The Battle of Streamers: my dabble into Xbox Music

Well, this is rare, eh? I'm writing a tech post. Yes it isn't anything like CNET or PC Magazine, but I figure my blog gives me just as much right to voice my worthless opinion as anyone else, just as it gives you all (possibly forced) readers to ignore my said opinions.

In today's technologically-savvy world, music is at the forefront of evolving technology, nowadays through streaming services. By far the most popular provider of this service is Spotify. I have personally used Spotify for nearly two years now, I believe, and I've been a Premium subscriber for nearly all 24 months of that.
I must add, I love it. While my family gives me crap for spending money on service that can be acquired free elsewhere (hello, the rest of the internet), I do feel a lot better knowing that the service I'm paying for is legal, protected, and while T-Swizzle may have brought up a lot of controversy last year regarding royalties, ultimately benefits the artists in terms of dinero and popularity.

Cause the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. Image from TechCrunch.

But artist royalties and fair trade in music is far beyond my meager comprehension of the service. No, I'm just here to review the basic interface and how it works within my busy, commuter-student life.
Let us begin.

Spotify

First, the devices. I own a Samsung M8 for Windows. Upon purchase last October, it was one of the better phones out there on the market, and me being never satisfied with the status quo, I opted for the Windows Phone version, because yeah. It's important to notice that the Windows Phone version actually does make a large impact on the Spotify app quality...

OR AT LEAST IT DID, BECAUSE AS OF 1/19/2015, SPOTIFY UPDATED THE APP. YEEEEEHAAWWW!

Just imagine that toy is ala-carte audio joy, all for only $5 a month. Yeah, screw that toy kid.

The app is definitely on par with its IOS and Android brethren now. Before, it lacked the flow and feel, and sometimes the performance, of the other major systems.

But no mas.

Spotify

When playing music, the app no longer behaves like a neglected stepchild and actually fills the whole screen and has the "up next" button in the upper right. Additionally, the browse feature is displayed upon opening, and Spotify's playlists are much easier to access and search for, something the Windows app has been lacking for some time now. But the most important feature is "Your Music" (who, mine? of course!). Finally, I can access my whole library of songs that aren't in a playlist. It's honestly the best part of the app update and the app in general.

I use Spotify for playlists of all occasions and for all my music listening in general. Gone are the days of me buying CDs (though, there is some nostalgia), and iTunes has me captive no more to online sales. My playlists, specifically my dance party ones, are constantly being updated and viewed, and accessibility is important. Also, the ability to share it with your friends and access your playlist from another persons' account is vital, as it increases my visibility on Spotify (hey, I don't get anything for it other than personal satisfaction).

Xbox Music

I figured I would give Xbox's brand of Spotify a try, even though I was nearly certain I would never pay $10/month for the service. Upon some time using it, I am 100% certain I would not pay for it. It simply isn't on par.
On terms of music selection, they are equal. I've even read in various corners of the internet that Xbox has more music choices than Spotify (though none but Pandora and YouTube can claim the elusive T-Swizzle).
About the only thing Xbox Music had going for it was it's sexy, flawless flow that Spotify severely lacked. That's it.
Looks. That is is. Enough reason to blow money? Absolutely not.
The app, despite being pre-installed on the phone and obviously Microsoft's preferred music playing application, didn't even stream as well. Many times it would require seconds of buffering, and sometimes it simply refused to connect to the server in general. Spotify never failed, and with the new update it never does again. The transition and between personal selection and store is also awkward, as it requires different searches to browse the two.
However, I think it is the complete lack of social integration that kills Xbox Music. I understand some people want to keep their music choice private - there's nothing wrong with that, and sometimes I find myself putting on a private session on Spotify and hiding from the social media world. But many times I find a track/band/playlist so sick and awesome I need to share it to my followers (or my girlfriend), and Spotify owns this category, with sharing being it's main feature in terms of social content. A simple "share" button is all it would take for Microsoft to even achieve the "adequate" level.

Alas, in my humble opinion, Xbox Music falls flat on its face in reverence of Spotify. And it doesn't seem like Microsoft is really investing a lot of energy/money into the service either. Of course comparing a computer company with a music-only company is not fair, and to be honest I enjoy most of Microsoft's other products, and completely understand if they're investing their efforts in other places (cough cough WINDOWS 10 - don't screw this up, Microsoft).
Microsoft just doesn't play the top-notch game of music streaming that well. The only reason I can see Xbox Music being more beneficial than Spotify is if a user is heavily invested in the Xbox/Microsoft infrastructure, which costs even more money if Live and Video passes are factored in. I rarely use Xbox and have Gmail as primary email, so I'm all over the place. Even with that, though, Spotify's $10 ($5 student discount) goes further and gets you more and a better experience that I feel it's worth it.

Nice try, but stick with Spotify.

Jacob