Thing #11: Audio and Music

I have had the Pandora app on my phone for a couple of years now, and use it mostly at home because I've heard that it uses a lot of data and/or battery if I listen to it on the go. At home, I cast it to my TV speakers, and have set up several stations that I really enjoy, such as Bruno Mars, Bruce Springsteen, etc. It is kind of genius, as it is really good at "choosing" music that it thinks I will like! And if it comes to a song that I don't like, I can click the "thumbs down" button on my phone, and it instantly takes me to a different song. (Plus, it records the fact that I don't like the song it was playing.) Of course I am too cheap to pay for a subscription, so I have to listen to ads from time to time. I can live with that.

And for this Thing, I also signed up for a Spotify account and downloaded the app. The first question that came to mind is, "What are the pros and cons for Pandora vs. Spotify?" And of course, Katherine H. provided us with the article comparing the two. It seems that Spotify is a lot more limited unless you pay for the subscription - I'm not sure I would be happy with just listening to everything in Shuffle mode. If I don't like the song that is currently playing, I just have to live with it. (As my teenage son would say, "First World Problems, Mom.") One sentence in the Pandora vs. Spotify article caught my eye: "One killer feature of Spotify Premium is the ability to listen to songs offline."Maybe I could justify paying for a Spotify subscription? I do have some Amazon gift cards to use...

2 Hours Later...
Wait! I do not have to suffer through a song I do not like on Spotify. I quickly figured out that I can click on the little "fast forward" button next to the Play button, and it skips on to the next song. AND, I found that one of the playlists I can select is "Decades" - there is a category for the 70's and for the 80's. That's all I need!