Which one do you think is better?

I like both of them but I like Spotify a little more, though it's more expensive.

Or, is there a better online music service?

11/12/2011 9:03:41 PM

Both of them have huge gaps in selection. At this point, it's whatever interface you prefer.

11/12/2011 9:07:06 PM

Spotify >> Pandora

Pandora plays the same 20-30 songs on each station all the damn time. I'm always hitting "i'm tired of this track."

Spotify is awesome since its way easier to discover new music by shared playlists and "similar artists" on the bands pages...with a bigger pro being on-demand songs versus getting whatever is served up to you. It's like having 95% of all songs, stored on your hard drive (since they play near instantly and you can skip forward like it's stored locally). Plus I like making certain playlists and having them available anywhere, even on my phone.

Quote :

"Both of them have huge gaps in selection."

I don't really run into that very often with Spotify...there are some holes for me, but they're not that large.

Quote :

"At this point, it's whatever interface you prefer."

That argument is true for Slacker vs Pandora (which I like slacker way more), but in this case it's streaming radio versus on-demand music...different models.

11/12/2011 9:08:14 PM

iheartradio ftw

11/12/2011 9:13:57 PM

Clear Channel ftl

11/12/2011 9:16:01 PM

don't mind the troll

11/12/2011 9:18:34 PM

I have yet to figure out Spotify, cant even get the shit to run.

I can do allll this shit that is so much more complicated, but Spotify confuses the shit out of me

11/12/2011 9:23:16 PM

Quote :

"in this case it's streaming radio versus on-demand music...different models."

I use them for the same purpose, so it doesn't make much difference to me. If you tailor Pandora properly, it can be pretty damn brilliant. I have a station based on "Cut Your Hair" by Pavement, and after a few tweaks it has never played a song I didn't enjoy.

11/12/2011 9:23:44 PM

TuneIn radio app and MPoD are all I need

11/12/2011 9:27:34 PM

Quote :

"I use them for the same purpose, so it doesn't make much difference to me"

I like being able to type in any artist or song and have it available for playing right now...not wait until some algorithm decides to play it. I also like custom radio stations, but I like on-demand music and custom playlists more. I remember I used to have a playlist on playlist.com full of my favorite songs, but I couldn't get it to play on my mobile device...not I can with Spotify

11/12/2011 9:31:44 PM

Quote :

"Spotify confuses the shit out of me"

Just type in an artist you like and click on the song you want to listen to? Where's the confusion?

11/12/2011 11:31:11 PM

Shit, I haven't even got to that step. It won't load on my PC half the time, when it does it asks to sync my music but it never finishes most of the time, when it does, my mUsic isn't on my app on my phone. Songs don't show up under songs or artists, but it does show up under playlists, but then it says it cannot play any of the songs

[Edited on November 12, 2011 at 11:48 PM. Reason : R]

11/12/2011 11:46:17 PM

Nah. It's actually awesome.

11/12/2011 11:48:05 PM

i mostly use youtube for on demand song selection

it's very rare i don't find a song i'm looking for on there. can't say that for spotify

11/12/2011 11:49:45 PM

Youtube + youtube2mp3 + "add to iTunes library" = all music problems solved

11/13/2011 1:33:22 AM

Quote :

"i mostly use youtube for on demand song selection"

I'm no audiophile, but the audio quality in youtube sucks...as does the buffering.

Quote :

"when it does it asks to sync my music but it never finishes most of the time, when it does, my mUsic isn't on my app on my phone. Songs don't show up under songs or artists, but it does show up under playlists, but then it says it cannot play any of the songs"

I've never had any of those problems. I've never seen Spotify try to upload my local music to the cloud...it's all about streaming cloud music to me. It's really not that complicated...the software is well written and it works great.

11/13/2011 1:52:24 AM

I use my own music collection for on-demand music; I use online stuff for discovering new things, and for that, I prefer turntable.fm. It's like having lots of recommendation engines that you can actually talk to.

11/13/2011 2:37:56 AM

I like pandora cause it will give you a good playlist from one song that you like

I like spotify cause you can play anysong you like...and you an repeat it as many times as you want.

11/13/2011 2:38:53 AM

+1 for spotify, I listen to it all day at work. I've listened to so many albums that I used to love but forggot about. The only real downside comes when searching for artists who arent included yet (led zep, beatles, chili peppers)

11/13/2011 7:33:57 AM

another thing i love about spotify is the ability to listen to albums, all the way through. id say i spend more time on albums than i do playlists.

11/14/2011 5:04:04 PM

^that's probably my most favorite feature of spotify

11/14/2011 5:15:29 PM

I have not gone over to spotify yet. I just have had too much invested into pandora atm and the stations that I listen to while studying increase productivity.

Concept 9 radio (the group is Kodomo, the song is Concept 9)is currently what I am listening to.

I'll prob go to spotify when it hits a low in popularity. I am just lame like that, not in the in-crowd all the time.

Really cool that some of my teacher colleagues have been using it in their class for historical context.

