Today I turned off my Spotify premium account. It was not a step taken lightly, as it had thoroughly trounced Google Play All Access when I was comparing them. Spotify was/is a solid player, with a large library, and great radio option.
But the one downside was what they didn’t have in their library. Led Zeppelin? Not there. Paul Gilbert and Racer-X? Nope. The Beatles? Nein. Yep, I could add them locally, and they would be there.
Then Apple launched iTunes 11.1 and their iradio service. One of the featured stations on install was a “Beatles” radio. Worth the price of admission.
With iTunes Match, all my library is available anywhere I have a network connection (some 17K tracks). While the first week had a few glitches in the radio, it has been pretty solid. And the mix that Apple has on the stations is very good. On Spotify, my “Velvet Revolver” station would begin to repeat songs after about 4 hours. With a similar artist station on iTunes radio, I have gone three days without consciously hearing a repeat.
So, I am cutting the Spotify cord, and will save that $10 a month. iRadio is ad free if you are an iTunes Match subscriber, so I am good there.
(and the British Metal station is awesome. Listening to some deep cuts of Judas Priest right now.)
