My Own Little World

I deeply dreaded this moment. Every single streaming service so far had failed me. Spotify was too focused on playlists, Google's option just didn't quite work, and Tidal was too unstable as a business. I was going to try Rdio next, but they just got bought by Pandora and are going to be shut down, so they were out. And Deezer isn't available in the United States yet, so that was also out. That left pretty much one option. The one that I swore I would never try. The one from one of my least favorite companies in the world. If you guessed Apple Music , you're right. And if you missed that in the title of this post...well, I don't know what to tell you. I really have never been a fan of Apple as a company, ditching every part of their company except for their music store over a year ago. I didn't like using iTunes with such a large music library, and as for iOS...well, that's a completely different (and much longer) explanation. Yet, when moving over...

I'm back at trying out music streaming services after auditioning both Spotify and Google Play Music. I didn't care for Spotify at all , and Google Play Music, while better,  still had its own issues . I moved onto what seemed like the next best option: Jay-Z's service, Tidal. Tidal relaunched itself this past March with Jay-Z and a slew of other artists (including some personal favorites like Coldplay and Arcade Fire, as well as Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Daft Punk, and others) touting themselves as co-owners. They all signed a declaration at the launch event that basically said Tidal would revolutionize music streaming as we know it. Here's the problem: it didn't. Tidal didn't catch on with the general public and is generally regarded as a business failure. They're on their third CEO since their relaunch and have failed to attract any kind of significant subscriber base. This really sucks, especially considering that I love the way Tidal works. I love t...

I'm back, after trying out another music streaming service. In my search, I'm continuing to find different ways that different services work with my ways of listening to music. This time, I'm going to the one made by my favorite software company: Google Play Music. If you're thinking that I have some kind of bias towards Google and their products and would choose Google Play Music just because of that, I wouldn't blame you one bit. I'm publically in support of Google and unashamedly tout Android as the best mobile operating system. So, when coming over to Google Play Music for a month-long free trial, I expected a lot. Instead, I got a little less than I wanted. Now, Google Play Music works much better for me than Spotify did, mostly because of the way it handles playback. It's very easy for me to use with my preference of listening to albums. I can search for an artist or album on either the mobile app or the web player, select an album, and place i...

I've decided recently that I want to get a music streaming subscription. I know that I've been opposed to them in the past because they don't pay the artists well, among other reasons; however, I've seen that it might be a more cost-effective approach than buying my own music. Over the course of the next few weeks (or possibly months), I'll be posting some reviews of the different major streaming services. First up: the giant, ubiquitous Spotify.  When Spotify came to the US, nearly every single person I know signed up for it because it was something radical for the time: a legal way to listen to unlimited amounts of music for free  (if you were OK with advertising, that is). It also allowed you to share music with your friends on social media, because, well...why shouldn't social media be involved in everything? I remember thinking that Spotify was the greatest thing since sliced bread when I first got it. That being said, the way I listen to music h...