This is another installment of a series we’d like to call Track5Takes. Throughout the week, we come across a variety of interesting subjects dealing with marketing, social media, and technology among other things. Our staff often discusses these articles or videos, with each of us forming our own opinions. We’d like to not only inform you about what’s going on in the web-marketing and technological world, but we want to show a little personality by giving our own “takes” on various issues.
This week we came across an article on The Ringer titled “A Short History of the Spotify-Apple Music Beef.” The article details the competition between both streaming powerhouses and it sparked a debate in the office over what the best streaming site is. Many of us remain “plugged in” throughout the day, listening to music on our computers and the staff had various opinions over who the reigns supreme in the streaming kingdom.
Troy Diffenderfer, Marketing Intern
In this two-party streaming race, I’ve actually decided to go the “Gary Johnson” of music streaming services…Pandora. Now hear me out. I realize that Pandora isn’t the music streaming goliath that Spotify or Apple might be, however, I like to think I act a lot older than I really am. I don’t like to change. I come home, watch Jeopardy every night, eat a bowl of ice cream, and listen to Pandora. I don’t need a fancy new iPhone or “exclusive” content. I want to throw on a random series of songs that I can enjoy.
I’ve always been someone to grab my pickaxe and mine the Internet like a 49er looking golden nuggets of music. I then proceed to hoard those nuggets of music like a crazy person, convincing myself that I discovered them first and that nobody else is worthy of hearing them besides me. This yet another reason I enjoy Pandora – because new artists can emerge at literally any moment.
As new technology emerges that could ban the recording of live music, it’s becoming more and more important for music streaming services to provide music at a moment’s notice. I’ll let Apple and Spotify slug things out while Pandora slowly and steadily becomes your favorite place to mine musical nuggets of gold.
Connor Smith, Marketing Specialist
As a very active music listener, I’ve aligned with the Spotify music streaming crowd for some time now, mostly because it’s been around before Apple Music and Tidal (if it’s even worth mentioning.) In most cases, I’m able to find all of the music I need with Spotify and more. Unlike Apple Music, Spotify does still have a free version with commercials here and there.
Recently, Frank Ocean’s Blond had me mooching off my sister’s Apple Music account — only to block me once she started listening on a separate device. This still happens with Spotify if the music is streaming, but otherwise, if the files are downloaded and saved there isn’t much of an issue. Plus, I really enjoy Spotify’s black and green interface — it’s refreshing and much easier to look at than other platforms I’ve seen.
Whether Spotify is actually surpassing Apple Music-exclusive artists seems unlikely, but then again I might do the same thing if clients started choosing a competitor for their releases.
Spotify, just gets Frank Ocean’s new album up for me and we’re totally good.
Ekom Enyong, Marketing Specialist
Let me say this first. I choose Apple over everything and I always have. I’m honestly not even sure I could work somewhere that didn’t use Mac computers. I have a whole slew of Apple products:
- An iPod that uses the click wheel (What’s a Zune?)
- The first three generations of iPod Touch
- Some old iPhone 4S’ (2 still in boxes)
- My old white MacBook that wasn’t even the unibody style
- My current iPhone 6 (Can’t wait to get a 7Plus in my hands!)
- My new 15” MacBook Pro powerhouse
I say all this in hopes that other Apple fanatics will not read this and see me as a traitor, but I’m going to say it: Spotify is a way better music streaming service than Apple Music.
There I said it! Do with me what you want, but first, let me tell you why.
If I had to choose one reason, in particular, it would be that Spotify’s user experience is absolutely phenomenal. When I want to quickly queue up songs, on the mobile app I can simply swipe right on the song to add them up next. If I queue up something that I don’t want to hear, I can easily swipe left and remove a song from the list.
Spotify has an amazing Discover Weekly playlist that changes, yes you guessed it, weekly. Depending on what you’ve been listening to, it will give you a whole new list of songs that you’d probably like. I have found so many artists that I would have never found without Spotify. I can easily create playlists and send them to my friends, or follow their playlists.
I can plug my speakers into my computer, and as long as I’m on the same wifi network on my phone, I can still search, play music, change songs, or change listening devices right from my phone. This is an awesome and easily accessible feature that is great for parties or lazy Sunday afternoons.
I even tried Apple Music when they gave out the three-month trials. While it’s “pretty” (as all Apple products are), the interface leaves much to be desired. It takes at least 2 touches to be able to queue a song up. The “radio stations” Apple has never led me to discover new music. I don’t think Apple ever gave me a suggestion that I actually liked. Beyond that, when you use Apple Music, yes you can save the songs and such to your phone to access offline, but when you stop using Apple Music, you lose all that. After I ended my trial I had to say goodbye to all the music on my phone, my playlists were gone. I’m not sure if this still happens, but once was enough to let me know I would NEVER use Apple Music again.
I’m still #TeamApple, but Spotify will forever have my heart.
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