Spotify for iOS Adding Streamlined 'Touch Preview' Controls After Record-Breaking 2014

the curated playlists are really good!

The basic idea of curated playlists just sounds horrible to me. That sounds like listening to public radio to me.

The best bands I've ever found generally had very few fans... it just seems to me that the probability of such amazing music ending up on a playlist made by someone else is slim to none, since someone making a playlist would be aiming to have more than 20 K people that listen to it.

But I'll bite - is there a playlist with Fear of Domination (3 K fans), Birthday Massacre (280 K), Blood Stain Child (10 K), and Insomnium (220 K) on it? Eluvetie? Korpiklaani? Turisas? Project Silence?

These are the artists that I never knew about before Spotify recommended them to me. There was no human touch involved - Spotify saw what I was listening to and made suggestions based on what people who liked similar things were also listening to. It was cold, calculated, and perfect. I feel like the odds of a human curated list having more than half of those bands just wouldn't happen.

Edit:

Wow. I have to pay? Really? I can't even look at your lists? No. F that.

I've stuck with Spotify since it launched in the U.S. and actually found it to be the best. One area where I think Spotify excels is its desktop app, especially on OS X.

There's a lot to like about Rdio, but last time I used the desktop app it was reliant on Flash, and it would eat CPU so much my fans were always running; has this changed?

I've tried Google Play All Access a few times, and am actually doing another trial right now. But the web player is unreliable, glitchy, and just not a great experience. Using the 3rd party app that wraps the web app makes for an even worse experience, and it appears to require installing Flash even though I configured HTML5 in Labs.

Looks like Beats also has a web player but no native app. How is the experience with this? Also, I wonder if Beats is going to become an Apple device exclusive in the near future -- this would make it less appealing in some respects, though wouldn't completely exclude it for me (after all, I still use iTunes with Mac, iPhone, Airplay). If the Beats iOS app ends up with tighter iOS integration than 3rd parties can achieve, that might be appealing, even though it would unfairly compete that way. Also, I wouldn't mind if Beats was integrated into iTunes and incorporated iTunes-like features (smart playlists, 5 star ratings, etc) -- I'm one of the few people who actually loves iTunes for music playback and appreciates it's strong feature set.

I also find Spotify has a good community in its shared playlists, though I haven't compared with other streaming services.

I love Spotify's preview feature in the desktop app, happy to see it in the iOS app.

These are fair points for sure. I prefer apps over web players and Beats only has a web player, and even then it's limited in functionality (no Sentence at all, for one). I don't listen through my computer ever really so it doesn't bother me too much. Spotify definitely has the best desktop experience as far as what I've tried goes. The community is really what makes Spotify work though, and what draws me back to it every now and then. Nothing else comes close in this aspect, but I still prefer the playlists in Beats over this. I've discovered so much music without ever leaving the Beats app, way more than I can say for Spotify or Rdio when I was using them.

You can just click on an album or even an artist, click save and it's all yours. Getting a whole discography at once had never been easier. They changed the whole "having to make a playlist just to get an album" thing a while ago.

Apple won't beat them cuz it would most likely be US only. how many countries get iTunes Radio again?

Yea but that literally didn't happen until last year. It was about time but for me it was way too late. I had already moved on and by that time found other things I liked more in other services. It was definitely a big reason for trying out other services and had they had it from the get-go I might not have ever left. I don't know if this is still an issue with Spotify but back in the day it was also unclear if everything in their library was 320kbps for high quality playback. Beats (and MOG before it) has always guaranteed this. Rdio was also pretty unclear in this regard.

Wow. I have to pay? Really? I can't even look at your lists? No. F that.

I'm thinking Apple will probably remove this limitation. Never really understood why Beats thought that was a good idea. But I've been paying the full $10 for streaming subscriptions for years and don't really see it as much of a cost compared to buying CDs or whatever. And I guess it also means more a contribution to the artists I'm listening to. This is actually pretty informative though it doesn't break down specifics on how much revenue a free listener generates compared to a premium listener http://www.spotifyartists.com/spotify-explained/

I think Spotify is the weakest of the streaming services I've tried (been a user of Beats since it launched). Took WAY too long to get a music library that didn't require creating playlists for each album you wanted to save, for instance, and I've never liked their interfaces.

Rdio is better at what Spotify does. I like Beats's curated playlists and The Sentence a lot. The only thing that makes Spotify worthwhile is the fact everyone uses it (which tempts me back to it occasionally).

15 million subscribers though; hard to imagine anyone, including Apple, beating them at this point. I'm looking forward to the revamp whether or not Apple just bundles Beats into iTunes. I think they're going to have to if they want it to stand a chance. Last I heard Beats had a few hundred thousand subscribers?

I've stuck with Spotify since it launched in the U.S. and actually found it to be the best. One area where I think Spotify excels is its desktop app, especially on OS X.

There's a lot to like about Rdio, but last time I used the desktop app it was reliant on Flash, and it would eat CPU so much my fans were always running; has this changed?

I've tried Google Play All Access a few times, and am actually doing another trial right now. But the web player is unreliable, glitchy, and just not a great experience. Using the 3rd party app that wraps the web app makes for an even worse experience, and it appears to require installing Flash even though I configured HTML5 in Labs.

Looks like Beats also has a web player but no native app. How is the experience with this? Also, I wonder if Beats is going to become an Apple device exclusive in the near future -- this would make it less appealing in some respects, though wouldn't completely exclude it for me (after all, I still use iTunes with Mac, iPhone, Airplay). If the Beats iOS app ends up with tighter iOS integration than 3rd parties can achieve, that might be appealing, even though it would unfairly compete that way. Also, I wouldn't mind if Beats was integrated into iTunes and incorporated iTunes-like features (smart playlists, 5 star ratings, etc) -- I'm one of the few people who actually loves iTunes for music playback and appreciates it's strong feature set.

I also find Spotify has a good community in its shared playlists, though I haven't compared with other streaming services.

I love Spotify's preview feature in the desktop app, happy to see it in the iOS app.

Awesome! I'm so glad Spotify exists. The regular new app features just make this service better and better. :)