The Story of how a Spotify cynic finally embraced Spotify

A tale of laughter, sadness and content curation

Music plays a major role in most of our lives, whether it’s something we use to escape the current world we live in, or even just something to throw on in the background, pretty much everyone listens to music.

Quite some time back, Apple “revolutionised” music with the iPod and iTunes. Well over a decade later however, the mobile phone has replaced iPods for the majority of consumers and iTunes is a heaping pile of dog shit. This left a hole in the heart of many human beings. A hole that was filled when Spotify burst into the scene, offering the dream of being able to stream any song at any time, without having to buy it first. Something that even today is recognised as the most revolutionary thing to happen to the music industry since the iPod, no matter how much controversy T-Swizzle[1] tries to surround it in.

However, as fascinating and different Spotify seemed, it still wasn’t enough to convince me to sign up. Mostly because Spotify came out at the time I was going through my audiophile phase, and I hadn’t just spent upwards of $400 on equipment to listen to music on Spotify, which at the time was limited to 256kbps[2]. Even once I grew out of that phase, there was a lot about Spotify that I didn’t like.

I get it, people are social animals. With the advent of technologies such as Facebook and Twitter, sharing things became the norm. I for one, wasn’t very sold on the idea. I mean yeah it’s a brilliant idea, literally the number one way people find music is from their friends, this just automated the process. Even still, it’s not for everyone.

One of Spotify’s most touted features was the ability to stream music online without the need of having it stored offline, which makes the fact that in order to use it on desktop you had to download the app first. Seriously. These are just a few of the many gripes I have with Spotify. My biggest issue with Spotify however, is that I’m limited to the music that is on Spotify. I’m a person with weird taste, and not all of the music I listen to is available on Spotify. That’s why I love Google Play Music to death.

If you’re unfamiliar with Google Play Music, it has 2 parts to it. The free version of Google Play Music gives you a song locker of 50,000 to upload your own music, in my case, my old iTunes Library as well as all the random music I download from Soundcloud DJ’s that give you a free download if you like their Facebook page. I can then download the music to my phone, for free. If you’re willing to cough up the $11.99 per month, you get access to Google’s entire catalog of music to stream, which is just as vast as Spotify’s. So yeah, that’s how I primarily listen to music, music that I already own.

What about content discovery?

my music discovery game is messy, to say the least. Or at least it was. I used to primarily rely on Soundcloud and 8tracks, back when they were still integrated, YouTube for remixes and cover bands and Shazam’s top charts to see what was the trendy music kids these days listen to.

If you know me, you’d know I have digital OCD. I basically need all files sorted properly and all my software working at it’s highest level of efficiency. So yeah, my discovery setup was bothering me more and more everyday. Surprising as it seems however, that’s not what pushed me over the edge into Spotify’s dystopia.

What finally pushed me to the edge, was Apple Music. In case you haven’t heard, Apple finally launched their competitor to Spotify and Google Play Music, which I had a lot of hope for. What Apple did, instead of starting from scratch, was purchase Beats for $3billion, just so it could essentially take the technology behind Beats Music, and repurpose it as Apple Music. At the time of their announcement, I had major hope for this. Beats Music was actually not bad, it’s just that they lacked content, content that Apple had access to. However, what Apple did, instead of give Beats Music the push it needed, was build it atop iTunes, causing it to have major issues and defects, where some users even reported having lost their entire music library. Thanks Apple.

Remember a few paragraphs back when I mentioned how much of a mess my content discovery system was? Well the reason I didn’t bother doing that, was because I presumed I’d be moving to Apple Music. Apple Music was offering up what I always wanted, something like Google Play Music, with the music locker and all, at a much lower price than Google Play Music[3]. Given all it’s problems however, I was left feeling empty and alone, with a void that, at that very moment, only Spotify could fill.

I had considered Rdio and the other available platforms, but after assessing the situation, it seemed like Spotify, as much as I’d have hated to admit it, was the better option. I’m glad I decided to wait to become a Spotify user however, since it gave them a while to work out all their kinks. Firstly, you no longer need to log in with Facebook, although the process to sign up with an email address is quite cumbersome, it works, and it gives you the added benefit of not having to follow people. Another thing that Spotify doesn’t advertise is that by going to play.spotify.com, you get access to a web interface, allowing you to completely skip their shitty desktop app altogether. The web interface is so much prettier and usable than the desktop app, and in my experience, seems to have no advertisements, even on a free account.

So now that I’m finally on Spotify, what do I think?

Well, it’s not as bad as I first believed it to be. I’d like to keep ripping into it, but as I’m sitting here, listening to brampton-based rapper Fateh DOE’s latest single on Spotify, while simultaneously curating a playlist of his music (that would be a pain in the ass to find elsewhere), I can say I’m pretty happy with the service. Sure, I’m not gonna give up Google Play Music any time soon, and I’m still not going to use Spotify’s garbage mobile app, but its safe to say that the majority of my music discovery is now Spotify based, because even if they don’t have a lot of the artists I like listening to, their curated playlists are on point, and that’s something I can appreciate.

[1] T-Swizzle is Taylor Swift.

[2] With music files, the higher the bitrate, the better the quality of the music. Mp3 files are limited to a max bitrate of 320kbps whereas FLAC (Lossless) files come in at ~1000kbps (Aprox 50mb a song).

[3] Although not much cheaper in Australia, Apple Music costs only $7 in Indonesia, and $2 in India