The Danosphere.

Streaming is quickly becoming the new way people consume music. Whether you want to listen to a specific song or discover music on-the-go music streaming services are the new go-to option for finding and listening to music. When it comes to streaming services there are many players, but 3 major names dominate the market: Grooveshark, Pandora, and Spotify.

There is a lot of misinformation flying around about which service is best, and what features each service offers, so I’m here to set the record straight. All information in this post applies to U.S. users only- beacuse I am in the U.S. I cannot accurately provide information on how these services do or don’t work in other countries. Another important note is that Spotify is not yet available in the U.S. (unless you use some trickery) but it is expected to launch in the U.S. within the next 3-6 momths.

Here is an infographic I put together outlining what each of these services have to offer. What prompted this was a post I read on  Gizmodo (one of my favorite tech/gadget blogs) “Why It’s Worth Getting Excited For Spotify’s US Launch”. In the post they ooh and ahh over Spotify as if it’s some kind of game changer- when in reality, there are already better services offering more features for less money that are already live and operational in the U.S.

Let’s see how these 3 streaming titans stack up:

I have used all 3 services first hand. Here are some of my personal thoughts on each service:

Spotify – Generally over hyped. No web client, extremely annoying audio ads for free users. I am in the U.S. so I was only able to use the desktop client, thus I cannot comment on the mobile client. Was unable to listen to several recently released songs because the service didn’t have them available yet and there is no “upload your own” option. Subscription is very expensive relative to other services.

Pandora – Awesome discovery feature which uses the music genome project. Annoying audio ads. No way to play songs on-demand. Web client is fair, it gets the job done, but also looks somewhat outdated like it was made in 2000. The service has at its heart custom “radio stations” that you create yourself. In a nutshell you choose a collection of music, either by artist(s), song(s) or genre(s). You can add as many as you like to a radio station and you can have as many radio stations as you like. Pandora will then use the music genome project to give you an endless playlist based on your selections, the results are pretty awesome and it’s a great way to effortlessly find new music. You can also like/dislike music as it plays to further refine your stations. Limitations for free users are pretty lame though (40hrs a month and limited skips).

Grooveshark – The service I actually decided to pay for when they finally released their iPhone app. Web, desktop and mobile clients (for paying users- free users get only the web client). All their clients are extremely current and robust, giving you the option to build playlists, like/dislike music, favorite music, and share music on any platform. All their clients are extremely consistent as well, and support all the same feature sets with very similar UIs so there is no need to relearn the product on different platforms. From what I gather most the music on Grooveshark is user-uploaded. This means that there can be duplicates and songs of questionable quality at times, but for the most part the music is very high quality. Their discovery service (aka Grooveshark Radio) is pretty cool too. Unlike Pandora it uses songs already in your playlist, and the data it has based on your like/dislike history to find new music for you. Paying users also get access to new features before the general public (think of it as google labs). Some of their latest new features are radio-by-tag and last.fm scrobbling.

So there you have it. Hopefully this puts to rest some of the misinformation swirling around these streaming services and provides you with a clear picture of what each service offer sso that, if you so choose, you can pay for the service that gives you the most bang for your buck. I chose Grooveshark and haven’t looked back. Happy streaming!

The company I work for, Decision Lens, is getting into the social media game [finally, somewhat... ok just a little]. Anyways, we have a youtube channel now, it’s pretty sparse at the moment but if you are a “youtuber” it never hurts to follow the Decision Lens YouTube Channel to keep up to date with our new videos.

In the meantime checkout this vid, it’s a little long but in all fairness it’s pretty hard to describe what the Decision Lens Suite does in a succinct way, it’s a very powerful software platform with a wide range of uses-and the video goes a long way in explaining that. Check it out, for more info visit the Decision Lens website.

Sorry readers! It seems every time I get a second to actually post on here it’s just saying why I haven’t been posting. And this post is no different!

I try to keep busy- but recently things have just been crazy. I finally moved into my new (and first!) condo (which I own, no more renting!), and I have internet here now, so hopefully the posts will be coming in more steadily, I have a healthy backlog of topics I have been meaning to write about.

Mostly I am just stopping by to let you know this blog is still active, I just have been between here and there a lot the last few months but now that I’m settled I want to get back into more regular postings. This blog also is due for an update and a new theme don’t you think? I’ll get on that.

Also shameless self promotion, if you’re in college or a recent grad, head over to collegeblender, it’s a pretty cool fast-growing community of college kids and recent grads from around the country. It’s a great way to meet people on campus or just see what’s buzzing at different schools. Also, it’s what has been taking up all my time! We are always working on something new so that makes it hard to do other stuff (like post on the ze blog!). Anywho, check it out, find me, and vote for my blog.

Here are some cool vid’s from around the internet, hopefully they will entertain you while I get myself organized.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Leno v. Conan late night wars, I’m with COCO for the record. I think when we look back on all this in a few years, it will play something like this:

Spike Jonze is collaborating with Absolut Vodka on a cool new short film. Here is the trailer, which I thought looked pretty interesting:

That’s it for now, more soon, for real this time!

This lil clip has been making the rounds this week but I decided to throw it up here on the blog because it is just that awesome. Michael Bay tries his hand at directing a Victoria’s Secret commercial. To my knowledge this first aired during the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show on December 2, 2009.

And how could I post that without posting this gem:

more posts soon!

Haven’t posted in a while! Been nose-down on CollegeBlender stuff (slated to go public monday 11/9/09) but in the meantime I found this humorous and thought I’d share. Lil comedy for your hump day.

Hey Readers,

Sorry for being so nonresponsive! I’m still very busy with CollegeBlender but when I get a moment to breathe I will catch up with you all. In the meantime enjoy this little trick I found: