I find it fascinating to watch all the posturing going on in the digital music delivery business. It all started with iTunes – who ruled the legal, digital download space for years. Multiple services (ZUNE, Rhapsody, Napster, etc…) have tried, and failed to take more than a tiny amount of market share from Apple.
But that's all changing because of Spotify, Deezer and a little company called Google. The article below opened my eyes to why.
In an interesting turn of events, Apple is reportedly considering opening up and launching their own streaming music service to compete with the likes of similar services like Spotify and the newly released Beats music. In addition to this they are apparently considering launching an Android app for the streaming service to go along with the launch of the service itself, all in an effort to attack the declining sales of US iTunes music downloads according to sources that are close to the matter. People still use iTunes? All jokes aside, it has been difficult for apple to compete with services that offer streaming music at a low price, as the music libraries are competitively similar in size, and listening is unlimited, all for a small monthly fee. Downloading the same number of songs through iTunes that you would have at your disposal with a service like Spotify would take massive amounts of money, even with most songs on iTunes being available as singles with most as low as $0.99 a hit.
It’s interesting to hear these possibilities as Apple and iTunes have always been known to be a partnered exclusive company and service. While Google’s popular Google Play Music is available on multiple platforms including Mac, Windows, Android and iOS, Apple’s iTunes is only accessible to those who use iOS devices or Mac computers. They have effectively closed themselves off from other possibilities for quite some time, and it used to work for them when they were the dominating force in digital music. With the iPod reaching its end of life though, and a myriad of subscription based music services available on virtually any platform you can think of, Apple will have to find a way to take the once reigning king of music services and transform it if they want to compete.
So I did some quick research to see how Apple's iOS competes with Google's Android market share for portable device sales.
… If you look at the raw numbers for sales market share between Android and iOS devices, Google seems to be dominating the space. In Q4 2013, Gartner reported that Android had 77.8% worldwide market share while iOS had only 17.8% share. One quarter prior, Android had 81.9% and iOS took second place with 12.1%. It is worth noting that, according to ComScore, iOS market share in the lucrative US market is about 40%, while Android accounts for around 50% of US sales. The problem with these numbers is that the do not take into account the fragmentation that Google has allowed with the Android platform.
What goes around…comes around
One of the legacies of Steve Jobs was his/Apple's decision to keep iTunes exclusive to iDevices (there is no iTunes App for an Android phone). While this worked to Apple's advantage for years, they now find themselves becoming uncompetitive now that Spotify and Deezer have Apps for both iOS and Android phones.
So what does this mean for you?
Choices, lots of choices for digital music coming with fewer restrictions on how you'll be able to build, share and then deliver great music to your classes. Many of us found Spotify to be revolutionary – it completely changed my views about renting vs. buying music. But now Spotify is SOP (standard operating procedure). I'm guessing that a few years from now we'll be using a music service that doesn't even exist today and we will access it using a device none of us has even seen.
And we can't wait to help you understand how you'll use it in your class 🙂
I've been having fun with the Lazify music discovery App for Spotify. Here's a few of my recent favorites including a resource for free, hour long DJ mixes:
This track Nothing Matters from the artist Tricky makes for a powerful tempo/FTP efforts @ 95RPM. Tricky was an early member of Massive Attack and I found this track in a Lazify playlist built from a Massive Attack song.
Next up is this track from artist/DJ Morgan Page — Fight For You which is an awesome climb @ 64RPM. The song has some great lyrics that you can incorporate into your cuing. I found this in a lazify playlist I started using another Morgan Page track The Longest Road – Deadmau5 Remix Radio Edit which I've used in the past.
You can download the original here if you don't see the download link in the player.
I'm hearing more and more how studios are bringing in live DJ's to supply the music for special events. If you ever wondered what it would be like to teach where someone else is controlling the music – Morgan Page has hundreds of 60 minute mixed MP3's that you could use for a private class… or maybe you're looking for something completely different. Check out a few and let me know if you'd ever consider using them in a class.
Are you as particular about the songs you play as I am? Now I know that sometimes my choice in music may not appeal to you… or everyone in my class for that matter.
I like the music… that I like 🙂
Do you have this same problem? How can I easily find music that I like, without spending a huge amount of time sampling hundreds of songs?
Occasionally I'll like a track that was suggested on Facebook, or one that's included in a playlist from another Instructor I follow on Spotify. But I don't find either method very efficient.
