my Wayward Son
The Beatles - All You need is Love
Foreigner - Jukebox Hero
Mobile use: Functionally identical. Searched Don't Believin. Select Song. Click Genius. First five songs on the list:
Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
Golden Earring - Radar Love
Kansas - Dust in the Wind
Foreigner - Jukebox Hero
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters (Elevator Version)
Primary drawbacks: Only populates up to 100 songs, and can only use what's already in your library. Occasionally forgets what it's doing, and thinks that a remix of Disturbed's Stupefy belongs on the same playlist as Journey and Kansas.
Additional pros: Available offline. iTunes store makes purchasing new music easy (but can get expensive). Can save what Genius creates as a unique playlist. Genius populates a slightly different playlist (this really only works if you have a massive library. It's great on my computer. On my phone, not so much).
Last.fm
Last.fm Radio: Searched Journey - Don't Stop Believin'. Error message: This station does not have enough playable content.
Searched Don't Stop Believin. Same error message.
Searched Journey. First five songs to play:
Journey - Who's Crying Now
Bad English - When I See You Smile
Night Ranger - (You Can Still) Rock in America
Survivor - The Search is Over
Steve Perry - Oh Sherrie
Note: I've been trying this all month, and this is the first time it's ever actually played for me the artist I told it to play.
Mobile use: Type in Journey - Don't Stop Believin. Gives me a list of all the albums on which this track has appeared. Select first option. Get new option to play Journey radio. First five songs played:
Asia - Voice of America
Def Leppard - Love Bites
Whitesnake - Is This Love
Toto - I'll Be Over You
Sammy Hagar - There's Only One way to Rock
Primary drawbacks: Cannot search for specific tracks easily. Cannot listen to specific tracks without dicking around with playlists.
Additional pros: It does seem to have fewer of the lolwut moments common with Genius, but that's not enough to keep me.
Pandora
Pandora Radio: Searched Journey - Don't Stop Believin. Selected Songs. Could only find the 2008 re-released or the Glee recording. Selected 2008 re-release. Selected Create Station. First five songs played:
Relient K - Manic Monday
Favorita - Now
Our Lady Peace - Angels Losing Sleep
The Afters - Tonight
Shooting Star - Love is a Shield
Mobile use: Searched Journey - Don't Stop Believin. Selected the '08 re-release. First five songs played:
The Outline - Shotgun
Saosin - You're Not Alone
Armchair Martian - Give In
Joey Tempest - Forgiven
Journey - Where Did I Lose Your Love
Primary drawbacks: Nothing but lolwhut moments. Too many clicks to play a station. Doesn't seem to actually know who Journey even is. Mobile version doesn't even work in the back of my apartment, on either of our phones.
Additional pros: I can't find any. Good if you like to be surprised, I guess.
Spotify
Spotify Search: Searched Journey - Don't Stop Believin. Gave me the Glee recording. Searched Journey. Clicked on Journey. Clicked Don't Stop Believin. Right click on track, select Start Radio.
Doing this interrupts the song and starts something new. This does not stop you from listening to the song and then going back and starting the radio station later.
Spotify Radio: Clicked create new station. Searched Journey. First five tracks played:
Journey - Wheel in the Sky
38 Special - Hold On Loosely
Toto - I'll Be Over You
Billy Joel - It's Still Rock and Roll to Me
The Hooters - Satellite
Searching for a specific song seems to break the radio feature. As in, tell it to play Don't Stop Believin, and get nothing but 80s synth-pop. Although, I feel being able to search for specific songs and jump off of those makes up for this weird fault in the radio feature, though.
Mobile use: No radio feature. Can still search for specific songs and artists as well as sync your playlists.
Primary drawbacks: No radio feature on the mobile app. Spotify radio interrupts the song you're playing, rather than building around it. Occasionally has the sort of lolwhut moments that will randomly put classical music in your classic rock station. Doesn't seem to know who the Eagles or Led Zeppelin are.
Additional pros: music can be made available offline. Fulfils the what I want, when I want criteria almost perfectly. Can listen to entire albums and build specific playlists, or just 'star' tracks that you like to make them available later.
While I still love iTunes, Spotify is a very close second for me. The fact that the mobile app lacks a radio function, and their lack of certain artists is keeping them from becoming my primary music service, however.
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On the other hand (and I complained to them about this) I had the Maccabeats on my radio stations and they kept interpreting that as just "religious music" (with no further information like... what spiritual group those musicians belong to. I was all, "Nuuuuu, stop trying to get me to listen to gospel music/Christian rock!"