Spotify Switch: 1 month later

Image credit: Wired

 

Google play music has recently met its demise and many, including yours truly, have been forced to jump ship to alternative services such as Apple music, YouTube Music, and the topic of this post, Spotify. I'll always miss Play music, but Spotify has grown on me and I'm ready to share my experience with all of you. I'll keep this short and simple leaving my heavy decisions for the full review. Ok, with that being said let's get into it.   

I'll start with what I've enjoyed so far, increased stability and bigger library. Ok with Play Music nearing its demise Google didn't bother to fix some of the bugs pertaining to the podcast player. The various bugs include: 

• Stop/Pause randomly ceasing to function for 1 minute 
• Resuming after 45 minutes caused the player to go 2-15 minutes behind on current track (only affected podcasts) 

Those were the two main bugs that marred my experience of using Play Music but thank fully Spotify solves those bugs.

Spotify is dedicated to.... Spotify meaning that they try to keep the experience as stable as possible; meaning that no matter how much time it's been Spotify will remember where I left off. I never knew what I was missing, it's so convenient that I can't settle for anything less especially now that I've gotten used to it. The actual podcast tab is also genuinely nice allowing me to see all my current episodes in the order of release and allowing me to find where I left of in my feed with ease. It also lets me see the Episodes I missed which is helpful for serialized podcasts. 

Honestly the library interface is more rich and diverse and it's the main page I use in Spotify.  The homepage however is not.

I knew going into this that the homepage would go bananas at first because Spotify didn't know my listening habits yet but after a month it still pops in random things. Of course, I'll forgive Spotify for trying to get me into new things, after all that can be healthy every now and then, but paid ads are inexcusable. I think I should explain before I start a panic, by paid ads I mean the "recommended" podcasts or artists that happen to show up on homepages. I won't name names or anything, but I still really don't like it especially if it takes time away from other panels that interest me. I should be able to dictate what is and is not allowed on my homepage and the fact that I have almost no control really gets on my nerve. Play music had the same problem but really didn't matter because there was almost nothing on the Play music home screen anyways, in some ways Spotify's home screen situation is better. 

Spotify is known for its extensive library of music but personally I stick more to podcasts 80% of the time. When I do listen to Music it's nice to know that I can find ever song or podcast I want to listen to. Play music had the problem that it had 85% percent of all content; that was good enough for most, but they still left out 15%. at one point I had trouble finding the Beatles classic Obla-di-Obla-da, not kidding. Spotify always has all the content which brings peace of mind knowing you don't have to start searching for that song or podcast you really want. My only grievance is that the iMore show isn't on Spotify but other than I'll survive. The last thing I'll address is my hate of the que system in Spotify, the que is barely visible hidden behind menus, menus, and more menu. Ok I slightly exaggerated but I really do hate that unlike Play Music's simple que interface I have to dig to get to the que and once there I can't stay in it. I'll save more for the full review but for now that should be enough for my first impressions. 

 

Said I'd make it short and simple; check and check.  

Best,

BenTechCoder