Music streaming service Rdio is shutting down for now, as it’s been acquired by Pandora. The whole adjustment has felt like a slow breakup to me. Slowly they've shut down pieces, including opening the Rdio app on my phone just to receive these sad messages and opening the app at work to finally be cutoff and not be able to play music…
I joined Rdio because of lack of music streaming options in Canada at the time but it’s grown into an essential part of my musical-listening self and integrates into everything else I do.
This all feels like Rocket by Smashing Pumpkins, that we’re putting Rdio into a rocket and sending it away. Booo.
Rdio made subway rides more enjoyable with offline playback in it’s paid option, which I quickly paid for. I then made a "mobile playlist” that I’d sync to my phone and I had been rocking for 3 years to ensure I always had music even when there was no cell service.
Pretty interface.
It integrated with Shazam (which I still believe is the most magic app I’ve ever seen) so anytime I tagged something it went directly into a Rdio playlist. It connected to my last.fm so everything was scrobbled and kept track of. It was even an app on my Roku that I used to stream music through my TV for a while.
I stopped looking for “new releases” charts across the web as the app learned enough about me and recommended everything I should hear and suggested new artists that I was always listening to. And lastly, this year I started making monthly playlists and posting them all here, all of which started on Rdio and have been moved over to where I’ll be living… Spotify.
My first reaction at Spotify is that it’s missing one of my top listened to albums. I lost daily listening to Radiohead - In Rainbows but I gained back an album I missed listening to that Rdio had taken off their service - deadmau5 — while(1<2). Tradeoffs.
Otherwise so far? Spotify has a max # for adding music to your collection, which I will top out on very quickly and the app seems to sway me towards listening to more Beiber and Top 40 than I enjoy in my daily listening habits.
The interface is different and instead of adding an artist to your collection, you “follow” them - but to what goal? I’m still learning. Also their new releases are not based on what I’ve been listening to and seem to push me towards Beiber again. Is Spotify trying to tell me something?
So much Beiber, Drake and Weeknd.
All in all though, I'm trying to put aside my grief from losing a friend, beautiful user experience and one that I’m extremely familiar with and learning something new while wishing that Spotify would adopt some of Rdio’s best features.
-----------------------------------------------
Onto my fav albums of 2015.
I missed out on making a fav albums of 2014 and instead did a years worth of playlists that are all here for listening/reviewing and enjoying. It was awesome to make monthly playlists and enabled this list to be easy.
So here’s my favourite albums of 2015. They’re in no particular order and gathered from data I have in Last.fm & Spotify as Rdio now is completely shut down, for now.
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Chasing Yesterday
Coldplay - Head Full of Dreams
Ellie Goulding - Delerium
Of Monsters & Men - Beneath The Skin
Silversun Pickups - Better Nature
Adele - 25
Chvrches - Every Open Eye
Mark Ronson - Uptown Special
Knife Party - Trigger Warning (EP)
Kaskade - Automatic
Major Lazer - Peace is the Mission
Above & Beyond - We’re All We Need
Sia - 10000 Forms of Fear
Bonus even though it’s 2014 it's soooo good = Slow Magic - How to Run away
Thanks for reading! Cheers to 2016!
Jess Joyce is an SEO Consultant physically located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada who's been building and optimizing the web for just over 20 years. Working in-house at startups and at agencies she has a well rounded perspective of the web having built/maintained/optimized for many different industries and businesses.
I joined Rdio because of lack of music streaming options in Canada at the time but it’s grown into an essential part of my musical-listening self and integrates into everything else I do.
This all feels like Rocket by Smashing Pumpkins, that we’re putting Rdio into a rocket and sending it away. Booo.
Rdio made subway rides more enjoyable with offline playback in it’s paid option, which I quickly paid for. I then made a "mobile playlist” that I’d sync to my phone and I had been rocking for 3 years to ensure I always had music even when there was no cell service.
Otherwise so far? Spotify has a max # for adding music to your collection, which I will top out on very quickly and the app seems to sway me towards listening to more Beiber and Top 40 than I enjoy in my daily listening habits.
The interface is different and instead of adding an artist to your collection, you “follow” them - but to what goal? I’m still learning. Also their new releases are not based on what I’ve been listening to and seem to push me towards Beiber again. Is Spotify trying to tell me something?
Otherwise so far? Spotify has a max # for adding music to your collection, which I will top out on very quickly and the app seems to sway me towards listening to more Beiber and Top 40 than I enjoy in my daily listening habits.
The interface is different and instead of adding an artist to your collection, you “follow” them - but to what goal? I’m still learning. Also their new releases are not based on what I’ve been listening to and seem to push me towards Beiber again. Is Spotify trying to tell me something?
