Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

It's astonishing how much sentimentality and being comfortable can play into making a decision. Despite clear evidence that one choice is better, no matter how many friends and family advise for one path, remaining in what is known feels so safe. Even if the other hand holds a better future.

I'm talking about deciding between Spotify and Apple Music, of course.

It's a decision that came up when my wife, Kellyn, and I started doing finances together as we've been settling into married life. We each had our own music streaming plans - her through Spotify and myself through Apple Music. When we realized we could do a family plan and save some money, we were all for it. But the daunting task remained - which service to choose?

Kellyn, knowing how much music means to me and being the kind and considerate person she is, left the decision up to me. She said she would be happy with either choice. Now, in that moment, I could have made the process easy and said Apple Music. It's what I've been using, I'm familiar with it, and there's many elements of it that I enjoy. However, I couldn't make that decision so easily, because I had been already thinking about this choice. It was a debate that had already been quietly building in my mind the last few months. Despite my affinity for Apple, their products, and services, I was in doubt that I was using the best music streaming service for myself.

I've been using Apple Music since the summer of 2015 - I started with a three month trial, and found that, despite my initial aversion to the idea of streaming music, it suited my needs. I loved the integration of Apple Music with iTunes, seamlessly blending my purchased music with my "borrowed" Apple Music downloads. For some reason, I very much enjoy seeing how many times I've listened to songs - the play counts let me see which songs I was listening to the most (and in my latest year end post on my previous blog platform, I used those numbers to do some really nerdy analysis). Their selection of music was incredible

I had been happily using the service for almost four years, when doubts started to creep in. I had been noticing, despite trying to "like" as much of the music I enjoyed as possible, the weekly recommended songs Apple Music provided were usually not to my taste. There were some weeks where the songs would resonate well, either being by artists I loved or by new artists that fit right into my tastes, but for the most part I was finding that at least half of the songs were not pleasing to me at all. No matter how often I "disliked" them, Apple Music was convinced that I would really enjoy a few random songs of non-melodic hardcore and really bad trap music. It was starting to wear on me, and made me less and less likely to listen to their recommendations.

At the beginning of this year, when I started my new job at Shorthand, I got a lot of exposure to Spotify - it's the music service they use for in the store and in the production area. I made a playlist for when I was at work, and really enjoyed the interface and recommendations made to flesh out my playlist even more. That's when the first thoughts began creeping in, whispering doubt and shaking what I thought was a solid foundation. I had never given thought to switching over before this - I was firmly entrenched in the Apple Music camp, proud even to be there. To not be sure of my choice felt almost like a betrayal. I got my first iPod for my 13th birthday. I had been building my iTunes library for nearly 12 years, as well as the last four years of growing with Apple Music. It was what I've known for almost half of my life. The thought of shifting to something else was daunting.

However, as the day went on and I turned the notion over in my head, I realized that I knew what I wanted to do - it was a matter of whether I had the strength to do it. This was my chance to switch, my chance to explore something I had been curious about and told by many people around me was better. I knew it was going to be hard. I knew it would require learning a new system and rebuilding my library from the last four years. But it was also something that filled me with excitement. The possibilities of new music to discover, of getting to use a system that leads me to new favorite songs and artists and provides more opportunities for me to write for this blog, it all excited me immensely.

The day before my Apple Music was supposed to renew, I logged into my account, and turned off my auto renew. The next day, Kellyn and I upgraded her Spotify account to the Family plan, and I've been using Spotify for over a week now. I'm still adjusting and getting used to the ways things work, but so far I'm quite pleased with the decision. The recommendations are already improving with my usage, and I expect that within a month or so, it'll be much more in-tune with my tastes and giving me excellent suggestions.

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Despite the dramatic tone of this post, this was a very significant decision for me (Kellyn can attest to how much I agonized over it). It was a big change, and one that I did not make lightly. I am quite pleased with the choice I made - Spotify has provided a lot more features that I'm very much enjoying. Perhaps I'll do an update post down the road about how I feel then, but for now it's smooth sailing. Let me know what streaming service you use and why! I really enjoy the comparisons and learning more about what each provides. I should also note that Spotify in no way, shape, or form compensated me for this post (that would be pretty awesome though - maybe one day!). I'm just a music consumption nerd who enjoys talking about things that I genuinely enjoy.