[Edited on December 2, 2011 at 4:37 PM. Reason : I know qntmfred is facepalming right now. He uses spotify for sure. In crowd.]

12/2/2011 4:36:59 PM

my main problem with spotify is when i search for a specific song, they don't have the rights to a lot of songs, but they sure as hell have the rights to a lot of shitty covers by studio bands "in the style of" the original artist and karaoke versions

not just talking about metallica and led zeppelin etc

sometimes a man just wants to listen to "return of the mack"

[Edited on December 2, 2011 at 4:44 PM. Reason : you lied to me, spotify]

12/2/2011 4:43:25 PM

Return of the Mack is an all time classic

12/2/2011 4:45:35 PM

not when it's covered by Vagrant and the Fingerless Gloves for a flask of thunderbird

12/2/2011 4:48:04 PM

Zune

12/2/2011 5:27:36 PM

spotify easily wins imo. not only for the streaming choices but the local file player is pretty convenient to have in the same application.

12/2/2011 5:34:37 PM

Use them both. Pandora for radio and Spotify for albums. Spotify's radio just isn't there yet.

Another thing to note. Pandora One = 192kbps Spotify = 320kbps. I try not to go below 320kbps for most music. Starts to get flat.

12/2/2011 6:57:51 PM

Quote :

"Both of them have huge gaps in selection. At this point, it's whatever interface you prefer."

12/2/2011 7:01:15 PM

spotify by far

i like making/sharing playlists

and for fuck's sake, if you run spotify and have it publish stories to your feed, make a custom list of 'only friends with spotify'. no need to berate your spotifyless friends with your stupid shit.

12/2/2011 7:36:28 PM

Quote :

"no need to berate your spotifyless friends with your stupid shit."

Cept half the people I know who've gotten Spotify got it because they tried to click on a link on Facebook.

12/2/2011 7:38:54 PM

something that I have noticed is that since the latest Pandora upgrade that a lot of my previous "thumbs up" were not saved.

12/3/2011 9:27:21 AM

I like the new spotify radio

12/21/2011 9:00:32 AM

One thing I've noticed about Spotify is their "shuffle" options doesnt really shuffle for me...it always keeps going back to the same few bands on my 100 band playlist. i read somewhere to also turn on the "repeat" option at the same time, and it actually seems like it's shuffling a lot better

12/21/2011 11:16:26 AM

pandora has the best recomendation engine which is why i like it. just wish their library was bigger

12/21/2011 11:19:27 AM

damn spotify doesn't connect to the internet at work (probably blocked)

12/21/2011 11:40:49 AM

^^ do you mean via their radio feature? i haven't run into any recommendations using their playlist functionality yet.

12/21/2011 11:43:04 AM

There's also Rdio...

12/21/2011 11:45:35 AM

I haven't tried Rdio.

Pandora's radio algorithm is better than Spotify's radio

Also, Pandora plays Beatles' tunes, and Spotify doesn't.

I'm putting them at even.

[Edited on June 25, 2012 at 10:42 PM. Reason : ...]

6/25/2012 10:41:37 PM

yep they are both mediocre services. could be better.

maybe if you put the good aspects of both services together, you'll be golden.

6/25/2012 10:49:01 PM

Quote :

"Pandora's radio algorithm is better than Spotify's radio"

You don't download Spotify for the radio functionality. You download Spotify to play whatever artist/album/song you wanna hear at that moment.

Spotify >> Pandora because you have control over what you're listening to.

6/25/2012 10:59:16 PM

I have never got Spotify to work ever. I started it up, started synching all my music or something and would stop halfway or just close out, then it would never start up right again

6/25/2012 11:15:51 PM

but spotify sucks because it broadcasts what you're listening to which annoys all your friends on Facebook.

6/25/2012 11:17:03 PM

Quote :

"I started it up, started synching all my music or something and would stop halfway or just close out"

Sounds like you're bad with technology. It's not nearly as complicated as you're describing. It doesn't touch your local music collection.

^ Derp derp. a) you have to opt-in for that to happen. b) after your dumb ass opts in, you can always turn it off in the settings.

6/25/2012 11:33:24 PM

I have had no problems with tons of other shit over the past 20+ years, but this one god damn thing doesnt work for me... and what do you mean it doesnt touch it? what was it synching then?

6/25/2012 11:35:43 PM

The only time it synchs anything is when you elect to download one of your playlists to your computer/device. It doesn't do it by default.

6/25/2012 11:37:05 PM

when I first installed it like a year ago it said "synching library" and progress bar came up and after like an hour it was maybe 2% done and then it just stopped.

6/25/2012 11:37:59 PM

Only thing I don't like about spotify is that songs will randomly go gray in my playlists and they won't play anymore

6/25/2012 11:43:30 PM

I'm using subsonic now...

making use of my library!

6/25/2012 11:43:35 PM

so, i just reinstalled this shit, and it still had some shit stored from last time. there are 305 song in my library, and 203 in my local files section. I have about 15,000 songs on iTunes. How do I get them to where I can play them via spotify without somehow syncing them?

6/25/2012 11:45:31 PM