Spotify or Pandora, which is the streamiest?

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I left both my 1TB hard drive filled with music and my iPod at home this morning. On the drive in to work, I had to resort to listening to CDs! I got to work and wondered what I would listen to, and decided to do a little streaming with Pandora Radio on my phone. There are a lot of choices out there competing for your attention in the “streamosphere”. Undoubtedly the two top contenders are Pandora and Spotify. They’ve got a lot of similarities, but they’re also very different. 

Pandora is an online streaming radio site with 150 million users that’s actually been around for quite some time (since 2000) compared to the relative newcomer Spotify. You can stream Pandora online in your browser, or you can download the app to your computer or mobile device. With Pandora, you can create your own streaming “stations” based on an artist, song, or even genre. Pandora’s musical algorithm quickly puts together a station with a wide variety of artists and songs similar to what you’ve indicated you’d like to base the station on. 

The Pandora algorithm is surprisingly accurate and relevant and matches well with what you tell it you like. The algorithm is based on the Music Genome Project, a ten year ongoing analysis and catalog of music ranging from the latest pop gems, back to the hits of the Renaissance. When a song plays, you can give it a thumbs up or down, and the algorithm will get more dialed in to what you like. You can also skip the song if you don’t like it, but only for a limited number of times in the free version of Pandora. 

Pandora has nearly a million songs in its database, and allows user to stream for free in an ad based version. I’ve found the ads infrequent, and not that much of a distraction. I like the accuracy of the Pandora algorithm, and don’t often find myself skipping songs in my stations. I make sure to give thumbs up and down when I can, to keep getting good results. When I do skip, I’m usually not bothered by the limit in the free version. I have quite a number of stations set up, and find myself most often using the “QuickMix” function, which pulls from all of your channels. I like the variety, and once again, the relevancy of the musical choices. 

Spotify has gotten a lot of notice over the last couple of years. It was first available in Europe only, but launched in the US in 2011. Spotify has streaming rights to nearly 18 million tracks, so it has a much bigger catalog than Pandora. The biggest distinction is that Spotify music is available on demand. You can select an artist or album and stream it for free in your web browser or on a mobile device with ads. To listen without ads, you have to upgrade to the Premium account for $9.99 a month. That’s the main drawback to Spotify. 

Spotify is very socially integrated, allowing the creation of playlists, and sharing of playlists, albums, and songs. Spotify is Facebook oriented, requiring users to link Facebook accounts with their Spotify accounts. If you do so, you’re also authorizing frictionless sharing, so your friends on Facebook will see what you’re listening to. From experience, you’ll see that your friends will like and comment on the popular stuff you listen to, but might give you some grief for some of your guilty musical pleasures! This is a drawback for a lot of users. 

Spotify has nearly 10 million users, with 3 million of those being paying users. Spotify is also bigger globally than Pandora, and is available in 13 countries. Pandora’s license only applies to US operation. 

In 2012, Spotify launched a free radio feature in the US, currently for use on iPad and iPhone, and taking a chunk out of Pandora’s pie. Pandora might be sweating a bit, but it’s going to take Spotify some time to get where Pandora is, if they can manage to take that market. I would imagine Spotify could have some success cannibalizing those users like me who use BOTH services. Plus there’s the lure of the much larger catalog. Time will tell to see how Pandora adjusts to this challenge. 

So which is the winner? It depends on what you want to do. If you like a lot of variety, Pandora is the way to go, more like a radio station. Spotify is a bit more like having your music collection online – they don’t have EVERY artist and EVERY album, but I’ve usually found most of what I’m looking for. I think both Pandora and Spotify are winners, and I’d recommend using both, as they both have free versions available. 

For me, I’m starting to use Pandora streaming on my phone more and more. I like the “QuickMix” function, and the accuracy of the songs in the stations. I like the ability to skip songs I don’t like, and the thumbs up and thumbs down function. I don’t find myself using it on my computer at home, unless I’m mowing the lawn or doing yard work and I’m streaming on my phone. 

I’m considering upgrading to Spotify premium so I can pretty much have my music collection available on my phone for less than the price of an average CD a month. I like to be able to go to specific artists and albums, and I like the size of the catalog. I’ve got a lot of artist “best of” playlists on Spotify, and a lot of mixed playlists as well. I don’t mind that on Facebook you might see some of my guilty pleasure listens, like my affinity for 80′s pop music. 

Trends are showing that teens prefer streaming to downloading and even buying music online. Obviously CD sales are down. With the increase in use of mobile devices, it’s getting more and more convenient to stream music. The music industry as a whole has failed to adequately adapt to the digital revolution. If you put it out there in digital format, people will find a way to get it for free. 

Top Tech Trends for 2012

Read Top Tech Trends for 2012 on Geeks.com

Now that we’re well into the New Year, we at Geeks.com have taken a look at what some of the experts predicted would be among top tech trends for 2012. We’ve looked at the hits from the Consumer Electronics Show, mobile trends, and predictions from some of the top tech-heads and tech websites.

