When I was first introduced to Spotify during the first week of its initial Stateside launch this past July, I thought it was the boost that streaming media needed to garner a major foothold in the market. I perceived it as being that revolutionary catalyst that would leave sites similar to eMusic in the dust, forced to languish in increasing obscurity and collapse onto itself due to an antiquated marketing strategy that hasn't been fresh since the demise of Napster some ten years ago.
Having used the highly-praised, critically lauded service for a little over a month and a half, I can attest that while it is definitely a convenient program to have around, especially if you have an immense love of music such as myself and my immediate family, its peculiar lack of well-known, blockbuster albums by household artists and occasionally convoluted interface leave a fairly languid impression with this user.
Admittedly, I'm not the world's greatest Beatles fan. I don't proclaim that they're the greatest popular collective to have ever graced the music scene, though one can't deny the indelible mark they've left on music in general over the past four decades or more. Strangely, however, I did find myself humming along to a commercial that featured the bubbly and delightful "Getting Better", and I wanted to listen to it in its entirety. Purchasing the ditty was out of the question, so I fired up Spotify in hopes of satisfying the inexplicable urge. To my dismay, it wasn't to be found. Anywhere. Nor were the hundreds upon hundreds of songs comprising of the "Fab Four"'s vast back catalogue. I was miffed, but understandably, it most likely has to do with Apple's licensing deal made last summer with copyright holders.
Nevertheless, I was dejected. I felt forsaken -- taken in. I, foolishly, wanted the boundless world of recorded sound/music at my fingertips, and I was let down by my newest friend. Boasting a gargantuan collection of tracks (supposedly over ten million tracks, and growing), and no Beatles? The most mainstream of the mainstream? I executed another search, this time for Led Zeppelin. Zilch, nada. Nothing but vapid covers. My love affair with the "Little Program That Could" was diminishing, and fast. I own several Zeppelin albums via audio cassette and digital format, but this was a travesty. This was a maddening and extremely baffling circumstance, but the dearth of major league "talent" (subjective to some, of this I'm fully aware) wasn't enough to leave me heartbroken and wanting a hiatus from my friend of nearly two months' time.
The iTunes-based interface, especially as it stands on the Windows platform, is in dire need of an overhaul.
Of major concern is the integration of one's personal library into Spotify's UI. Upon first glance, everything is neatly arranged via album, artist or genre, but if you delve deeper into the program, things aren't quite as they appear on the surface. Album art can -- and will -- be substituted incorrectly, which is just as perplexing as not including the debatable output of McCartney/Lennon. Take, for example, the syncing of my Velvet Underground collection. Not only were certain albums erroneously tagged, but the famous "Banana Album" (their debut) didn't feature the iconic artwork beside it, but rather the cover of the mid-eighties anthology of unreleased material, "VU". Not even changing the artwork in "MP3 Tag" seemed to rectify the issue. Being the anally-retentive scoundrel I can be, this was beyond unforgivable.
I was at wit's end, and for good reason. For something so simple, so ELEMENTARY to not be addressed by developers. This is a crying shame, because for what Spotify does correctly, it does amazingly; what it gets wrong, which isn't a great deal, it does horrendously. If Spotify can address -- as I'm quite sure they will, in due time -- these few aggravating inconsistencies, it will have a definite winner on its hands.
Until then, it's still a jester on the court of Apple's long-reigning king.
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