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Spotify Updates Mac App With Pandora-esque Radio Stations

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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,481
30,715



Spotify has updated its Mac app to version 0.8.3, bringing Pandora-like playlist-based radio stations to the music service. Users can start a new radio channel from any playlist or album in order to listen to similar songs.

playlist-radio1.jpg



Among other new features, users can now get HTML embed codes to easily share Spotify songs on websites, as well as new sharing links to post songs directly to Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr.

Current users can download the update from within the Spotify app, or directly from Spotify's website.

Article Link: Spotify Updates Mac App With Pandora-esque Radio Stations
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/05/11/spotify-updates-mac-app-with-pandora-esque-radio-stations/
B

benpatient

macrumors 68000
Nov 4, 2003
1,870
0
geopanich said:
Hasn't this been available for some time now?
Click to expand...

I believe the difference is that before you could only do "artist" or "song" radio stations. Now you can do radio stations based on a full album, or based on a custom playlist. In theory, this should result in better radio stations.
 
Dr McKay

Dr McKay

macrumors 68040
Aug 11, 2010
3,430
57
Kirkland
benpatient said:
I believe the difference is that before you could only do "artist" or "song" radio stations. Now you can do radio stations based on a full album, or based on a custom playlist. In theory, this should result in better radio stations.
Click to expand...

That makes sense.
 
H

hirshnoc

macrumors regular
Oct 18, 2007
249
148
Brooklyn, NY
Already 0.8.3

Not only have I had version 0.8.3 since I first downloaded the app, but there's actually no option to even check for an Update within the app.

Also, the features announced I already had.
 
ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,558
6,058
hirshnoc said:
Not only have I had version 0.8.3 since I first downloaded the app, but there's actually no option to even check for an Update within the app.

Also, the features announced I already had.
Click to expand...

I thought it was like Steam, where it automatically checks for updates at launch and refuses to play until you've updated it.

Can I take a moment to ask... why do you guys write articles when big companies make trivial apps, but when a lone developer (IE, me, although I'm sure there are countless others,) decides to make something huge, you guys can't be bothered to write anything?

I mean, seriously, Spotify makes an update with as little an update as this, where most people don't even notice it, and you decide to write an article (although I can think of many other dozens of examples from within the past few months,) and you can't be bothered to write an article mentioning, oh, IDK, the only freaking app on the app store that forecasts the death dates for the batteries on a users wireless mouse, keyboard, or trackpad? I'm sorry it's not angry birds (omg, in space now!); I'm sorry it's not a very well polished clone of existing apps; I'm sorry it's actually new and actually something that 90+% of Apple product owners are interested in instead of a game that the game playing Apple product owners are interested in. (Doesn't that mean it belongs on Touch Arcade instead of MacRumors?)

Whatever. [/rant]
 
Last edited:
Nostromo

Nostromo

macrumors 65816
Dec 26, 2009
1,358
2
Deep Space
I haven't used Spotify so far.

Pandoraeske?

I am already listening on Pandora.

What would Spotify have to better Pandora?
 
ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,558
6,058
Nostromo said:
I haven't used Spotify so far.

Pandoraeske?

I am already listening on Pandora.

What would Spotify have to better Pandora?
Click to expand...

I haven't used Pandora in a long time, but if it's anything like it used to be, it's hardly comparable to Spotify.

Here's how to think of Spotify:
Think of iTunes without all the bloat. It just plays music. The store is gone. Syncing is gone. Video is gone. As a result, the app starts up vastly quicker than iTunes. Now imagine that iTunes had every song ever recorded in history in its library. Legally. You may click on any song or album or artist, and it will instantly start playing them. They're streamed, so they don't take up space on your hard drive (not quite true... Spotify tries to buffer itself by downloading the next ten minutes worth of audio whenever it can. As a result, it'll keep on playing if you have a lousy Internet connection that goes out for a few minutes at a time.)

Basically, it's the world's greatest music playing app.

So what's the catch? It's ad supported. They have three types of ads:
1 - banner ads
2 - full window ads (they block Spotify, nothing else. Click the X and they go away.)
3 - audio ads. For every 15 minutes of music you listen to, it'll play a minute's worth of audio ads. Like what you would hear on the radio.

If you'd like to remove the ads, it costs $5/month.
 
P

ps45

macrumors regular
Feb 19, 2010
192
13
ArtOfWarfare said:
...

So what's the catch? It's ad supported. They have three types of ads:
1 - banner ads
2 - full window ads (they block Spotify, nothing else. Click the X and they go away.)
3 - audio ads. For every 15 minutes of music you listen to, it'll play a minute's worth of audio ads. Like what you would hear on the radio.

If you'd like to remove the ads, it costs $5/month.
Click to expand...

Except the iPad app. They don't allow you to freely use the iPad app as they do the desktop app.
 
S

soLoredd

macrumors 6502a
Mar 12, 2007
967
0
California
darkflounder said:
Browse by genre??

No, that's stupid. Who wants to do that?

And will the iOS app include these radio-esque stations?
Click to expand...

Exactly. I use Spotify heavily, both on my Mac and my iPhone...but until the radio stations come to iPhone, its not close to Pandora. The iPhone app leaves much to be desired.
 
