Advantages of Spotify over Last.FM?

gillywibble

gillywibble

gillywibble

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Apart from the ability to listen to specific tracks, is there anything else that justifies the £10 per month price over the £3 for Last.FM?

What am I missing?
 
I don't see why the two get compared, surely one compliments the other rather than rivals it? I pay for both and use both for completely different things.
 
If your comparing the two like for like it is a mistake

Last.FM is a social networking site that offers music as a way of promoting artists, It allows you to find events, meet people with your musical tastes and (the most important thing) discover NEW musical tastes by comparing other peoples tastes who share similar musical tastes to your own (How Myspace should have been).

Spotify is currently a music rental application. It offers a huge range of music that you can choose from and listen to as and when you choose.

If you are looking for comparisons in terms of justifications for one over the other then as one of the previous posts states you should try to understand its like comparing a rock club to a HMV. You can listen to music in HMV, but the chances you find anything new are pretty slim. Where as in a rock club you can listen to music, but you cant listen to what you want when you want (unless the DJ/Band can play it)

Last.FM as a music lover in my opinion is a must, its brilliant for finding when artists are touring in your area and for meeting people with similar tastes.


Spotify is expensive for what is essentially mobile music on demand. The expense of purchasing the mobile client is justified comparativly to say buying individual tracks off of itunes when your standing in a train station.
Now I dont know what the costs are for running the app, but I think the marketing department were probably given to much financial reign over the apps selling price rather than actually comparing the market from an existing standpoint.

It is good to have if you have a constantly shifting taste for new music and rarely listen to your old music AND you already spend a lot of money on music, but if you dont then buy CD's from online stores and get Last.FM because if you have any lust for music then it is well worth signing up for.
 
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Spotify has a pause button and you have to listen to some irritating adds every 20 mins (unless you pay for the subscription).

Last FM doesnt have a pause button and chooses songs more for you

My advice, buy cd's and use last fm to find out more about the bands :)
 
pingwing said:
My advice, buy cd's and use last fm to find out more about the bands :)
Click to expand...

What he said.

Spotify is great for listening to bands you already know, but fairly useless for finding new stuff. Last.fm is really useful for discovering new bands, especially if you use the client to track all your listening - then the site matches you with bands you'd like and people with similar tastes. I wouldn't use it to listen to specific music though - that's not really what it was designed for and so it's a bit awkward.

I don't think either of them is a replacement for buying CDs. You can get used (but good condition) CDs off an auction site for a couple of quid, and they're yours to keep forever, rather than disappearing when you stop paying a subscription.

(For what it's worth, I don't think the free Spotify will last. At the moment hardly anyone pays for premium, and there's no way their advertising revenue is going to pay for bandwidth and licensing costs.)
 
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