Thursday, July 14, 2011

Spotify vs. Rdio

Today was the much anticipated US launch of Spotify. I've been using Rdio for several months, and really love it. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of posts out there comparing the two services. That's all good stuff to read. Here's my summary:

  • Spotify has more music. If you stick to stuff from the last 10 years and that you can find on iTunes, then you probably won't find much difference. But going further back or by going "more obscure", you will notice the differences.
  • Spotify has a desktop app, but it is an iTunes clone. The Rdio desktop app is more of a wrapper on their website. So big advantage to Spotify, despite being an ugly iTunes clone. Also, Spotify will play music on your computer, so it tries to be a replacement for iTunes.
  • The Rdio mobile app is way better, at least on Android. Subjectively, it has a cleaner design and is easier to use. The Spotify mobile app looks like I designed it. Objectively, the Rdio app's sync is far superior. Spotify requires your mobile device to be on the same wifi network as your computer that is running Spotify. On Rdio, you can easily send any song, album, playlist, etc. to all of your mobile devices with no requirements except that you've got an Internet connection.

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