The Death of iTunes?
It’s so refreshing to know that iTunes has some competition at last. The competition comes in the form of ‘Spotify’, a music streaming service that’s ridiculously easy to use and addictive to boot…
For
Well, you can search and listen to tracks all the way through (as if you had actually bought them), not the iTunes 15 second tease
A great way to discover music for free
You can share playlists very easily through a URL which impregnates mates collections in yours
Spotify have also signed a deal with 7digital meaning you can also purchase tracks for as low as 50p and albums for £3
Exceptionally user friendly and up and running in minutes
Against
Not as comprehensive as iTunes, but still 6million tunes with over 10,000 being added everyday
Ad’s will interrupt your aural pleasure inbetween Johnny Cash and Johnny Rotten, but for a fee of £9.99 you can avoid hearing Iggy Pop sell you swiftcover car insurance
You can’t take the tunes with you – but with mass broadband (& WiMax coming soon) – ill there even be a need in the future?
It’s a shame the Microsoft ‘Zune’ never made it across the Atlantic, as their iTune equivalent ‘The Zune Marketplace’ – took it a stage further. Mixing social networking with music – and functionality that enabled you to delve into the roots and influences behind each track and artist…
iTunes latest widget is ironically called ‘Genius’ and functions as if Stevie Wonder was virtually sifting through your record collection and categorising them. This ‘handy’ tool is about as subtle as the Microsoft Paperclip – patronising and heavy handed. I just proved a point when it placed James Brown and Barry White as category twins. Nobody can surely place the Godfather of Soul with The Walrus of Love.
For the user, Spotify is a brilliant Frankenstein’s monster, somewhere stuck between iTunes, Zune and iPlayer. Whether an ads-based/subscription model is wise in these times is debateable but with an iPhone/iTouch app on the way, it’s good to see an underdog taking on the might of apple.
Enjoy this:
http://open.spotify.com/user/jonnyclow/playlist/5ZoonCcPrgyeHpuTZDQdBk
