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Spotify set for US launch; will be free; register for invites

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I'm considering giving a Premium membership a shot, but I need to be very clear on how the offline functionality works. Can someone help me understand?

I can't log in to my work's wifi with my iPod. I'd like to be able to sync a handful of albums on the iPod before I head to work and then listen in Offline mode. Does this work?
 
Lambtron said:
I'm considering giving a Premium membership a shot, but I need to be very clear on how the offline functionality works. Can someone help me understand?

I can't log in to my work's wifi with my iPod. I'd like to be able to sync a handful of albums on the iPod before I head to work and then listen in Offline mode. Does this work?
Click to expand...
Kinda. I've only found offline syncing for playlists, not albums. But you can just throw all the albums into one playlist, and sync.
 
I'm also going for the free trial. I really love the interface, but I don't think the economics make sense for me, personally. I'm not a huge consumer of music. If an album on iTunes, etc. costs $10, I would have to buy more than 1 album per month in order to make Spotify worthwhile. Otherwise, I could buy the albums digitally, have them automatically sync to my Google Music account, and play them in any browser anywhere or on my phone for free (with as much offline availability as my SD card allows).

I wonder how many albums/year the average iTunes user buys. Certainly some hardcore music lovers buy more than 120 tracks per year.
 
Battersea Power Station said:
I'm also going for the free trial. I really love the interface, but I don't think the economics make sense for me, personally. I'm not a huge consumer of music. If an album on iTunes, etc. costs $10, I would have to buy more than 1 album per month in order to make Spotify worthwhile. Otherwise, I could buy the albums digitally, have them automatically sync to my Google Music account, and play them in any browser anywhere or on my phone for free (with as much offline availability as my SD card allows).

I wonder how many albums/year the average iTunes user buys. Certainly some hardcore music lovers buy more than 120 tracks per year.
Click to expand...
The nice thing about services like this is you can give a good solid listen to a lot of music you aren't already sure about. It's hard to commit $10 to an album you haven't heard much of or any music from a band you've just been introduced to. With subscription services you can put a whole lot of new music into your collection and see what sticks without worrying if you will still like it next week.

That's the value of it to me, at least.
 
Lambtron said:
I'm considering giving a Premium membership a shot, but I need to be very clear on how the offline functionality works. Can someone help me understand?

I can't log in to my work's wifi with my iPod. I'd like to be able to sync a handful of albums on the iPod before I head to work and then listen in Offline mode. Does this work?
Click to expand...

You put whatever you want to hear (up to ~3333 tracks) on different (or the same) playlist. Go on the device and choose those as offline playlists, and the tracks will be downloaded. They're on the device untill you choose to no longer have that playlist offline.
 
Battersea Power Station said:
I'm also going for the free trial. I really love the interface, but I don't think the economics make sense for me, personally. I'm not a huge consumer of music. If an album on iTunes, etc. costs $10, I would have to buy more than 1 album per month in order to make Spotify worthwhile. Otherwise, I could buy the albums digitally, have them automatically sync to my Google Music account, and play them in any browser anywhere or on my phone for free (with as much offline availability as my SD card allows).

I wonder how many albums/year the average iTunes user buys. Certainly some hardcore music lovers buy more than 120 tracks per year.
Click to expand...
For someone like me that spends about $15/month on music through Amazon when they run deals, this service is perfect. I get to listen to all the albums I've meant to buy for less moolah.
 
Aquavelvaman said:
The nice thing about services like this is you can give a good solid listen to a lot of music you aren't already sure about. It's hard to commit $10 to an album you haven't heard much of or any music from a band you've just been introduced to. With subscription services you can put a whole lot of new music into your collection and see what sticks without worrying if you will still like it next week.

That's the value of it to me, at least.
Click to expand...
That's true... and really obvious now that I think about it.

I guess the fact that I didn't even consider it just goes to show the different ways in which people listen to music.
 
Talon- said:
Brand cachet and looming Facebook integration.
Click to expand...
Lame. As far as I can tell, Rdio does everything Spotify does at the same price and has been available in the US at the outset. Weird.

The music discovery options don't seem as good either.

EDIT: Okay, except for the horribly gimped free option. :/
 
thewesker said:
Lame. As far as I can tell, Rdio does everything Spotify does at the same price and has been available in the US at the outset. Weird.
Click to expand...

I'm playing with both today. I might drop $10 to test the spotify app but I doubt it, since there isn't anything that would make me switch.

That said, the competition is good. While there isn't a lot to make someone go from one to the other, there is no clear "better" between the two. Someone coming to the services fresh has two solid options.
 
eznark said:
I'm playing with both today. I might drop $10 to test the spotify app but I doubt it, since there isn't anything that would make me switch.

That said, the competition is good. While there isn't a lot to make someone go from one to the other, there is no clear "better" between the two. Someone coming to the services fresh has two solid options.
Click to expand...
I see your point. I guess I'm just not seeing what all the hype was for considering I've been using Rdio for a few months now.
 
thewesker said:
Lame. As far as I can tell, Rdio does everything Spotify does at the same price and has been available in the US at the outset. Weird.

The music discovery options don't seem as good either.

EDIT: Okay, except for the horribly gimped free option. :/
Click to expand...

can you import local files into rdio as well?

according to this, there's not that much difference, except that rdio is more social and spotifys library is bigger
 
eznark said:
I'm playing with both today. I might drop $10 to test the spotify app but I doubt it, since there isn't anything that would make me switch.

That said, the competition is good. While there isn't a lot to make someone go from one to the other, there is no clear "better" between the two. Someone coming to the services fresh has two solid options.
Click to expand...

I spent the 10 bucks and it's really fast. Like sometimes over 3G, a song would load up once I picked it, or would load up within seconds. And with great quality and no buffering. I'll be driving today so I'll see how it works later on.
 
PwnCakes193 said:
I spent the 10 bucks and it's really fast. Like sometimes over 3G, a song would load up once I picked it, or would load up within seconds. And with great quality and no buffering. I'll be driving today so I'll see how it works later on.
Click to expand...

That's been my experience with the rdio app as well.
 
kottila said:
can you import local files into rdio as well?

according to this, there's not that much difference, except that rdio is more social and spotifys library is bigger
Click to expand...
Kind of? You can import your iTunes library and it will then be completely available in your Rdio collection.

One thing that irks me about Spotify is that it doesn't appear to have over-the-air sync like Rdio. Syncing to mobile requires you to be on the same Wifi network. Also, where is the 'Add to Library' button in Spotify? Is adding a song to a playlist the same sort of thing?

Guess I'm just too used to Rdio.
 
Manager said:


QUOTE THIS FOR 10 INVITES

(note: You don't have to press "Submit reply", just copy a code from the quoted window)
Click to expand...

Where do I use this code? I feel stupid, i see nothing to put this in on the US page
 
thewesker said:
One thing that irks me about Spotify is that it doesn't appear to have over-the-air sync like Rdio. Syncing to mobile requires you to be on the same Wifi network.
Click to expand...

Wow, that actually stinks.

I don't like having to use a desktop client either. I don't want that on my work laptop.
 
Manager said:


QUOTE THIS FOR 10 INVITES

(note: You don't have to press "Submit reply", just copy a code from the quoted window)
Click to expand...

You are a gentleman. Thank you! I took the last one on the list (it may have been the second to last, I don't remember) :)
 
thewesker said:
Kind of? You can import your iTunes library and it will then be completely available in your Rdio collection.

One thing that irks me about Spotify is that it doesn't appear to have over-the-air sync like Rdio. Syncing to mobile requires you to be on the same Wifi network. Also, where is the 'Add to Library' button in Spotify? Is adding a song to a playlist the same sort of thing?

Guess I'm just too used to Rdio.
Click to expand...

didn't understand what the article said about local files for Rdio (that they had to have the license for the song).
You only have to be on the same network if you're syncing local files. You can download Spotify-songs on any network.
Your library is your local files, while the "cloud" songs are on playlists.
 
eznark said:
Wow, that actually stinks.

