I am looking at Spotify and Zune Pass. At the moment I don't have a smartphone, so I won't be using it for mobile, and if I were to get a smartphone, I would get a Windows Phone.
So which one should I choose?
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What music subscription should I pay for?
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SonofNun's pick
If you care about quality, Spotify does stream in 320K when you stump up for Premium - I'd forgotten how good this was to be honest during my time with Zune. I took out a Premium sub the day that the WP7 client became available, cached up some songs and - man, you can hear the difference pretty readily after being used to (reasonable bitrates - 192K WMA is really not too bad, but still) Zune for a long time.
True, I use Zune (and Spotify) quite heavily as a 'virtual catalog' - i.e. I still buy CD's for music I really want to keep and rip them myself - but Spotify is definitely a passable alternative to that, although not everything is in high bitrate.
Spotify does give you options in terms of what mobile you use, although it screws my particular pooch as it leaves the Zune HD out of the picture. And what TimChoi said applies regarding Zune Pass, as it does integrate nicely with Windows Phone and your existing music. However if you're going full cloud, then the integration may not be such a big deal since playlists you create propagates across all of your Spotify-running devices. That said, it's easier to just cue up a whole bunch of transfers to your WP7 on your PC using Zune than marking each one in Spotify Offline Playlists.
Also, Zune's secured WMA's are a standard, so anything which understands WMA's will play back on that machine - so you don't have to use the Zune client. Spotify's proprietary-wrapped Oggs can only be played back on the Spotify client, which is IMO extremely weak sauce in terms of control over playback.
I'm actually tossing around the same question myself of which to use, although I'm subscribed to both right now - I paid for a year of Zune earlier this year, so I have it for a couple of months still whether I want it or not. I'm also considering switching out my primary smartphone platform from WP7 to something else - iOS, Meego or even Symbian - so I might end up going Spotify just to have the flexibility. I do prefer Zune as an integrated use experience, it's just that the catalog for non-US subscribers has large holes, music is quite frequently mistagged, and it's music discovery features utterly stink.
True, I use Zune (and Spotify) quite heavily as a 'virtual catalog' - i.e. I still buy CD's for music I really want to keep and rip them myself - but Spotify is definitely a passable alternative to that, although not everything is in high bitrate.
Spotify does give you options in terms of what mobile you use, although it screws my particular pooch as it leaves the Zune HD out of the picture. And what TimChoi said applies regarding Zune Pass, as it does integrate nicely with Windows Phone and your existing music. However if you're going full cloud, then the integration may not be such a big deal since playlists you create propagates across all of your Spotify-running devices. That said, it's easier to just cue up a whole bunch of transfers to your WP7 on your PC using Zune than marking each one in Spotify Offline Playlists.
Also, Zune's secured WMA's are a standard, so anything which understands WMA's will play back on that machine - so you don't have to use the Zune client. Spotify's proprietary-wrapped Oggs can only be played back on the Spotify client, which is IMO extremely weak sauce in terms of control over playback.
I'm actually tossing around the same question myself of which to use, although I'm subscribed to both right now - I paid for a year of Zune earlier this year, so I have it for a couple of months still whether I want it or not. I'm also considering switching out my primary smartphone platform from WP7 to something else - iOS, Meego or even Symbian - so I might end up going Spotify just to have the flexibility. I do prefer Zune as an integrated use experience, it's just that the catalog for non-US subscribers has large holes, music is quite frequently mistagged, and it's music discovery features utterly stink.
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SonofNun's pick
If you're going to get a Windows Phone I would recommend Zune Pass since it integrates nicely with the platform already. I find having multiple media players redundant.
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Since you are not using it for mobile Spotify is pretty good and has different prices depending on what you are going to use it for including a plan for mobile.
if you are looking at getting a Windows Phone later down the road i would suggest the Zune pass. its also a good service. i have not used the Zune service in almost a year when i got rid of my Zune HD.
i like the spotify interface and its social integration is good but can be annoying if you don't like sharing with Facebook. i don't find the Spotify is all that great for discovery is still tend to use Pandora more for that and use Spotify more as my library that i can add just about anything to when i find something new that i like on Pandora.
if you are looking at getting a Windows Phone later down the road i would suggest the Zune pass. its also a good service. i have not used the Zune service in almost a year when i got rid of my Zune HD.
i like the spotify interface and its social integration is good but can be annoying if you don't like sharing with Facebook. i don't find the Spotify is all that great for discovery is still tend to use Pandora more for that and use Spotify more as my library that i can add just about anything to when i find something new that i like on Pandora.
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