Spotify = Love

I love music. A lot. Seriously, it's my drug, religion, and the fuel that energizes me daily. Anyone who knows me knows that music is a big deal to me.

I've used everything from Winamp to Zune desktop software, all with varying degrees of love and hate. Since I love my ZuneHD and use it frequently, I have been using the Zune desktop software for the past three or four years. That was, I did until a few weeks ago when Spotify arrived in the US.

I immediately purchased a premium subscription because I wanted to try out all that Spotify had to offer. I wanted to freeze it, ice skate on it, then thaw it out, swim in it, and then drink it in all it's yummy goodness. I'm glad I did.

Spotify has a ginormous library. 15 million songs is what they boast. That's a heck of a lot of songs! I have almost 130GB of music on my home NAS, the vast majority of it either ripped from CD's I own or purchased through Zune, Amazon, or even iTunes (back in the day; I quit using iTunes a LONG time ago!). It used to be that I had to either purchase a CD or music online to be able to listen to it or get a subscription to Zunepass (which was a great deal, btw!). Of course, Zune didn't always have everything I wanted, so I ended up having to purchase from many different sources. That was, until Spotify.

With few exceptions, I've been able to augment my own ample collection with lots and lots of music. I've been able to revisit music from my youth, and from various stages in my life. I'm in the process of putting together a late 80's playlist as well as some 90's playlists, and with Spotify, it's super-easy! Better yet, I can share those playlists with friends who have Spotify, and they can even subscribe to my playlists or I can subscribe to theirs!

The one major downside to Spotify is its ability to play genres or music based on a certain band. Let's say I'm a huge fan of Metric (and I am!) and I would like to hear music that sounds like them. In a service like Pandora or Grooveshark, you can do that. Spotify? Not so much. But for me, that's really the only downside.

Sound quality on Spotify is amazing, and for me, the Android app works quite well. I never was a big fan of listening to music with my smartphone, but Spotify has made me throw that old notion of bringing an mp3 player along with my smartphone since I can literally look up just about any song I can think of and play it on my phone now.

So, if you're looking for an amazing music service and you know what you want to listen to, give Spotify a try. Seriously; it's a great deal.

Note: There are three flavors of Spotify. Free (limits the user to 20 hours of ad-supported music), $5 a month, and $10 a month premium service which allows you to listen on an Android, Logitech, Sonos, or iDevice.

Goodbye, Walkman

Last week, Sony announced the death of the Walkman. As someone over 40, I remember the birth of it quite well.

The early 80's were a time of fun. They were also a time for great music. New Wave and Punk took off in the late 70's and reached their potential in the 80's. Rock music was yielding to Hair bands and metal, and soul was moving into rap. The cassette tape was quickly becoming the medium of choice for high school kids wanting their own soundtrack, and the boom boxes were born.

There were a few problems with the boom boxes, though. First, was the size. They really were pretty darned big (and some got HUGE). Then there was the cost; they weren't cheap. Then, to add to it, they took huge D-cell batteries which were expensive and didn't last all that long. I remember a kid in high school who carried his boom box with him everywhere he went. He always had it in class with him, obediently keeping it off to keep from having it seized and sent to the office. Oddly enough, the kid never got it taken away, and only played it (at a low volume) at lunch and before/after school.

The utility of having your own music with you was not lost on us kids. We all wanted that, but what we didn't want was to have to carry a suitcase-sized device with us everywhere we went. Then came the Walkman.

The Walkman was the first viable portable music device. Batteries were still not nearly as good as they are today, so keeping a Walkman working was quite expensive, but to have your own music, on cassette, with you at all times? Why, that was priceless!

I got my first SONY Walkman when I graduated from Marine Boot Camp in 1987. I bought it at the exchange within hours of graduating. I had made a point of making it the first thing I purchased with my first official paycheck. It cost me around $150, but I didn't care. It was cool, it was small, and it was mine.

That SONY Walkman lasted me at least 15 years. The last time I saw it, it was in my daughter's bedroom, and she was using it (this was about 7 years ago). I'm sure it's still around somewhere, buried in some closet or at the bottom of some box.

When the iPod was released nine years ago, the second-to-last nail was placed in the Walkman's coffin. It wasn't until last week that it was truly nailed shut, thrown into a hole in ground, and covered up with six feet of dirt. Regardless, the Walkman will always hold a special place in my music-loving heart as the first truly portable music player.

Neither iTard nor Fanboy shall I be

In episode 7 of Worst Kind of Geek, we meet Edge, a geek who doesn't buy into some of the marketing ploys by some of the most clever pseudo-geek companies around.

Just a few examples:

Image via Wikipedia

Apple: To be cool and rock like U2, you need an iPod. To be hip, you need an iPhone. And only the creative who think differently use Mac.
Me: First of all, I don't want to rock like U2. There are many alternatives to iTunes, all of which run better, smoother, and faster (including my favorite, Zune). As for the iPhone, I will admit it's cool, but I prefer a phone like the G1 or my Instinct over it. Why? Can you say REMOVABLE BATTERIES and VIDEO? Let's touch on Mac. Twenty-three Brazilian (that means a lot, btw) programs available for PC versus about 63 apps available for the Mac. Even Linux (run on PC's) has more (and most of it is free or less expensive). Why pay the Mac tax? To be cool? Since when do geeks want to be cool?!?!?!

Image via Wikipedia

Nintendo: Only the coolest of hipsters have a Wii. We even have Wii Fit to help you lose weight. And our products look nice and white like another company whose products are all shiny and white and hip and cool.
Me: I see what you're doing there, and I'm not falling for it. I have an X-B0x 360 that does all we need or want it to do and then some. I don't care so much for Mario games anymore (1980 called; it wants its video game back!), and I do my exercise and dieting the old fashioned way: away from the TV!

Image by geognerd via Flickr

Toyota: If you're really hip and cool, you will drive a Prius. It gets great gas milage, it's hybrid, and did we mention it's hip and cool?
Me: If I want to drive a car that gets more than 40mpg, it wouldn't be a Prius. It'd be a VW Jetta TDI (turbo diesel) which puts far fewer harmful chemicals and pollutants into the environment than the Prius will and even gets better gas mileage. How, dare you ask? All the manufacturing required to make a Prius coupled with the toxic components that will one day need to be disposed of are FAR GREATER than the amount of pollutants the ultra-clean burning Jetta TDI will ever create in its lifetime. The batteries in one Prius alone has enough harmful pollutants to make anyone cry. You wouldn't want that stuff buried anywhere near your backyard.

It IS possible to keep your geek cred and not sell out.

You can remain true to your geek roots and not buy into the marketing hype that tries to sell you your image.

Be true to yourself, your geekiness, and you will sleep better at night (and probably have more money in the bank, too. I mean $2400 for a Mac when the same-stat PC would run you $1200 tops? C'mon!!!).

BTW, I'm not being cynical. I have been known to be a brand-loyalist, just not for brands that try to sell me the "cool" and "hip."

ADDED: GeekWife mentioned to me that she noticed that a lot of the products I purchase and use are either Microsoft, or Microsoft-compatible. This is true. However, it's not because I am rendered tragically hip or cool through their use; it's because I believe that they are the superior product, and that they perform the tasks I need them to perform in a manner that is conducive to higher productivity and efficacy. Further, I feel they are a high-quality product that bring me enjoyment and pleasure. I was hoping I wouldn't have to state (or re-state, as it were) the obvious, but here it goes: when you buy a product, do so because it suits you, not because its marketing hype or because social currency dictates that others who have purchased said products will admit you into their "cool kid" club.