M

macUser2007

macrumors 68000
May 30, 2007
1,506
203
Bleh.

MOG has that, it seems to have a larger catalog, and it has by far the best streaming quality of any music streaming service. I don't know why anyone would use Spotify.

I dropped Pandora, because they support only 128k through my network receiver, even though I have a paid subscription (which gets me 192k on a desktop).

Spotify's quality is still very marginal for the vast majority of their catalog.

MOG streams virtually all of their stuff at 320k, which is pretty close to being indistinguishable from my lossless rips, through my large speakers. The difference in sound quality is very noticeable.

I stream MOG from my iPad to my AVR through AirPlay and since I subscribed, I have virtually stopped listening to my CD collection (lossless rips).

Seriously, if you care about sound quality, both Spotify and Pandora suck.
 
Nostromo

Nostromo

macrumors 65816
Dec 26, 2009
1,358
2
Deep Space
ArtOfWarfare said:
I haven't used Pandora in a long time, but if it's anything like it used to be, it's hardly comparable to Spotify.

Here's how to think of Spotify:
Think of iTunes without all the bloat. It just plays music. The store is gone. Syncing is gone. Video is gone. As a result, the app starts up vastly quicker than iTunes. Now imagine that iTunes had every song ever recorded in history in its library. Legally. You may click on any song or album or artist, and it will instantly start playing them. They're streamed, so they don't take up space on your hard drive (not quite true... Spotify tries to buffer itself by downloading the next ten minutes worth of audio whenever it can. As a result, it'll keep on playing if you have a lousy Internet connection that goes out for a few minutes at a time.)

Basically, it's the world's greatest music playing app.

So what's the catch? It's ad supported. They have three types of ads:
1 - banner ads
2 - full window ads (they block Spotify, nothing else. Click the X and they go away.)
3 - audio ads. For every 15 minutes of music you listen to, it'll play a minute's worth of audio ads. Like what you would hear on the radio.

If you'd like to remove the ads, it costs $5/month.
Click to expand...

This sounds good, and $5 a month is worth it to me to get rid of the audio ads.

That was the reason I stopped listening to Pandora for a while, but then Pandora piped down the audio ads - they are rarely there any more.

When you change a station you'll get a video, sometimes a cool fashion video, sometimes some garbage about insurance, but that's it. The ads next to the app are not intruding on you experience (no full screen ads).

It'll be a matter on how well those "stations" work. I found jazz stations extremely well done on Pandora, r&b not so much - often going from Amy Winehouse to whiners ...
 
H

hirshnoc

macrumors regular
Oct 18, 2007
249
148
Brooklyn, NY
ArtOfWarfare said:
I thought it was like Steam, where it automatically checks for updates at launch and refuses to play until you've updated it.


Oh yeah you are probably right about that.



Can I take a moment to ask... why do you guys write articles when big companies make trivial apps, but when a lone developer (IE, me, although I'm sure there are countless others,) decides to make something huge, you guys can't be bothered to write anything?

I mean, seriously, Spotify makes an update with as little an update as this, where most people don't even notice it, and you decide to write an article (although I can think of many other dozens of examples from within the past few months,) and you can't be bothered to write an article mentioning, oh, IDK, the only freaking app on the app store that forecasts the death dates for the batteries on a users wireless mouse, keyboard, or trackpad? I'm sorry it's not angry birds (omg, in space now!); I'm sorry it's not a very well polished clone of existing apps; I'm sorry it's actually new and actually something that 90+% of Apple product owners are interested in instead of a game that the game playing Apple product owners are interested in. (Doesn't that mean it belongs on Touch Arcade instead of MacRumors?)

Whatever. [/rant]
Click to expand...


I agree. Eventually there's going to be so many Mac Apps that it will be silly to keep up with updates to each one. It's like "Quicken 2012 for Mac updated with this new thing that taxpayers have never seen before."

It's possible that links to these apps within the macrumors page benefits the site financially, but I don't know.
 
M

MacFan23

macrumors 6502a
Feb 17, 2010
504
667
macUser2007 said:
Bleh.
MOG has that, it seems to have a larger catalog, and it has by far the best streaming quality of any music streaming service.
Click to expand...

MOG 14million songs
Spotify 15million songs


macUser2007 said:
MOG streams virtually all of their stuff at 320k, which is pretty close to being indistinguishable from my lossless rips, through my large speakers. The difference in sound quality is very noticeable.
Click to expand...
Spotify is 320k as well

macUser2007 said:
I stream MOG from my iPad to my AVR through AirPlay and since I subscribed, I have virtually stopped listening to my CD collection (lossless rips).

Seriously, if you care about sound quality, both Spotify and Pandora suck.
Click to expand...

If you care about sound quality that much surely you wouldn't be using a streaming service and wireless speakers, just saying.
 
ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,558
6,058
BiteMyApple said:
I beg to differ. Although I think Spotify can answer the music needs of many, I find myself stuck when searching for specific songs on a constant basis.
Click to expand...

I occasionally find that songs aren't available in Spotify. So then I acquire them through other means (IE, finding the disk and ripping it, or finding it on iTunes and buying it,) and then it shows up in Spotify.

And unless I'm mistaken, time spent listening to local music files doesn't count towards the fifteen minutes or so between ads.
 
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