A few months ago I switched from Spotify Premium to iTunes' Music Membership service. I switched because they were offering it for free for three months.
Since I've switched, I have to say I really really miss Spotify.
Here is a list of my observations
- Apple did not make any effort to move my playlists over and try to match songs from Spotify to iTunes.
- Apple's "Bubble" interface for them to get started knowing what music you like is VERY frustrating. Not only did it take FOREVER to try and find artists I actually like - They never suggested any of my absolute favorite artists - and I didn't find any way to tell them "Hey, none of these are really hitting the spot, but if you have more people like Madeon, I'd like that". It took me three to four times to get through that process.
- Apple has NO IDEA what kind of music I like. The suggestions that Apple gives me for music are sub-par. It's VERY difficult to find new music to enjoy.
- I have given up trying to figure out how to discover new music on iTunes. Other than what people are "paying" to get me to see, I don't feel inspired by Apple's iTunes interface at all. I've written it off as impossible to find anything new on iTunes.
- iTunes is the only application that launches if you hit the "Play" button when nothing is playing - so even if Spotify is where my grove is - if I have a blank slate with no applications open - if I hit the
playmedia button, iTunes will launch - there is no apparent way to change this behavior. - Rediculiously HUGE music cache. Every time I open iTunes - it creates this MASSIVE cache of music on my hard drive, without asking me. And there is no way to "set" it to just stream like Spotify. I found you with Daisy Disk which is an absolute nessessity if you're going to use iTunes just to humble iTunes down every once in a while and reclaim some of your precious hard drive space.
- I feel like Apple is not "in touch" with it's user community. I feel like they are just trying to "guess" at what we want and then shove it in our face. Every time iTunes updates, I think to myself "Oh no... not again" because each new release of iTunes feels further and further from what is comfortable and what I know. Like I have to learn all over again how to enjoy my music.
- The Music quality feels much better on iTunes than any other place I've streamed from.
- There is much less "lag" than Spotify and I haven't had a single "bug" the entire time I've been using iTunes.
- Bug city. Spotify has a bunch of weird little quarks that you eventually learn how to navigate around.
- Quality/Fidelity of music isn't as good as iTunes.
- It's SUPER easy to find NEW music that I enjoy using Spotify - unlike iTunes.
- It works on my mobile devices as expected - perfect delivery
- Spotify doesn't take up much cache on my different devices - I haven't found that I have to spend a lot of time managing the cache at all with Spotify
- I feel like Spotify has taken the time to really "ask" the community what they wanted. They pilot new ways to discover music, they ditch what doesn't work and or tweak it until it does work. They really are interested in building the ultimate way to consume music.
The whole reason I'm spending my time to write this is to ask you for your input. Yes, This is an "Apple Bash" - which is strange from me because I'm such an iHole. I'm one of those zealous Apple users who loves everything Apple. I am being critical of Apple - I want them to be better - and unless the iHoles speak up, we'll never get what we want.
What will happen to Apple now that Steve Jobs has passed away. Is this the end of an era? RIP Steve.
Apple, get your stuff together here. We're rooting for you, but you need to wake up.
Yours Truly, -Concerned Citizen