Spotify vs Rdio

Anybody tried one or both of these yet?

I am already a paid-up Rdio subscriber and loving it.

Last night I tried Spotify for the first time and was pretty impressed also.

Initial thoughts:

- Spotify's "Free with Ads" service is great (and an advantage over Rdio) and their pricing for the other plans is pretty similar to Rdio. Listened to an album all the way through on Spotify and didn't even hear an ad yet.

- It fucking sucks that you have to use Facebook to log in to Spotify. I'm not a FB user but I created a dummy account last night specifically for that purpose. Hopefully I will never need to actually login to FB again but I feel kind of dirty anyway.

- It was magic when Spotify automatically went through my iTunes and added every single song I have to my Spotify library. This allows me to easily create playlists that integrate songs from Spotify with songs that Spotify doesn't have (and presumably Spotify won't stream any of those songs when I play them thereby saving on data? Not too sure about how the technology works though). Rdio does have an iTunes "Match" feature that populates your Rdio collection with any music that you already have, but only if Rdio has it in their catalogue. It doesn't integrate any other music you have in the same way that Spotify does.

- Did a quick test on some obscurish music and there doesn't seem too much to choose between Spotify and Rdio's catalogues. A few albums missing from both, but overall they both have an amazing selection.

- I think I marginally still prefer the Rdio user interface and mobile apps. They just look a bit nicer and less cluttered, although they are pretty similar really.

- The social side of Rdio - within the app itself, at least - is far better. Much easier to click around and find out who's listening to what etc. I'm not using FB though, which is obviously where Spotify have chosen to locate their social experience.

Overall, I think I'll probably stick with my paid Rdio subscription for now and use the free version of Spotify to supplement it. That should give me access to just about any album out there. Spotify just doesn't seem to have enough killer features over and above Rdio to make me want to change, especially when I really don't like Spotify's close integration with FB.

Who else is using these? What are your thoughts? Any tips and tricks?

I have no idea what you are talking about young man (it's posts like these that makes me feel closer to leggy).

The world is moving way too fast.  I'd like to get off for a bit and have a nice cup of tea in a park with a band playing in a nearby rotunda.

I've not used a streaming music service before now, so I am trialling Spotify to see if I use it enough to make it worth paying for. 

If you are already a Facebook user there's absolutely no reason not to try the free Spotify service. It's basically free music, and lots of it.

If you're not a Facebook user then you've got to decide if it's worth getting an account, even if it's just a dummy account, just to get the free service.

If you would rather pay for a premium service then it gets a bit trickier. Even a Facebook user might prefer what Rdio's got to offer.

By the way, I should have mentioned before that the Spotify Terms & Conditions say that "The Spotify Service can be accessed (i) as an ad-supported free-to-the-user service having no monthly cap on listening hours or a cap on number of plays of a unique track during the first 6 months following creation of your Spotify account but thereafter a cap of 10 listening hours per month and a cap of 5 plays per unique track"

So after 6 months they will cap your free listening at 10 hours per month and 5 plays per track (not clear if that means per month or not). Just another reason for me to stick with Rdio, and only use Spotify to listen to stuff Rdio doesn't have.

One thing that could make a big difference though, is if one of these providers can cut deals with the main ISPs to unmeter their traffic. I am only just managing to stay within a 10G monthly allowance while using Rdio quite a bit.

Hopefully both Spotify and Rdio will have deals in place with all the big ISPs soon. That would really drive take-up, which in turn should result in more and more music being licensed for streaming here.

My guess is that they will each probably end up signing exclusive deals with one ISP, and the ISPs will then use that as a marketing tool.

And my guess is Telecom won't sign deals with either of them, like usual.

Just discovered this gem on Spotify. This is what music streaming is all about.  spoti.fi/Joe3UI #Spotify

the facebook bollocks has stalled my interest (but will prob relent)

liking Jango

and will check out Rdio - cheers for the heads up Termy

Tigers - you can get a weeks free trial of Rdio. At least you could a couple of months ago.