Spotify vs. Rdio

Two different music subscription services, both compelling in their own ways.

Several days ago, Loren Baxter shared something that nudged me about trying Spotify. Despite many other friends signing up through various promotions around their launch, I didn’t. I had used Rdio and have been quite happy with the service.

Still, Loren’s tweets compelled me enough to take notice. Loren is a fantastic UX designer and I respect his insights when he makes such a switch, I tend to want to explore why.
It’s done -> switched from Rdio to Spotify.
lorenbaxter
September 14, 2011
Rdio’s design is gorgeous, but Spotify has better social integration, more songs, and great local MP3 to phone syncing.
lorenbaxter
September 14, 2011
To which I responded…
@lorenbaxter really?
aaronesilvers
September 14, 2011
@aaronesilvers really
lorenbaxter
September 14, 2011
@lorenbaxter I guess by ‘really’ I mean, collaborative playlists? Better than Rdio?
aaronesilvers
September 14, 2011
@aaronesilvers Collaborative playlists, yep :)
lorenbaxter
September 14, 2011
@aaronesilvers Give it a try for a month, then decide
lorenbaxter
September 14, 2011
@lorenbaxter I guess I will now activate my Spotify account.
aaronesilvers
September 14, 2011
And with that, I activated Spotify. I replicated some playlists I created in Rdio, I integrated my Facebook account and was surprised to see a few friends of mine using Spotify, and some people who are using both Rdio and Spotify.

I observed right away that many friends were making playlists that were entire albums. I didn’t understand why they were doing this, but I use playlists much the way one used to make mixtapes.
After several days of playing with Spotify, though, I’m a little less impressed. I thought I synced my iPhone locally, but yesterday nothing was on my phone when I was on the road and needed my tunes.
Other observations follow…
Playing with @rdio and @spotify. Love the Spotify mobile app, but no reviews; no insight into what my friends listen to.
aaronesilvers
September 16, 2011
I like the desktop interface for Spotify very much. I like that I can pull in my existing playlists. That stuff is awesome.
aaronesilvers
September 16, 2011
With @rdio I can see what my friends are listening to and that is a good opportunity for serendipity. Kinda why I like Turntable.fm
aaronesilvers
September 16, 2011
I like Spotify, but I don’t know that I’ll stay pro. I’m already on an unlimited accout for Rdio and I dont know how/why I’d stop yet.
aaronesilvers
September 16, 2011
Why do you use Spotify over Rdio, or vice versa?

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Original post

Leave a Comment

3 Comments

Leave a Reply

GovLoop

Love Spotify…but I’m with you. I miss “lists” like Apple iTunes does – I love looking for lists so I have suggestions for music. And just clicking my friends name to see them isn’t good enough. Should have better list discoverability.

Aaron E. Silvers

That’s why I like Rdio so much. The visibility into others’ playlists (even what they’re listening to) is just greater than Spotify. I also like that the comments and the reviews are kept inside of Rdio, rather than forcing every message into Facebook and out of the application.