Music streaming service; I tried and resigned
I don’t like people who complain about something they never tried. Therefore, during Christmas time, I subscribed to Amazon Prime Music.
Where it all started
I had my mp3 player for about 10 years, unfortunately for the last 3 years of its duty buttons weren't the most reliable part of this device. It was very difficult to buy a decent successor. Unfortunately, the brand I liked and trusted was no longer on the market so I did a research and brought two; one for me — slightly bigger but with buttons and one for my wife — with a touch screen.
None of them had features which made my previous one so good, but when I remembered about locking buttons (which requires more hassle than in my loved one) things are ok.
A problem with the music player is that you need to manage it. Upload new music, sometimes delete the old one. Having a tiny simple screen creating lists is not so easy, so it’s a task I used to do on my desktop … there’s a lot of manual labour.
Moreover, to download the music, I have to find a good tune and buy it. Discovering new music while being in the bubble of my favourite playlist from 2012 wasn’t easy. I couldn’t come across new tracks as most of the bands I loved are no longer active.
My general process was to listen to the radio, memorise a line of two of the lyric of the track I liked, write it down on whatever I had and look up. Since I have my new digital radio I can look it up on the screen (this is an improvement!).
Alternatively, I was repeating research on last.fm every few months looking for similar (hopefully new) artists to these which I liked ( I love that feature and I rely on it since the beginning of the portal). It was my little “recommendation” trick.
When I came across something I was buying an album- mostly on CD and converting to mp3. But none of my laptops has a DVD player so I had to switch to digital albums.
It made the process of uploading music to my machine easier but still, it was another admin task which I’m not a big fan of.
The progress?
Using a music streaming service sounded like a step forward. I already had an Amazon Music account as I had to set one up to buy few albums.
The first few days were a general introduction to the service. I tried not to feel discouraged by a slightly unintuitive and cluttered interface.
I hoped that using this service will make discovering new music easier and I will listen to it wherever I am. I didn’t know yet how it will affect my battery life, but definitely it was something I was concerned about as phone batteries are not the best and often one charging is ok for one day of use… More music, less scrolling?
Reviewing my expectations
Despite my hopes to discover nice new music I was coming across old stuff mixed on channels in a way which was quite odd and not intuitively similar. Playlists selection was quite limited and I would say conservative. It sounded more like dusty archives of 2000 or something super modern and mainstream… (perhaps I wasn't digging too deep. Did you?). I felt like I saw too little or too much. Two ends of the spectrum. Like my experience with the service.
Surprising was the fact that none of the albums, artists had a description so the selection was a hit and miss game.
Suggestions were limited, not much different from what I could listen on the radio. I managed to catch few interesting songs in the meantime while watching a film and I enjoyed the fact of how easy it was to find it on Amazon and listen. But it was possible mostly in cases if the artist was English speaking or from the general mainstream. I believe it may be the geographical limitation or I just have a very niche taste in music.
I figured out how to create playlists, how to save albums etc. But most of the time I felt like a child in a fog clicking things I think may work, but not always did.
Trying it out in the field
Walking to work I’m usually listening to podcasts but recently on the way back to ease off all the stress I wanted to listen to some music I’ve discovered and saved on my Amazon app.
During last month I had this desire three times and every time when I wanted to use Amazon app on the go, it was loading and loading and loading… I really wanted it to work and every (out of these 3 times) I tried to give it a new chance.
After a few attempts at restarting the app and my phone, I was giving up. I just couldn’t walk and stare at the screen trying to make it work. I’m used to operating my player with my eyes closed, just making 2 clicks in my pocket, so this experience was really frustrating.
This little events did not help with easing my stress, did actually the opposite. I had to walk back home in the accompaniment of my thoughts (what was kind of mixed pleasure.)
Amazon Music? No, thank you.
So I tried, I really hoped it will work. Theoretically, it was the best solution. I felt guilty about the carbon footprint which streaming services are responsible for but I hoped that at least my mood will benefit (I know bit selfish)… unfortunately, there was no excuse and no real benefit from an inspirational, practical or aspirational point of view.
Don't know if it's the app, my phone, internet connection, but it doesn't work for me. I wasn’t using it long enough to experience its energy consumption, but I think it can't compete with my player which I have to charge once a month.
I decided that despite having still a month to go on my preferential subscription fee I’ll say goodbye and go back to my player which in contrary to my phone, I can fit into my pocket.
Thanks for reading my 26th story from My 52 problems series, which is a part of #write52 initiative.
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