I don't like having to use a desktop client either. I don't want that on my work laptop.
Click to expand...
I can't use the Spotify app because they don't offer a free trial of Premium (a dumb move if you wanted to convert Rdio users) but from what I can tell, Spotify holds on more to the idea of an iTunes-like experience where you're still tied to a computer. With Rdio, you could use it entirely in the app and never know the difference.


kottila said:
didn't understand what the article said about local files for Rdio (that they had to have the license for the song).
You only have to be on the same network if you're syncing local files. You can download Spotify-songs on any network.
Your library is your local files, while the "cloud" songs are on playlists.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the clarification. I stand corrected. Like I said, a free trial of Premium would help me GREATLY when trying to compare services.
 
eznark said:
Wow, that actually stinks.

I don't like having to use a desktop client either. I don't want that on my work laptop.
Click to expand...

It does have online sync, just not with your local files (naturally). I just synced 3000 songs on a different network

thewesker said:
With Rdio, you could use it entirely in the app and never know the difference.
Click to expand...

you don't ever have to go to the client, but playlist managemnet is much easier there.
 
i've never tried rdio but i had rhapsody and MOG for a while, i dont like needing an app to listen, but we will see. I usually only last a few months of premium because i never use it enough to justify the $10
 
kottila said:
It does have online sync, just not with your local files (naturally). I just synced 3000 songs on a different network
Click to expand...

Thanks!

The thing about needing the program to listen on a PC is correct though?
 
thewesker said:
Kind of? You can import your iTunes library and it will then be completely available in your Rdio collection.

One thing that irks me about Spotify is that it doesn't appear to have over-the-air sync like Rdio. Syncing to mobile requires you to be on the same Wifi network. Also, where is the 'Add to Library' button in Spotify? Is adding a song to a playlist the same sort of thing?

Guess I'm just too used to Rdio.
Click to expand...

You can sync over the air. You only have to be on the same Wifi network if you sync local files (that are not in the spotify library). If you want to sync over the air just go to edit offline playlists on your phone and select the playlists that you want to sync. If you want to sync over 3g you've got to turn it on in the settings.

And what do you mean with an add to library button?
 
The Big Spotify Surprise: Free Music On Demand For SIX MONTHS

Spotify has been cagey about how much free music U.S. listeners can get -- the news wasn't in its press release this morning, and they were slow responding to questions. Another report suggested the free tier would max out at 20 hours per month.
That's wrong. There will be no cap on the free tier for six months.
In other words, Spotify will let you to listen to anything in its library of 15 million songs, as many times as you want, for as long as you want, for six whole months. After that, some kind of limit will kick in, but Spotify isn't saying how much.
Click to expand...
 
Antagon said:
You can sync over the air. You only have to be on the same Wifi network if you sync local files (that are not in the spotify library). If you want to sync over the air just go to edit offline playlists on your phone and select the playlists that you want to sync. If you want to sync over 3g you've got to turn it on in the settings.

And what do you mean with an add to library button?
Click to expand...
When I want to add a song or album to my Rdio collection, I hit this button:
20110714-fyd7k9g8u42kg9m3dykxi82s5x.jpg


With Spotify, it's unclear to me if this option even exists. Do I need to create a whole bunch of playlists to add music to my collection? I just don't understand.
 
thewesker said:
When I want to add a song to my Rdio collection, I hit this button:
20110714-fyd7k9g8u42kg9m3dykxi82s5x.jpg


With Spotify, it's unclear to me if this option even exists. Do I need to create a whole bunch of playlists to add music to my collection? I just don't understand.
Click to expand...

edit: what I said was wrong
 
thewesker said:
When I want to add a song to my Rdio collection, I hit this button:
20110714-fyd7k9g8u42kg9m3dykxi82s5x.jpg


With Spotify, it's unclear to me if this option even exists. Do I need to create a whole bunch of playlists to add music to my collection? I just don't understand.
Click to expand...
I think that's what the stars are for in Spotify. When you star albums in the browser they appear in your library so they'll be included in your shuffles, etc.
 
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