Who knows what’s going to come to pass in the next year, what will hit or what will miss? With all the changes we’ve seen in technology over the last few years, it’s hard to say where we’ll be by the end of the year with our desktop computers, mobile devices, social networking, TVs and other tech and electronic devices. Only time will tell!

Tech blog Mashable’s founder Peter Cashmore cited 2011 as a hugely transformative year for tech, but he sees bigger things coming in 2012. Top Tech Trends for 2012 – Geeks.comCashmore tells us to keep a finger on the screen for developments in touch computing. We’re moving from “mouses” to touchscreens to more fully integrated touch computing. Users will move more to tablets, and desktop systems will incorporate more and more touchscreen influence. Social media will continue to get more automated, Cashmore predicts. Facebook’s “frictionless sharing” is the first step—integrating social apps like Spotify, social readers and Pinterest with Facebook and auto sharing the content we’re reading, viewing, and listening to.

Cashmore predicts that tablets will continue to evolve and compete with the iPad, in price, interface, and features. We’ll watch more and more TV and movies on our tablets, and enjoy TV, phone and mobile integration in experiments like “second screen experiences” seen recently on shows like “The Walking Dead. ” Our phones will continue to move in the direction of voice command, and flexible screens offer interesting new design options for our mobile devices.

Each January, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is the toast of the town. In this case, what happens in Vegas DOESN’T stay in Vegas. CES is the chance for companies to showcase their plans for the future and show off their cutting edge technological advances. TV, smartphone and tablet integration was highlighted at CES, and a future where our smartphones and tablets are our remotes, where we’ve thrown all of the remotes that haven’t already been lost in the couch away. Also showcased were OLED TVs—TVs that are bigger, brighter and thinner than other TVs, with better graphic displays.

Intel showcased its Ultrabooks at CES—lighter, faster with 3D graphics performance. Car companies also showed off tech advances at CES. Amid rumors of driverless cars and cars communicating with one another on the road, Mercedes and Ford pushed their connected car and sync technologies. These consoles can interact with smartphones, connect with the Cloud, and use voice control to control apps like Pandora and other online radio stations. Next generation tablets, notebook computers and touchscreen technology were also big at CES 2012.

Tech guru and author Daniel Burrus cites a number of trends he thinks every business needs to be aware of. Most of his predictions are no surprise: the continued rise of big data, more advancements in the Cloud and on-demand services and virtualization. Most interesting to me are his predictions on the gamification of training and education, multimedia e-textbooks, businesses becoming more social, and how our smartphones and tablets will increasingly move towards being our primary personal computers.

“PC World” magazine counts data only cellphone plans and the emergence for HTML 5 among the shape of things to come in 2012. Top Tech Trends for 2012 – Geeks.comMore and more smartphones will feature dual core processors, and phone batteries will be longer lasting and more efficient. We’ll have to have a Facebook account to do more and more on the Web as the Facebook Empire expands. Mobile payment will become more and more prominent with the emergence of options like the Google Wallet. I love to see the emergence of music on the Cloud, more and more streaming movie and radio options, and more and more libraries allowing the checkout of e books to e-readers.

There’s a myriad of mobile tech possibilities in 2012 as well. Location based services will continue to be big in mobile, and will offer more intelligent experiences. Social networking and search will grow on mobile. Mobile commerce will become bigger as more and more users “check in” to retail sites, and utilize mobile shopping options, including mobile payments.Top Tech Trends for 2012 – Geeks.com Object recognition on mobile will continue to improve as more and more apps come on the market. Mobile email users are expected to expand by nearly 100% in 2012, as mobile email becomes cheaper and mobile email apps continue to improve.

With the pace of technological development, the sky is literally the limit. Technology often outpaces itself, so who knows where we’ll be at the end of 2012 when we look back over what’s come to pass, and get work on our lists of what’s coming in 2013!

Are You My Dad or Just My Biological Father?

My Mom met my Dad in the 70s when I was 6 or 7 years old. She had divorced my biological father a couple of years earlier, basically for sleeping with her best friend. There are a lot of Polaroids of my Mom and Dad around the coffee table with friends. Leisure suits, drinking, fondue, and smoking. Quite a social bunch. Mom worked at the bowling alley, and Dad was in the Army.

They met on Stewart Air Force base. Mom and a friend went to the NCO Club on base, I guess to meet soldiers. The story goes that Dad was pretty crude, cocky, and drunk, and that Mom shot him down hard. She didn’t like him, but he liked her. She claims she told him he as an “ass.” He got her phone number from her friend and called the next day and apologized. He asked my Mom out, and they were dating from them on.

I do remember meeting him. At first I called him “Mr. Smith.” Then “Dale,” and of course eventually “Dad.” He was wearing this powder blue suit he had till the day he died. I think he might have been buried in that suit to tell the truth.

