I used to be one of those people. I used to be one of those die-hard music lovers who only believed in purchasing albums from the artists rather than downloading anything I wanted, whenever I wanted it, through a torrent. I held to this belief because I believe in supporting the artist, and in paying for something that is sold rather than just taking it. That said, the way that I listen to, discover & share music has changed drastically over the past year. It hasn’t changed because where I stand on the purchasing of music has changed, but rather because I found that there was a much better way, for me, to experience music.
In August of 2010 I start my trial subscription with Rdio, an online music subscription service. Since that time, I can probably count on two hands the number of times i’ve opened iTunes on my computer. To make the “conversion” process easy for people interested in switching to a subscription-based service, they’ve implemented a way to pre-load your Rdio collection with all of the albums that currently reside within your iTunes library – making the switch quick and painless.
I’ve basically found that there are two main things that Rdio does really well that iTunes either doesn’t do, or doesn’t do well.
First off, Rdio is much more than a music subscription service – it’s a social music service. It’s changed the way that I discover music. Apple has tried to implement the social aspect to experiencing music online with Ping, but it just hasn’t taken off. People are using it, but it’s not to the point (and I doubt it ever will be) where it has been adopted and used regularly by the mass majority. That said, I think it’d be a stretch to claim that Rdio isn’t also in that boat, but in the realm of professionals whose work is primarily done on and in the web, it’s extremely popular.
Second, Rdio – being a web-based service – syncs well. You almost can’t even say it syncs, since it is strictly streaming online. However, regarding the unlimited subscription, there’s the option to sync music (on a song by song basis) to a mobile device, allowing you to listen even when you’re out of 3G/WiFi coverage.
There’s been talk of an “iTunes Cloud” or the like being added to MobileMe in the near future, but it’s one of the first things that I’ve seen Apple fall by the wayside on. To know that when I log in on any computer, phone or tablet I will have instant access to my entire library, playlists, friends etc is so refreshing in the sense that I don’t have to think about keeping all of my devices on the same page. I have enough to do on a weekly basis, and messing around with mp3′s and a flash drive isn’t even close to being on the priority list, let alone the top of it.
Not owning actual copies of albums isn’t for everyone. Personally, I’d much rather pay $10/mo to have unlimited access to as much music as I want, rather than just paying for and owning a single album each month.
If you haven’t already, give it a shot… you might be surprised. http://rdio.com
