Hello my field daisies!
Now I am not being sponsored by Spotify (laughs wholeheartedly at all those who thinks Spotify would be interested in a small blogger like me). This is my honest opinion.
Spotify and iTunes both provide music sharing services, but they are fundamentally different. Spotify is subscription based while iTunes you own each song or album you buy. When iTunes first came out, it crushed all subscription based music services such as Rhapsody. People liked the idea of ownership, of being able to claim a song theirs. Also Steve Jobs wanted to created a seamless customer experience, creating his own music store to go along with the iPod. So in some ways, the iPod propelled iTunes to fame.
iTunes or other music stores aren’t going away any time soon. Many artists and record labels are unwilling to give up their album sales. Beyonce STILL has yet to put her new album on Spotify! SMH…. But Spotify is gaining popularity with 40 million users and 10 million subscribers. What makes Spotify so enticing? Well I can’t speak for everyone but for me there couple of reasons:
1. I like a lot of different genres of music. If I were to buy each song I listened to, I would be in some serious debt. My tastes change with each day and maybe it has something to do with the binge watching culture, but after I play an album or playlist on playlist for weeks on end, I am ready for something new.
2. College students get Spotify Premium 50% off. Need I say more? $5 instead of $10 was the ultimate deal breaker. In this regard, Spotify gets a lot of word of mouth advertising. I’ve had numerous fellow students tell me I should get Spotify Premium.
Scenario 1:
Me: Sorry can’t play {insert song} I can only play it on shuffle.
Friend: What you don’t have Spotify Premium? Why not it’s only five dollars.
Scenario 2:
Me: Are you sure? I mean… I don’t know…
Friend 2: Dude get Spotify. It’s totally worth it.
Scenario 3:
{hears ad after song}:
Me: Ugh damn Spotify.
Friend 3: Just upgrade already!
3.For those who don’t know there are two levels of service: Spotify and Spotify Premium. Spotify lures users into getting Spotify Premium. Regular Spotify is free and has restrictions such only allowing playlists and albums to be played in shuffle mode or only allowing music to be played on your desktop. It also has ads, which can be really irritating and outputting. I gotta say for me the ads worked. Hearing over and over again to try Spotify Premium from the ads and from my friends eventually took hold.
4. The features and services make it so much more than just a music store. Browse allows you to find different playlists based on different genres. Each day also has different playlists such as New Music Tuesday. In Discover you can find artists based on past music you’ve listened to. If you are really liking a song or album or artist , you can start a radio based off of it.
5. The downloads are super fast. Say I want to listen to some new music while working out. I can quickly make a playlist and swipe to have it available off online. By the time I finish tying my sneakers, the songs are on my phone, and I can listen to them without using my data.
The playlist I am currently digging is Progressive Retrograde, which is lots of electronic folk-pop ish music. But I’m already getting tired of it and will probably make a new one soon.
Love ya’ll thanks for reading!
Hope you have a daisyish day!