Battle of the titans : Spotify vs Grooveshark Part 2

Part 2 is now under way. Spotify vs Grooveshark. I will cover the last and remaining section, "Using the services on different devices". I have tested both services on Android, Boxee and on the iPhone and here are my thoughts.

Using the services on different devices


Spotify


Spotify on Android works just fine. However I've used it mainly on my Xperia X10 Pro and Xperia mini Pro which made it a bit tricky to navigate in with it's small screen, but generally it felt good. I like the way you can slide the player window up from the bottom or vice versa to bring back the playlist window. The design is very similar to the version we use on the computer. The nice looking dark colours with the Spotify green colour. Pretty much every feature can be used on the Android app compared to the computer. You can create offline playslists which is great if you do not have unlimited amount of data on your ISP. Just use your WIFI and you'll be able to carry all your tracks with you where ever you go without using the 3G network.

Using Spotify on iPhone is also a great experience. The colours is a bit different with it's white background instead of the Android's dark grey. You will find all the features that Android has on the iPhone app. I do prefer the Android version though. If your are using one hand and want to go back one step you need to press the back button on your Android device that's located on the lower left corner. Using the iPhone however, you have press back in the top left corner to get back which will complicate things. It's quite hard pressing it if the phone isn't placed correctly in your hand. The cool slider doesn't exist on the iPhone app which is a bummer.

 

Spotify on Boxee is surprisingly a joy to use. It was released 14th  October and you would think it might be a bit dodgy because it has just been released but on the contrary it looks super. I actually prefer it this way than using it on the computer. However there are two large drawbacks that will irritate you. You can only play your playlists that's saved on your account. You cannot search for new music and play it. The other drawback is that you cannot rewind or fast forward a selected track. Hopefully an update will solve these "problems" in a near future.

Total score of using Spotify on different devices:

Score 7 out of 10 

Grooveshark


Using Grooveshark on iPhone.......... hold on! It cannot be done at this moment .......... because it simply has no app running on Grooveshark (that is if your iPhone isn't jailbroken). That's just incredibly bad. However Grooveshark is developing an app and I can't wait for it's release.

Grooveshark does exist on Android. Strangely enough it cannot be downloaded at the Android Market. Instead you need to download it at Groovesharks website. Didn't the Android Market accept the app? It makes me wonder. I found a third party app called Tiny Shark at the market, but I will not be covering it here in this review because it wouldn't be fair. Tiny Shark was not developed by the Grooveshark team.

The app is quite messy on Android. First of all it's design is dull just like when your using it on the computer. When you select a track you want to play, another screen appears asking you if you want to play it, put it in a playlist or using it in a radio channel. Once again you need to select play for it to even acknowledge that you surely want it to be played. Frustrating. Once you got a track on and want to fast forward a few seconds it's amazing how tricky it really is to move the cursor. It will take about 5-6 tries before you finally can move the cursor.

I need to say that I've only used this app on my Xperia mini pro with it's small screen which might have made it more difficult to fast forward but I didn't have any problem fast forwarding using Spotify on the Xperia so I wonder if it's the app itself or I simply have a smaller screen that's causing this annoying problem?

Grooveshark on Boxee however is a pure joy! It's design looks stunning. The menus is nicely placed above the main window and can be reach quickly by just pressing up on the remote. If you press left, another menu will appear with more options to use.

Using the Boxee you can search for music and play them at once. You can add them to existing playslist or creating new ones. This is a big advantage compared to Spotify on Boxee. But of course there is a "but" here too. You cannot fast forward or rewind any songs. That's so strange because the Grooveshark app has been on the Boxee for a quite a while now and still this feature hasn't been developed. I think it should be essential on any device.

Total score of using Grooveshark on different devices: 

Score 6 out of 10

Conclusion

There's been some reactions from some of my viewers regarding the Grooveshark vs Spotify review. Many of you have raised your voices regarding my test with the five hand picked songs I used on the two services search function, stating that I cannot judge it just because I used some tracks from the electronic genre. Without doubt I'm most familiar in the electronic genre and with that said it's quite natural that I would choose the tracks from that genre. It's up to every user to get their own opinion on how wide the selection really is on these two services. From my angle, I think Grooveshark has a wider library. If you look at mainstream bands like Tool, Beatles, Rammstein and Arcane Fire non of them exist on Spotify. Of course this doesn't tell you that Grooveshark has more to offer but I get the generally idea that it has more to offer. Try it out and do some searches and compare them two and see for yourself.

With that said I would recommend Grooveshark for it's wide selection. Almost everything I'm looking for exist on Grooveshark. That's why I use it today instead of Spotify.

I would recommend Spotify because it works much better on remote devices like on an Android phone. That's a big advantage for you who often use your phone when listening to music.

Sidenote: (Thanks to fp cassini) One important thing I didn't mentioned in part 1 was that there are no restrictions at the free account using Grooveshark. That is if you use it on your computer. The only thing is that there will be ads showing in the browser window. Spotify have ads in the browser window, in recorded messages between songs and have the huge restriction of only allowed to play for 10 hours.

Spotify : Total score 28 out of 40

Design: 8 out of 10
Content: 7 out of 10 

Price: 6 out of 10
Using the service on different devices: 7 out of 10

Grooveshark : Total score 28 out of 40

Design: 4 out of 10
Content: 9 out of 10 

Price: 9 out of 10

Using the service on different devices: 6 out of 10

Part 1 can be found here >>  Battle of the titans : Spotify vs Grooveshark Part 1