That is why online music streaming service is extremely popular nowadays, and I'm here to talk about it. I know I'm probably late to the hype, because I've been wanting to give my insight since the first time Spotify made its way to Indonesia, which was on the late March 2016. You all probably have known about this thing called Spotify, it's kind of the biggest music streaming service on the internet right now.
Somehow thinking about this make me feel old. I have gone through the phase of enjoying music from radio, cassette tape, walkman and physical CDs, buying (or mostly pirating) digital albums online, searching music on YouTube, to today's music streaming. Obviously, music streaming is really superior compared to the others (evolution, man), considering the improvement of smartphone technology, software development, growth of wireless networks, and [insert more clever-sounding phrases here]. With music streaming service, basically any song you want to listen to is just a few touch away. No need to go to the store to pay for a 10-song album, or wait a few hours to download and move those hip-hop compilation to your phone. Sounds like I'm promoting the streaming service, but I'm just stating the fact. Besides, most, if not all, music stores selling physical copy of music albums are out of business in my country, so that's one less option available.
I'm here to talk about two rivals in the music streaming service companies, both I have tried: Deezer and Spotify. There are probably a few more but I'm honestly not up to try any others. This writing is not in any way trying to promote, but rather like my personal opinion on them.
Backstory: I found out about Spotify in around 2014 when Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park tweeted that he made a Spotify playlist. I was more curious about Mike's custom playlist than knowing what Spotify is. When I clicked on the link, turned out the service was not available in my country yet, so long story short, I used VPN and signed up pretending I was from USA, and that's my first interaction with the music streaming industry.
So it has been around for quite long, but just recently became an instant market hit in Indonesia. Because I had to use VPN, the connection took pretty long time so I couldn't fully enjoy the music. After following some artists and adding a few songs to my favorite Spotify list, I decided I've seen enough and signed out, not using it for quite a while. In the meantime, I discovered another music streaming app called Deezer, and I must say, I was hooked. I still am, though.
They both have similar features; you can save any songs into your "favorite song" list, you can make playlists, and they have ads directed to free users. However, they are different in style and appeal. Hard to describe in words, but I can make analogy for them as personas: I think of Spotify as the alpha guy whom everyone knows and couldn't ignore, and Deezer as the old friend who's always there. Weirded out already? Now let me explain.
Spotify as the alpha guy is how I see it: it's lovable, it's got great interface, really hip and contemporary, and it's made for everyone. Spotify offers us really wide range of music options. It generates playlists for every mood and genres, which consists of music from "hey I know this!" to "who the hell is this?" artists / bands. It's like the facebook for music. Almost every artists you'll know is there, and you can digitally follow them.
It's also smart. When it's late at night, it will offer you calm playlists for sleep, peaceful sounds, etc. When it's Friday night, it offers you top hits for your party needs. When it's Monday morning, it generates "productive"-atmosphere playlists for you. Basically, it creates the impression of a superior music streaming service where it knows what you need / want.
...When in fact it does not, not so much. You see, I like to keep my rock and metal and indie even during my bedtime. I'm not a mood-music kind of guy. I'm not the one to put classical music in my study room for homework purpose, or set up peaceful meditation sound when I sleep, or blast rock music only during my workout session...
I like my music anytime day and night. I really like listening to familiar voices of my favorite bands, and because I have very distinct yet diverse taste of music (read: picky), it's kind of hard to choose or customize my own playlist. The playlists always don't appeal long enough to me: I have to remake playlists over and over again; this is because to make playlist, I have to pick particular songs. Most of the times I don't want to pick songs, I just want to listen to my favorite artists, from Beck Hansen to Franz Ferdinand, from Muse to Queens of The Stone Age, etc. See, if I browse Spotify playlists I would probably find a playlist containing Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, and similar indie bands which sounds pretty nice, but I wouldn't find one featuring, say, Franz Ferdinand, Eminem, and letlive. in the same playlist.
This is where Deezer wins my heart. When you first sign up to Deezer, it would ask for your favorite artists, favorite bands, favorite songs, and they're separated. Then, it offers you a Flow playlist, one customized particularly based on the favorites you pick. The playlist is entirely random, but I always like what it suggests. Lots of familiar songs and some new favorites. Sure, I would skip a song or two, but overall I find this kind of algorithm very satisfying. It asks you first of your preferences, then suggests you after it gets enough data. Spotify, on the other hand, does not separate favorite songs, albums and artists, per se. When you save an album as your favorite, all songs on the album go straight into your 'favorite songs' list, and the artist instantly pops in your 'favorite artists' list. Well, shit, sometimes I like an album as a whole, but don't like listening to the songs if they're separated and have to be shuffled. Sometimes I like to admit a band to my 'favorite artists' list, even when I don't like some of their songs. Deezer got that charming personality which can put two and two together from a few I tell, while Spotify just straight up offers me what it thinks I want, or just lazily tells me "oh you like Enter Shikari? here's a few more albums just like theirs, but I can't tell you what you really want so I'll just let you make your own playlist".
One other comparison I make is playing an album / playlist. On Spotify (free account), you cannot specifically choose to play one particular song you want in the album / playlist. You have to shuffle play the whole album / playlist, hoping the song you want is the one playing first, or you need to use your skip button to get to the song you want, and you cannot skip more than 6 songs for a few hours. On Deezer (free account), you can specifically choose to play that certain song in the album / playlist, although you cannot repeat it over and over, because after some time it would shuffle to another song. You can also skip 6 songs or less for a few hours.
I'll admit Spotify is amazing on the playlist department. It got everything, well, almost everything, except familiarity for subjective, picky users (like me), and separation where I want it (ahem, 'favorite artists', 'favorite songs', 'favorite albums'). The streaming is of good quality, and they offer this really huge, cheap promotion where you can get premium (no ads) account paying only Rp. 4999 for three months. MAN.
Deezer is my man. It separates my need neatly, basically just how I want a streaming service to be, with the cost for premium account around Rp 70000 per month, which is really expensive. This is not really an issue for me, though, because a Deezer free account is more than enough, and I find Deezer's ads not as intrusive as Spotify's. For some reason, I don't like Spotify's ads. Too cheeky, I guess. However, an issue I have with Deezer is I can't skip too many songs because my account is basically free. Sometimes the streaming also lags, especially during low battery.
Overall, I could say that I prefer Deezer over Spotify, but I would still switch the apps from time to time, because I'm a moody person, just like my playlist. Apps aside, the whole music streaming thing is really cool and practical. Any song is just a few touch / clicks away.
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I still wish they would open music stores, though. Buying the real, physical copy of my favorite bands' albums, holding them in my hand, just feels like I'm really supporting them, you know. Digital album purchase is no fun. Ga ada rasanya.
Let's going out! :D #aposeh
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