Spotify Raises $1 Billion in Debt

Smart move by Spotify. They are still in the lead, but Apple Music is growing quickly.

 

There's one thing that I've yet to understand about Apple Music. Why is the streaming catalogue separate from the iTunes Music Store? Why couldn't they have integrated the two? It seems like it would have been killer if users could buy or stream a song/album from the same listing page. My only guess is that is has to do with how they license the material, but it still seems like they could've figured something out.

 

Licensing is a big part of it.

 

Makes sense.

 

A lot of money. I doubted Apple Music in the beginning but since becoming a subscriber I don't think I could switch or live without it.

 

I'm hoping my experience with spotify improves.

 

being automatically installed on every iPhone that's sold gives them a huge advantage out of the gate.

 

I really hope Spotify can stick around. I've been using premium since 2012 and i like it so much more than Apple Music. The suggestions are catered to my tastes much better, but I'm sure that has to do with the years of tracking what I'm listening to.

 

Will they spend more money improving the interface and the service or trying to make money off the free subscribers?

Since switching to Apple Music I've been much happier.

 

I am currently on a break from Spotify and doing the free Apple trial. Not sure which way I am going to end up sticking. For me, I like how easy it is to switch music to off-line usage. I am not sure how to do it on Apple Music from my phone and haven't looked it up. The fact I have to look it up is kind of annoying to me.

That said, my concern with Spotify is that their contracts are up with a lot of the big studios soon. I have not seen any updates on where those negotiations are at. I am hesitant to go back to Spotify and then have it start to go south.

 

You press the cloud icon to download it to the device.

 

What about a whole playlist? Do I do each song or can you switch the whole thing to off-line?

 

Same deal. You click the options menu and the cloud icon.

To delete the songs you do the same process but there's a phone icon now and then it gives you the option to delete from the device.

There's a bug sometimes when it gives you the option to download when you already downloaded but you just click the cloud and it shows you the option that it should.

 

Thanks for the quick run through. I have mostly used the service when I am on a wi-fi network using the Bluetooth, so it's been a moot point. However, I would like to build a few playlists and that feature is pretty much mandatory for car rides.

 

No problem!

Also, iTunes has some pretty cool tools to build playlists that allow you to use parameters (like year) to make iTunes generate playlists automatically. I found that out recently and it's a very versatile tool.

 

Interesting... I may have to look at those. It's been a while since I used iTunes for more than transferring albums to my phone or iPod classic.

 

Currently I have one set up that adds every song I love from 2016 to it. It's pretty basic and you can do more with it but it's a neat example I think.

 

I've had subscriptions to Spotify and Apple. Spotify is so much better, for both computer use or mobile.

 

It's just a shame they did this at the expense of their employees and their stock options and vesting…

 

This. I also have years of playlists and such that I just don't want to have to rebuild.

I also hope that at least a portion of this money goes towards development of a better interface. While I generally don't have any issues on mobile, the desktop application gives me problems all the time. The biggest issue being that I have been unable to add any local files for about a year. Just clicking on the local files tab (or whatever it's called) freezes the whole application until I restart it. Hence I've been forced to run a separate program for all my local files. Being able to have all my music integrated into a single application again would make me ecstatic.

 

Great for Spotify. I absolute love the service but will continue to use Apple Music due to Spotify only allowing you to save 10,000 songs to your library.

 

I just purchased a premium spotify subscription (its only $5 for students so I was sold) and I'm pretty happy with it so far. I wonder what the future will bring with these changes and the contracts someone mentioned expiring.

 

I'm curious about said contracts expiring as well. I use Spotify heavily and would be quite unhappy if my library got downsized. I have not heard anything about this and would like to know more if anybody has any links to shed some light on the subject.