The way we digest media, whether traditional or digital, has changed immensely over the past few years, and none more so than the way we listen to music. When you take into consideration that we’ve never been as spoilt for choice as we are now, it can almost be overwhelming to decide how to listen to music. Do you prefer your music in your headphones, on a stereo at home, on your music player while on the move, or in the more traditional, physical form?
Even though vinyl has become increasingly popular in recent years, online streaming services have added another new, and very exciting, avenue for your listening pleasure. There are a number of online streaming music subscription services available and today I’ll be telling you a little more about the service which I use, Rdio.
I was sceptical about online music services at first, as I’m a creature of habit and have been listening to music for as long as I can remember. I’ve been listening to my music, more specifically. I was weary of subscribing to a service that will cost me R60 every month, but after the first month, and the previous 14 day free trial, the service has already proved itself to be well worth the price.
The biggest difference between a music subscription service and traditional media is simple, it’s ownership versus access. Let me clarify it this way, if you buy a CD or record, you own the physical medium, so you have something tangible to show for your money. On the other side of the spectrum, and this is what had me sceptical at the start, is the idea of “renting” music. More specifically, it’s paying for access to an unlimited collection of digital music, without ever receiving anything physical to keep.
The benefit of this is that you don’t have to commit to a purchase; you simply have to decide what it is you want to listen to, press play and off you go. This is extremely useful for a number of reasons, but in my case there was one major factor that made signing up an easy decision, convenience.
I use three different machines regularly, and all three of them use a different OS. At work it’s Windows 8.1, at home there’s an iMac and a laptop running Ubuntu. This creates a headache for me, the music lover, and that headache is how do I manage three music libraries? Now, all I need to do is fire up my browser, and I can access my Rdio library (which can be merged with your iTunes library as well for added convenience) anywhere.
The subscription cost of streaming to computers via browser or the Rdio app, which is available on Mac and Windows, will only cost you R25 a month. That’s less than the average lunch. To me, that’s already worth the money, just because you don’t have to worry about transporting and copying music over to various devices, instead all you need is an internet connection.
While on the topic of the internet connection, I’ve used it on a fast line (at work) and a slower line (at home) and a very slow line (for science), so far the only slowdowns I’ve noticed are while syncing, playback is amazingly smooth regardless of the connection I used.
Where Rdio really adds great value to my life though, is on mobile. I walk to and from work daily, so I need music while commuting. With the R60 per month subscription I can sync an infinite amount of songs, playlists and full albums to my phone for offline access. This lets me enjoy my music at the office during the day and let’s say I’ve not quite finished an album I’m enjoying, I can sync it to my phone, set it back to offline mode (to conserve data and battery life) unplug and it’ll be right there on my device, ready to play.
I should also add that I’m a huge music fan, and although I do listen to digital music mostly, when I love an album a lot, I’ll buy it on record to keep. Most modern LPs are released with a free digital download, or a CD in some cases, giving you digital access to your physical keepsake.
The final coup de grace for the online music service is the social aspect. Scrobble all your listens to your Last.fm account, share links to songs, playlists or entire albums to you social circles, only Facebook and Twitter at the moment, as well as in Rdio itself. So no more searching YouTube videos to find that song to share with your mates, and by bringing the social aspect of music listening to me, wherever I am, Rdio’s absolutely exceeded all of my expectations.
Rdio really has enhanced my music listening experience and the Android version of their mobile app is top notch, as I’d expect the iOS version to be. Most of the streaming services do have a trial period available and I honestly couldn’t recommend it more. No more waiting for music to be shipped and delivered, simply decide on what you want to listen to and you’re good to go.
