Spotify or Google Play Music or ?

Skeeter

Skeeter

Skeeter

Caporegime
Joined
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I seem to spend a lot of time on trains and currently listen to music using a free account on both Google Play Music and Spotify. Google has all my music collection in the cloud, and a chunk of it stored on my phone, while Spotify has the whole world's music collection, but obviously has the limitations of a free account.

Due to the wonderful situation in the UK where traveling into our nationals capital means data connections go to pop, the main reason I have music stored locally is to cover the signal black spots and the tube, etc. I'd love to just be able to use a single service for the lot.

Do either Spotify or Google Play Music paid accounts do any sort of forward caching? Where it caches the next few songs it's going to play to cope with drops in data connection, or getting on a tube?

And regardless, are either of them worth the subscription, and which is best? Or is there another service that's better?
 
I have and like Spotify Premium. It's annoying because not everything I want to listen to is on there, and sometimes songs and albums just disappear at random (well, I guess when artists/publishers decide to remove it). Some stuff is not available to us in the UK but it is in America - again, annoying if I create a playlist out of things when I'm over there.

You can make playlists available offline, so it'll download the songs to your phone - I think the limit is something like 3000 songs or thereabouts at any one time - it's plenty, really.

I think it's well worth it for about a tenner a month.
 
Google music does have forward caching, plus it also has the ability to download to the phone as well, which I am sure that Spotify does.

Its all down to if the music you want to listen to is available or not. Personally, I use both as you currently do.
 
I use google play - it let's you download song/albums to use offline. Not sure what the limits are but I downloaded 3 albums last night to use offline as I'm travelling about a bit today.

In general I find it to be really good. I can only remember searching for one or two artists that it didn't have.
 
I use Google Play to store my own music I have uploaded on my phone offline too. I have about 20gb of offline music on my phone. Sounds like a lot, but being on shuffle for 3+ hours a day, 5 days a week for the last 18 months mean I've head it all :p. I can't be bothered to go though unpinning albums and pinning new ones, hence moving to using Spotify for some new music.

Its just annoying having to switch between streamed Google Play/Spotify and offline music every time my signal drops. Leaskovski, when you say Google forward caches, is that on your own music only, or on Google Play streams or radio? If Spotify cached the next x songs/x MB of music on a radio or playlist to cope with signal drop it would be brilliant, but it looks like my only option is to download a whole playlist?

I'm just trying to work out if I would actually gain anything from the paid services?
 
For me Play Music seems to cache albums you like or have gave a thumbs up recently.
But you can always make a song, or an album available off line.
 
I really like Google Play all access. I've also recently started to make playlists of songs on youtube that aren't on GP-AA. As most of you probably know, you can now listen to songs on youtube whilst the phone's screen is off.

For anyone that uses both, how does Google's library compare to that of Spotify's?
 
Used Spotify for ages now. Has everything i want to listen to, apart from 2 albums.

Great for on the go and making quick playlists.

They're all going to have the same sort of experience. So i would advise trying both free versions and picking the one you like best.
 
Skeeter said:
Leaskovski, when you say Google forward caches, is that on your own music only, or on Google Play streams or radio?
Click to expand...

I don't know on that. All I know is that when I play an album in the morning whilst Im walking pooch, I don't seem to loose the stream when I hit the usual blackspots in the cell coverage.

I guess, if google knows what it is playing next, i.e. it appears on the playlist, then it will auto cache that song.
 
I used Spotify premium for quite a while (maybe 6-9 months) but Google Music all access is just slightly better in every respect. Mobile app is more minimalist...caching seems slightly better (as does dealing with dodgy connections)...more of the music I like on there and the artist/song radio just seems to find stuff that I like more. I don't think I'd go back to Spotify personally.
 
Sounds like Google might be a bit better at the bits I'm having issues with. It has the benifit of having all my own music stored in it anyway.

Ill give the free try a go.
 
Sounds like Google might be a bit better at the bits I'm having issues with. It has the benifit of having all my own music stored in it anyway.

Ill give the free try a go.
 
Google Play Music doesn't work with Squeezeboxes :(

That said, my Squeezebox app hasn't been updated since about 2008, and this is just yet another in a long list of things it doesn't do. Maybe its time to move to a Sonos?
 
I have sonos and was using just spotify, but had issues with spotify not working every now and again. I have switched to google play music now and it is great with the sonos. You can even stream to a sonos device directly via google play music without having to use the sonos app.
My only issue now is how to get export/import my spotify playlists into google
 
I've tried Google Play and it doesn't cache enough to cope with the network black hole that is Clapham Junction or central London at rush hour. Other than gaining the ability to play specific tracks rather than just shuffle, so far I'm struggling to see what the £10 a month would get me?

Ill let this trial run out and then give Spotify a go. I will say that the Spotify pre built playlists are a lot better than the recommendations from Google. Google radio stations created from a song also always seem to play that song first, which is really annoying.

Regarding Sonos, I played around with the Play:3 we have in the office today and the app is great, but the £lol price and the fact they don't have any that have batteries kills it for me. :(
 
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Well this is annoying.

Spotify has better suggestions and radio (Google Play insists on always playing the song the radio is created on first, which is annoying), there are a lot more pre built playlists and the interface is much better, if a little dated (Google's insistance on showing everything in squares means nearly every artist, song and album name gets cutoff).

But... the forward caching of Google play seems to cope well with the dodgy phone signal around London, while Spotify struggles a lot more. Plus all my own music is already in Google Play. It doesn't work with my Squeezebox though.

Seems neither are perfect :(.
 
I use Google Play Music. £7.99 (so slightly cheaper than spotify), never had any problems. You also get a Youtube Keys subscription for the price now but tbh it's not that useful to me.

The only thing I don't like is the fact they don't have a native iPad app. No idea why they haven't sorted this yet.
 
Spotify fan here. Just so good and the ipad app is awesome.

Plus, due to a special offer, i'm currently getting it for a fiver a month.
 
Another vote for Spotify premium here. You can make tracks available offline so perfect for travelling on trains etc when signal drops out.
 
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