Head in the Clouds

Two new awesome cloud-based services have popped up in the last couple weeks: Google Music, and Spotify.  They both offer awesome new ways to enjoy your music, but which one is better?  Meanwhile, there's a spoiler hidden among those clouds . . .

Spotify

Spotify is big in Europe, apparently.  And it's been making waves with the likes of Mark Zuckerberg.

The gist: You can download any song you want.  For free.  Legally.  No joke.  There are, of course, catches: you're limited to X hours per month (used to be 20, now it's 10 since they signed the deals with American music labels), and there are ads.  If you pay a premium then you get unlimited listening and mobile support.  This seems awfully similar to what I proposed back in 2007.

As you can see from the screenshot, you have to download a client that looks awfully like iTunes, but that's not a bad thing, and they have support for Mac, Windows, and even Linux.  (For Linux you have to use Wine, which is kinda cheating, but if you're crazy enough to use Linux then you get what you deserve.)

The bad news: It's still in closed beta, but I signed up and got an invitation within days.  They didn't give me any "invitation tokens," sorry.

The verdict: Spotify is awesome.  Absolutely no complaints.  Rich and deep song selection, and they even recommend related artists so you can continue the fun.  You can create queues and playlists.  Now, when a friend comes over and says "oh you've got to listen to song X," you can.  Right away.  This will be awesome for parties.

Google Music

It's no secret that I'm kind of a slut for Google services.  At this point, if Google turns evil, I'm pretty much fucked.  So it is within that context that Google has released their latest nugget of wonder: Google Music.  

The gist: Upload your music to "The Cloud," and by "The Cloud" we mean "Google's server farm somewhere."  Clouds and farms, it's so bloody pastoral.  Welcome to the future.  Anyway, once your music is in The Cloud, you can listen to it anywhere.  And by anywhere, we mean anywhere.  No downloads, no installations, nothing but a web browser.  Or your Android smartphone, and who doesn't have one of those by now?  (If you're still clinging to your iPhone, all I can say is I'm sorry.)

The bad: It's bloody slow to upload.  Granted, I've got 32 gigabytes of music.  That's 6,000 tracks.  But after 28 hours, it's only half way done.  And that's with high speed internet.

Still, I can use it even as it works.  I tried it on my laptop, and sure enough, I was able to listen to my own music.  For free.  Works on my Android, too, with the built-in Music app.  (It gets a new icon, that's how you know it's more awesome now.)  So next time I'm driving to San Diego with Yelena, and she admits she's never heard of The Doors, I don't have to wait until I get home and burn her a cd.  I can just pull out my smartphone with mobile internet and play an album as we drive through Los Angeles.  As God intended.

The verdict: Another completely awesome service with absolutely no complaints.  I should add that Spotify claims to offer some sort of device syncing too, but I don't want to sync my devices.  I don't have 30 GB free on my smartphone; I don't even have 30 GB free on my laptop.  And in any case, that doesn't help when I go to my buddy's house for a party at 11 pm.  What I want is a way to get all of my music, anywhere, any time, without being tied to software or hardware.  And that's exactly what Google Music offers.

Oh yeah: I have invitations to give out.  Want one?  Just ask.

The Spoiler: Pandora

Pandora has been around for a long time.  If you couldn't tell, I love me some music, and I recently purchased a Pandora Pro account, which means I get unlimited listening.  I have easily a dozen different stations that play different genres for different moods and occaisions.  (My Miles Davis "All Blue" station is particularly good for wine parties.)

The gist: Pandora is an internet radio station that customizes itself to what you like.  You start with a "seed," which can be a genre, artist, or even an individual song.  For example, my "classic rock" station got seeded with The Beatles, but I quickly added other artists like the Rolling Stones.  You give it thumbs up or thumbs down for each song, and the system quickly learns your preferences.  Then it starts branching out of the genre, playing other music with similar traits.  It's surprisingly good at figuring out what you might like.

The bad: Unlike these newer services, you can't choose what to play, and it has nothing to do with your own collection.  But that's about the only thing I can say about this wonderful service.

The verdict: Ultimately, I prefer Pandora because I'm intellectually lazy.  I've got a huge music collection, but I've already listened to each track a million times, and hunting through Spotify for new music just seems too much like work.  With Pandora, I can tell it what I like, put it in the background, and jam on web design (or legal work) while awesome tunes play through my Altec Lansing speakers.  I discover new music all the time, and the really great stuff gets bookmarked so I can check out the artist later on Spotify, or even buy the cd and add it to my collection on Google Music.  Did I mention they have a mobile app too?

The Winner

Oh gosh, I can't choose.  You're all winners!  Seriously, though, every program does something important, something necessary (even if I didn't realize it until now).  The true killer app would be one program that did all three, for free, or for a very low monthly fee.  Unfortunately, every online music service I've tried has either fallen into the "pick your own music" category or the "we'll pick it for you" category, and no one seems to have bridged that divide.  Even when they do, I'll be reluctant to change, because I'm so invested in Pandora with my 23 lovingly customized radio stations.

From my Pandora review, you can tell I have a bias in favor of that service.  It's definitely the one I use most, by a wide margin.  But I can no longer imagine life without the other two.

Bottom line: Hooray for the future?