Alex Chiri's Blog A new life

Grooveshark versus Spotify

Let's put it like this: I'm a heavy music listener! I like to be able to listen to the music I want, when I want, wherever I want and maybe when I don't know exactly what to play, some suggestions wouldn't hurt.

I have another confession to make: I have been using a Premium Spotify account for the last 6 months and I can say I use it most of the time I am awake. Rarely I buy some music I don't find on Spotify (yeah, there are some bands who didn't make it on Spotify, or some albums are not available there, imagine that!). I also subscribed to Grooveshark Anywhere for one month to be sure I don't miss a thing!

So, lets have a look at those 2 great services:

Grooveshark

Pros:

1. Extensive social features;
2. Information about upcoming events of artists;
3. Unlimited usage with only website ads for free users;
4. Desktop and mobile client*;
5. You can upload your own music;
6. Radio mode;
7. Large music collection;
8. Can listen to music without an account.

Cons:

1. Disorganized, a lot of junk content;
2. You can't listen to music while you're offline;

* features available with paid account.

Spotify

Pros:

1. Only official music content;
2. High quality sound*;
3. Desktop and mobile client*;
4. Very good organization of songs and albums;
5. Download songs offline on desktop and mobile*;
6. Unlimited usage with voice ads for free accounts;
7. Sync mobile and desktop libraries through the desktop app;
8. What's new section, see what new albums were released;
9. Early access to new music*;
10. Extensive info about artists.

Cons:

1. Some albums or songs are not available (e.g. album 21 from Adele);
2. Voice ads are kind of annoying;
3. In order to listen to anything, you need an account -> issue if you share music with someone who doesn't have an account and is not willing to create one.

* features available with paid account.

Last thoughts

Both Grooveshark and Spotify offer free and paid accounts. Grooveshark has 2 types of paid accounts: Grooveshark Plus and Grooveshark Anywhere, both help you get rid of advertisements on Groveshark website, allow you to use the Desktop app, Last.fm scrobbling and Anywhere allows you to use the Mobile app ( you can find more info here). Also Spotify has 2 types of paid accounts: Unlimited and Premium. Both get rid of advertisements and allow radio mode and on top of this Premium brings the possibility to use the mobile app, play music offline, better sound quality, exclusive content and use Spotify on media players (info here).

From what I can see, Grooveshark is some kind of Youtube for audio files, with lots of social and networking features, while Spotify is for people who want to enjoy music without all that clutter. Another important aspect is that Spotify pays money to the artists from the subscriptions and from the advertisements, based on some usage algorithms. Grooveshark seems to adopt a pay-on-demand policy, any artist can create his account there and see how many times his creations were accessed and how much many he will receive. But I'm not sure what happens when somebody uploads a song from different sources and lots of people listen to that. Is the artist getting paid for that?

While I will stick to Spotify and occasionally buy music that I can't find there, I admit Grooveshark has its good sides, but I can't step over the mess is in there. I want listening to music to be about listening to quality music which is easy to access and of a great quality. I also think that services like Spotify might be a solution to piracy, let's face it, 10 € per month is more than a bargain for a heavy listener.