Music and movement
Spotify’s mobile app works on iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows, Palm and Symbian. It seamlessly syncs to the main application and you can star tracks and add or edit playlists, as on the desktop. If you have Shazam you can also link to hear a song again via Spotify.
Pure Music web playback
Click for a larger image
Pure Music’s web portal is conventional, rather cluttered and less intuitive than Spotify, though it’s been around for much less time, so it may get better. There is no ‘artist radio’ feature but it suggests similar things, again quite effectively and often with a broader range. For Radiohead it recommended Mogwai and PJ Harvey, besides more obvious names.
You can buy any of the tracks for keeps or simply use playlists, as with Spotify. If you’re listening on one of Pure’s radios or with the mobile app you can’t buy streamed tracks, so the system needs a bit more development, as well as bug fixes.
Spotify and Pure Music apps
At the moment purchasing can only be done on the website – a tablet or mobile browser such as Dolphin will work if its user agent is set as a desktop. The Sensia is an exception though, Pure’s radios aren’t great for browsing the catalogue because lots of information is stripped to fit small displays. Still, a benefit compared to Spotify is that multiple devices connected to one network and account can play different songs simultaneously.
Not everything, past or present, is available on Spotify but it has a large and growing library of at least 16 million tracks. Premium subscribers also get exclusive access to certain early releases. Not every label or artist’s management are happy with Spotify. As a result there are some omissions, a high profile example being Adele’s 21, but given that it’s in constant rotation on nearly all radio stations, is that so bad?
Next page: Quality option
COMMENTS
Spotify Comments
I've used Spotify for a while now, got to be at least a couple of years, and for all of that I've been paying for the £4.99 package except for the first month I discovered the service.
Music does disappear, and I wish they'd post something about it rather than having it just "go grey" in your list. Sometimes when my complete playlist is on random it's months until I finally realise something I was listening to hasn't played for ages.
It is also missing the majority of stuff by some of my favourite artists such as Metallica, Lacuna Coil, Rammstein, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and others. Unfortunately for said artists, their lack of appearance on Spotify doesn't make me go out and buy their CDs, it just makes me annoyed they're not on there and determined not to give them any money.
Overall, despite the missing music and artists, I wouldn't be without it. Much preferable to buying CDs, and much more convenient than pirating. Yes, I am a reformed freetard, which will no doubt earn me the ire of some of the more rabid commenters on here, but this is exactly what I was waiting for.
Now all I need is for Netflix or LoveFilm to actually have a decent selection of stuff on their streaming service and I'll subscribe to that to!
I've got a load of albums/tracks that I downloaded with my Premium Spotify membersip which over time have disappeared .... sometimes whole albums, sometime one or two tracks from an album on occasionally find an album with only 1 remaining track.
Any device, anywhere
I hope this move by pure might make Spotify think again about charging a premium for mobile access. The device, the 'where' and the 'how' are irrelevant.
You should definitely demand a refund!
Seriously though, can you give an example of a track that's gone? I'm curious to see if I can still get it on the premium service.
Re: SADFACE
Couldn't agree more. I used to be a Spotify Premium user, but thought 'why not spend that money on actually buying CDs?'. It's better for me, and it is certainly better for the artists - and I don't have to worry about whether I can get an adequate signal when on the move - the usual answer outside London being 'no'.