He was in Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) in the Army, and did a lot of side work with the Secret Service, protecting VIPS like Presidents, Queens, and Popes. He was doing some Secret Service work in New York City when I met him. He came down and took my Mom and me out to breakfast. He was driving a big sedan, and I remember it had a red dome light on the dash, that he could slam on the roof and turn on if needed, full on “Police Story” 70s style.  I SO wanted him to have to go into action when I was in the car, and have to speed through traffic with the light stuck on the roof.  He probably told me he was going to be seeing a lot of my Mom.

Now, it was tough for my Mom after the divorce. She got me and I don’t think she got a lot of child support. What she could get she probably had to pry out of my father. Like I said, she worked at the bowling alley, and I think she had three different jobs. I know she was a bartender and the short order cook. I think she also worked the counter. That wasn’t the only thing she worked at the bowling alley though. My Mom met a lot of guys.

I remember my Mom having a lot of boyfriends after the divorce. To her credit, she always worked it as a package deal. Sure you get some lovin’ but you also gotta put up with the hyper buck toothed little kid. That was me.

There was one guy who I call the “CB guy.” This was during my Mom’s CB phase. Total giant antenna, call signs and nicknames, and codes.  The internet of the 70s. This guy was a cross between Jerry Reeves and Dale Earnhardt Sr. Look ‘em up, and then imagine a combo. The main memory I have of him, besides the swanky look, was of being “on the air” with him, and having him say he’d be there in a minute, and then speeding up the driveway. Nothing gets the kids like CB humor.

Then there was the West Point cadet. I remember one night he was coming by, and I was being a little hyper. I remember him telling me I was a “pain in the ass.” I think he spent the night, but I don’t think he and Mom “dated” after that.

Then there was Frank. He was pretty cool. He was a police detective in New York City and worked on the Son of Sam case while he and my Mom dated. I don’t remember how and when they met, but they’d known each other for quite some time. They still keep in touch to this day. Well, Frank was around for quite a bit. There was even a little overlap when she started seeing my Dad. Frank asked Mom to marry him a couple times and then got cold feet. I guess it eventually came down to “shit or get off the pot” as my Mom puts it.

Now, my biological father…My birth name was Douglas Turnbull III. I was named after him and his father, and supposedly distant cousin Douglas MacArthur.  To this day my Mom still freaks out like he’s going to sweep back into my life and kidnap me. The Lifetime movie would be  “I Know My Name is Doug…and I am 41 Years Old.” Patty Duke and the parents from “Family Ties” would be in it, and Nancy McKean as a social worker.

So, My Mom and Father got divorced because he was sleeping with my Mom’s best friend, who was also his best friend’s wife. This relationship continued after the divorce so I don’t know who knew what when, just who did who. He was also sleeping with another girl around the corner, so it got interesting on custody weekends when we’d go from house to house. I’d keep busy downstairs while he was upstairs with Aunt whoever. I don’t know how he kept track of it all. I watched a lot of TV.

Weekends when he would show up to get me, we’d go eat at the local diner. I seem to remember us eating a lot of frozen glazed donuts, and drinking milk and Pepsi mixed together. We also watched things like “The Incredible Hulk” and other late 70s TV fare. He lived in his parent’s big old run down creepy house.  He took me to a lot of movies in the 70s, including “Orca,” “The Spy Who Loved Me,” “Silent Movie,” “Midway,” and “Star Wars.”

He does have the distinction of being there during my first rock and roll moment. Kiss on the “Paul Lynde Halloween” special in 1976. Doesn’t seem like much now, but when you’re 6 and you see this, it’s a game changer. He also bought me my first Kiss album, a cassette of “Double Platinum.” Also bought my Village People’s “Macho Man,” but let’s remember Kiss.

He drove a pickup truck and then some sort of muscle car. We drove around listening to a lot of music on his 8 track player. He was very into Kiss, Billy Joel,  Meat Loaf and albums that were big at the time like the “Grease” and “Saturday Night Fever” soundtracks. Also some Village People and Rod Stewart. I guess he was pretty hip musically, or at least mainstream.  In retrospect I guess some Bowie, T Rex and Zep would have been nice. 8 track players were the CD players of the 70s. There’s nothing like rocking out to something and having the track switch in the middle of the song.

I can’t really say how much of a Father he ever was, especially in retrospect. I know there were some weekends he was supposed to come get me and didn’t, or made some excuse. I don’t remember a lot of playing catch. He did take me to the dog races though. I know what he put my dog to sleep and told me it ran away. I know he said a lot of bad things about my Mom and tried to play me against her.

Eventually my Dad would adopt me. My Father didn’t put up any fight, just signed the papers. At the time it wasn’t like I wanted him to fight, but a little effort might have been nice.

When I was in my early 30s out of the blue I got a letter from my Father’s brother saying that my Dad wanted to get in touch with me. There was a picture of him, and he looked like a very unhappy man. My reaction was “why now,” and “why?” I had no interest. If he wanted to reach out to me, why didn’t he write the letter? My Mom basically reacted like I might get kidnapped and she’d never see me again. I never responded to the letter or reached out to him.

Of course his ultimate revenge on both my Mom and I lies within her wedding pictures with him, which she still has. I look just like he did when he was younger. Creepily so, almost like we’re twins.