Pandora vs. Spotify

My kids introduced me to Pandora streaming music several years ago and I have to say that I like the service. Recently another service has been gaining in popularity called Spotify and so I thought I would give it a shot. Once again it was my kids that told me I was behind the times and should move to Spotify. When I asked them why, they gave a number of reasons and so I thought I would check it out for myself.

My primary usage for streaming music is during my daily workout session. It makes getting on an indoor bicycle much easier when there is something upbeat to listen to. I never listen to music unless it is on a stationary bike inside a building. That means I always have a WiFi connection to the Internet. Riding outdoors with earphones on is a good way to get hit by a car or another cyclist. My preferred platform is my Android phone.

A second reason for listening to streaming music isn't really for music but for comedy. This is generally done as I travel to and from the airport using public transportation. It also means there isn't any WiFi and I use my phone's LTE Internet connection. For this, I will alternate between my iPhone and my Android phone. It just depends on which one is more easily reachable.

Finally, when I am working from home I like to listen to music and so I will have some sort of streaming music during mundane tasks that don't require much thought like doing expense reports. This is generally run on my Linux computer as I have a really nice sound system connected to it.

Given this background, here are my simple and initial observations:

I started listening to Pandora first and so I have the most experience with it. My memory of it initially is that it is very easy to set up. I created one station called "A Little Bit of Everything" where I entered a number of artists that I like and Pandora plays music from those artists as well as similar bands. After a while I found that my taste in music is so varied that I often end up listening to a lot of stuff I don't really like. Instead of constantly rating songs with the "thumbs down" button, I created a new station for just one artist: Angels and Airwaves. Pandora streams me music from Blink 182, Boxcar Racer, +44 as well as Angels and Airwaves along with other similar bands like Simple Plan. It is great music to listen to while working out.

When my kids had me look into Spotify, I set up an account on my Linux box and was immediately turned off as I was told to download the Spotify computer program. With Pandora I can just use my browser and don't have to install anything. Both streaming music applications require apps for smartphones and provide them for both Android and iOS. I assume they are also both available for Windows Mobile devices but don't really care. I don't have one of those, nor will I ever.

The first platform I loaded Spotify onto was my Android phone and it was a painless process. I typed in "Angels and Airwaves" into the artist section and saw a listing for a number of songs from that band and only that band. I assume that if I wanted to add Blink 182, I could do so but have not played around with the app enough to figure out how to do it. I did notice that there are a lot more Angels and Airwaves songs than I have heard on Pandora and so I believe there is a lot more music to choose from with Spotify, it just takes more effort to set things up the way you want them.

My son claims that Spotify has higher quality music than Pandora. At first I thought that meant more music song choices. Then my son explained that Spotify uses a higher sampling rate for their music and so the same song on Spotify will sound better than on Pandora. I'm not sure about that as they both sound pretty good to me. Perhaps I need a better set of earphones to tell the difference.

Currently my Spotify experience is rather rudimentary and so I still need to spend more time setting up the service. My initial impression is that if I take the time, it will be a lot better than Pandora, I just haven't done so yet. Until then it is easier to continue listening to Pandora and occasionally switch to Spotify when I want a more concentrated "Angels and Airwaves" experience.