Lazify is a tool for Spotify (they call it an App) that creates a playlist of complimentary tracks, based on one “root” / “seed” song. I've been playing with it and have already discovered a bunch of songs that I've added to my Future to Use playlist, where I keep all of my new music ideas.
It's really easy to use:
In Spotify > RH side bar click App Finder.
Scroll down and select Lazify.
You'll now have a Lazify link added the side bar.
To create a new playlist, drag any track up to the Lazify link > the main window will display your new playlist. The drop-down offers options for the number of tracks. There are options to drag the whole playlist into another of your playlists, or select Save and Lazify will add this playlist to you others.
Here's the results for a playlist based on Heart — Barracuda as the root track. I'll let these tracks play in the background, until I hear something I like…
I'm hearing from Instructors outside of the USA who are switching from Spotify, over to Deezer.
Hi,
I have had Spotify for a long time now and have created lots of different playlists. I have recently just converted into using Deezer, however, it would be much easier for my Spotify playlists to be on Deezer instead!
Is this possible? If so, how do i do it?
Thanks
Cydnie.
Cyndie we created an ICI/PRO playlist conversion tool for just this occasion 🙂
Here's the steps to convert your Spotify playlist to one Deezer can play.
Step #1 Open and log in to Deezer in a new tab – clicking this link will do that for you. Note: Deezer is different from Spotify in that Deezer is a web application, vs. Spotify, which is a program that you install on your computer. Yes I know that Spotify also has a web version… I never had much luck using it and suggest you install the full program if you want to run Spotify on a laptop.
Step #2 Clicking this link will open our conversion tool in another tab. Scroll down the page and you should see that you're logged in to Deezer and a Please enter Spotify URI dialog box like this:
If you don't see this click the Log into Deezer link or refresh the conversion tool page.
Step #3 In Spotify, Right Click the playlist you want to convert and select Copy Spotify URI.
Step #4 Back at the conversion tool, Paste the URI you copied and click Convert. It will look like this:
Step #5 Success! Click the link to see your new Deezer playlist 🙂
A few notes:
Despite a lot of programming time, we weren't able to get Deezer to carry over the name of the playlist from Spotify. Renaming the Deezer playlist is a snap using the edit option shown below.
Check your new Deezer playlists for accuracy > differences between each service's music library and Meta Data = not every playlist will convert perfectly.
Any other questions?
Feel free to contact us like Cydnie did – we're happy to help.
So I'm sitting here putting together my class for tomorrow and I stumbled on this great track that I'm going to use as my playlist's intro-track. I wasn't looking for one, it just kinda jumped out and hit me between the ears saying; “lead with this one!”
What got my attention?
Few or no lyrics – so I can give an overview of the class
Tempo @ 90RPM or above – this one is right around 100
Needs a little punch that will get everyone's attention, when I crank it up 🙂
The track is called (appropriately enough) Intro from the band The xx, which will cross-fade into Little People — Start Shootin'. Next up will be The Weeks — Buttons where we'll do a series of openers to complete the warm-up, which will have us ready for some work.
Here's the whole playlist made up of (IMO) awesome, but unknown music… except the track Lana Del Rey — West Coast – Rob Orton Mix (doesn't she remind* you of Tori Amos?) which I've used before. My class is at 6 am tomorrow if you want to hear it on the very powerful sound system I have to play with at Life Time Fitness 🙂
*I've always loved Tori Amos — Cornflake Girl for a longish 5 min climb > turn it up and let everyone just pound to the top. Also, if you've got a lot of rhythmically challenged people in your class, Tori Amos — Spark is a great waltz where you can help all the men riders learn to follow the; one, two, three, one, two, three pedal strokes. It sure helped me.
Spotify plans Canadian launch The online music streaming service Spotify is hinting that it will be coming to Canada soon.
The online music streaming service Spotify is hinting that it will be coming to Canada soon.
The company, which was founded by Swedish entrepreneur Daniel Ek in 2006, pioneered the concept of granting Internet users access to a huge catalogue of music they could freely stream without having to purchase songs or albums a la carte.
Spotify had signalled in 2009 that it was looking to move into Canada within months but never did. But a number of competitors did launch in Canada in recent years, including Deezer, Rara, Rdio, Slacker, and most recently, Google Play Music.
No launch date for Spotify in Canada has been released but the company says users will start getting access to the service in the “coming months.” Canadians can register for early access at Spotify.ca
Let me know if you're in Canada and see that link not working – it's redirecting to the .com site so I'm not sure if I have it correct.
If Spotify follows their typical, controlled launch process – they will invite the early subscribers first. So sign up so you'll be notified.
