I'm sticking to Spotify for now

music
I'm sticking to Spotify for now
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I have been a Spotify user since 2016. Despite some bugs and shortcomings here and there, I have been very happy with the Spotify experience. If I had to sum up the points I like about Spotify:

  • Native last.fm support. This is extremely important for me, I love last.fm!
  • Student discount (50% off)
  • Great audio quality with OGG Vorbis 320 Kb/s audio
  • Good, multiplatform desktop app (which is not a web view for the web player, although I have a feeling that might change soon)
  • Great web player which has been getting better over the past years. Limited audio quality though. I don't use it but I appreciate how smoother it feels compared to the desktop app
  • Spotify Wrapped
  • Listen count on tracks
  • Very helpful for discovering new music
  • Great playlists

There are some downsides, which are not deal breakers for me at the moment:

  • Their apps are not the most stable, especially the Android app.
  • No 2FA , I stopped counting the number of times I've seen people getting their account hacked
  • Dumb limits on playlists. I didn't hit them yet although I have 7k liked songs which is under the 10k limit.
  • Artist mismatch. This seems to happen with every other service too, and it's annoying as hell
  • No Hi-Fi/Hi-Res/CD Quality although we might get it... someday?
  • No Stats! We want Spotify Wrapper year-round
  • No possibility to change username
  • No possibility to unlink an account with Facebook if that account has been created with Facebook Login. This does not concern me but I would be pretty sad if it were the case.
  • No lyrics

Although I'm content with what Spotify has to offer, I was curious about the Hi-Fi offers from the competition, which I had the sudden urge to check last weekend.

Note: I used Soudizz to transfer my music (favourite tracks, playlists...) from Spotify to the other services.

Deezer#

  • A lot of songs were missing compared to Spotify
  • Korean music availability is not as good as Spotify's or Apple Music's, but it's decent. At least Kpop is recognised as a genre, although with a limited selection of playlists.
  • There is a 2000 songs limit on favourite tracks and playlist. This is... This is beyond me. Complete deal breaker. I have 6842 liked songs on Spotify. My biggest playlist is 2695 songs. It's not like I could just remove a bunch of songs and go under the limit...
  • Great, last.fm is supported natively too
  • There is a Hi-Fi offer at 20€/month, without any student discount
  • So you're telling me people willing to pay for Hi-Fi and having audio equipment worth thousands can't have more than 2000 songs in their playlist? That's hilarious
  • Their web app is good, it's fast and responsive. Their desktop app is the website embedded in an electron client
  • They have lyrics! Spotify please bring this baaack.

Qobuz#

  • Their apps are decent
  • They are focused on Hi-Fi, although you can also get the standard plan
  • You can purchase and download CD-quality music
  • Where is Korean music? It's not even recognised as a genre
  • Tiny library. Deal-breaker
  • Native last.fm support

Apple Music#

  • no last.fm integration! Deal-breaker. And third party apps don't scrobble everything
  • Awful Android app.
  • Great iOS and macOS apps
  • I would only recommend them if you're into the Apple ecosystem
  • Great library though!
  • Kpop is recognised as a genre, they have a bunch of playlists and even some exclusive that Spotify does not have! Very good point.

TIDAL#

  • Very good surprise! I always dismissed TIDAL but it's a solid alternative.
  • Great apps, honestly.
  • Hi-Fi quality, sometimes even "Master" but no one really knows what is means
  • Hi-Fi Student offer! Thank god you can be a student and like quality music. Very good move.
  • Native last.fm! Thank god
  • I didn't use the service quite enough to test it out, but their recommendation algorithm seems great! I especially like the "recommended tracks" feature.
  • Although TIDAL seems to have 10 millions more tracks than Spotify somehow (60M vs 50M, probably exclusives), I had about 25% of my library missing. It was better than Qobuz but not enough.
  • Most of the missing tracks were Kpop, which is once again not recognised as a genre here, too bad.

Summing up#

To sum up, each of the alternatives have at least one deal-breaker for me:

  • Qobuz: they don't have my music... 🧐
  • Deezer: dumbs limits 😠
  • TIDAL: missing tracks 😔
  • Apple Music: no last.fm 😥

TIDAL and Apple Music are really close to making me switch. But as of now, I'm not willing to give up 1/4th of my music, nor last.fm.

At the end of the day, I'm still happy with Spotify! For now...

Stanislas
Author
Stanislas
I like building things with code and computers

Comments

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  1. filovitch

    It is possible to unlink your account to facebook. You need to contact the support for that and they will relink your playlist and liked tracks to your new account.

    1. StanislasAuthor

      Yes indeed. But you have to go trough the support. And all your listening history disappears, right?

    2. Thomas

      Hello ! 👋 I had created my first Spotify account with Facebook (big mistake). After a few years I asked to delete this link and asked to import all my data to a new account. I have everything on it, Favs, history, playlists, followers/followings, albums etc... I only lost my nickname, even having asked support to keep it, they couldn't because it's the machine that automatically generates the username.

    4. Thomas

      I don't think so, cause my playlists generated every day by Spotify always contained my style of music and not in full random.

    5. Thomas

      I think you still keep your listening history because my Spotify-generated playlists were already ready with the right music. And since your listening history and the music you like and the artists you like are generated from that, I think it's a good way to keep it.

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