Considering a switch to Spotify from Rhapsody...some questions

[SlackerInc]

I have had Rhapsody (and before that, Napster) for years and I'm fairly happy with it, and with inertia and all I have a disincentive to switch and have to build new playlists.  However, increasingly I'm finding Facebook friends are on Spotify and no one else I know is on Rhapsody.  Plus it sounds like the $10 plan has better sound quality than Rhapsody; and it is $5 cheaper than the $15, three-device plan I am using on Rhapsody now.

On the other hand, though, my $15 plan allows all three of those devices (all three are iPod Touches by the way) to be connected at once.  I could envision my family using them in offline mode if cheaper and better sound quality is the exchange.  But is the sound as good in offline mode?  Can I put Spotify in offline mode without totally putting my iPod Touch in Airplane mode?  (That is, where I am still connected to Wi-fi for the purpose of using other apps, but Spotify plays music in the background in offline mode.)  And can I play music on my PC while one of the devices is streaming or downloading music?

And here's one thing that would really cinch the deal for me.  Is there an "album mode" to play albums like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, or Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, without any audible gap between tracks?  Because Rhapsody does have a short but noticeable gap, and it ruins the flow of those albums, where the songs are just supposed to blend into each other.

[Peter__]

To answer your questions:

1. Spotify accounts (and subscriptions) are for personal usage only, so it is actually against the terms of use to share your account with your family members. This is the reason you can only stream on one device at a time, since you can't be in two places at the same time. It sounds like Rhapsody license per device where Spotify license per user. 

2. Spotify Premium streams at 320kbps ogg format, the quality is excellent - I've never had any complaints. Also, you can sync to offline mode in that quality too. 

3. You can force the applications into offline mode from the settings menus in the app without needing airplane mode. Technically this should stop Spotify pausing if you start streaming somewhere else (or on another device). 

4. Spotify does have gapless playback on both desktop and mobile applications. 

Peter

[SlackerInc]

Sounds inviting, except for the part where I'd apparently have to pay $30 to replace what we currently pay $15 for.  Ouch.

[Peter__ · Accepted solution]

You can always try Spotify Premium for free for 30 days and see what you think too!

https://www.spotify.com/freetrial/

Peter

[SlackerInc]

Great point.  I will have to do that, thanks.

[MamaMarieke]

Did you end up leaving Rhapsody and moving to Spotify? I'm considering the same move. I've been a Rhapsody member for almost 10 years but their recent re-design bumped me from my grandfathered price of $4.99 for premier to their $4.99 "Un-Radio" which took away all my playlists unless I want to pay double. With all my social media friends using Spotify, I might as well switch over if I'll be paying the same amount. If you switched, have you been happy you did so?

[SlackerInc]

I did switch, and I'm pretty happy.  There were only two downsides:

--I wasn't able to bring my playlists over.

--For my wife and I to each be able to use the service simultaneously, we did just go ahead and buy two accounts (though this cost a total of $20 rather than $30, so it was just five bucks extra per month).  Even this downside had an upside: we have our own playlists (though we can share them with each other), and instead of all our listening going on my Facebook page (we like some of the same stuff but have some divergences as well), it is separated now.

Upsides:

--More social media interaction with friends, and with websites and podcasts, not to mention bands (a lot of different sources make playlists that you can subscribe to).

--A nicer (IMO) user interface, something that was not at all true when I first tried Spotify a few years ago.  The suggestions seem good for the most part and you can preview them on the desktop before "committing" to listening.

--Better sound (though I never did a blind listening test, so it could be the power of suggestion but it really does seem quite good).  FYI: You have to make sure to go into preferences and change it from the default to the highest sound quality though.

--The gapless playback is AWESOME on albums that are designed for continuous flow.  I am finally starting to get rid of the association of certain songs with awkward gaps.

I feel like there was something else, but I'm drawing a blank.  I recommend it though!

[MamaMarieke]

Awesome detailed reply! Yeah, I didn't expect to be able to import my playlists from Rhapsody. I took screen shots of them all so I could re-create them if I want to. It'll be labor intensive, but for the handful of playlists that I *really* love, it'll have to do. 

I, too, tried Spotify a few years ago and I didn't really like the UI, so I'm glad to hear it has improved. Improved to *your* liking, at least, but you sound like a "power user" so I'm sure it'll be fine for me. Have you had any issues with music that you listened to on Rhapsody not being available on Spotify? That was the case when I tried it out a while back, but I doubt that's still true. I used it free, not paid, so maybe that was a factor.

I'm a single user so not being able to use 2 devices simultaneously won't affect me, but I'm sure it would be worth getting 2 accounts if I did have someone else. I was *thrilled* when Netflix finally got the option of separate queues because my son was clogging up my lists with Pokemon and such.

I'll still be a little sad to be done with Rhapsody after so many years, but I'm looking forward to the social media benefits. Poor Rhapsody and their rapidly-dwindling market share.

[SlackerInc]

Yeah, it's a little sad but that's the way it goes (kinda like MySpace or something like that).

I made copies of my Rhapsody playlists, but so far I have not actually gone through the work of re-creating them.  I decided to "make the bug a feature" and get a fresh start, get out of any ruts.  A lot of what I listened to before has organically come back into the mix, but I've also probably found more new (or "new to me") music this way than if I had imported the lists.

It would have been interesting on the other hand though to have some way of comparing to see what was not available.  99 percent of the time I look for something, I do find it; but occasionally something will be unavailable or only available as a live track or on a compilation.  (The only recent example that comes to mind is Peter Gabriel: you can get "Solsbury Hill" from a couple movie soundtracks, but not his stellar album So or famous tracks from it like "Red Rain" or "In Your Eyes".)  My unscientific gut sense is that Spotify has, if anything, slightly more of the music I look for than Rhapsody did. 

I totally feel ya on Netflix.  I have found though that despite being able to have different profiles there, we can only get the main one to play on Roku, which kind of defeats the point!

[cartguy96]

If you have Rhapsody 4.0 on your computer I found that if u sign in with your un radio account it still gives you unlimited streaming. On the newer desktop version of the player it tells you to upgrade the account in order to use it.

[jeremygoh]

Isn't there a rhapsody playlist -> Spotify playlist migration tool?

Google search it.