Why has Spotify become my best friend?

I wake up and all I can see is how dark my room is and a tiny bit of light coming from the windows. Waking up for me is something that I have struggled with my whole life. I discovered that when my alarm goes on and I instead of snoozing it, throw myself out of bed and play music, it becomes easier for me to wake up and I even start my day with a great mood. I realized that that 70% of my day I am listening to music. Music has been such a big part of my life ever since I can remember. I can also remember how hard it was for me to be up to date with all the music because having to pay for each record on iTunes was too expensive, and I had to download each song on a website that converted YouTube videos into mp3 files, Limewire. It was tedious to do it, converting each song and then naming it, after that exporting it to iTunes. It used to take me so much time to do it and it was super frustrating. If I wanted to listen to new music and discover new artists, that was one of the cheapest ways to do it, yet it wasn’t free because I was paying with my time. According to the BBC article; “A literal reading of the prehistory of music begins about 40,000 years ago, with Europe on the brink of a momentous change. The region was then home to the Neanderthals, who had inherited it from earlier human species stretching back a million years.” , meaning that music has been around us for so long, which makes it so important for human beings because it has become part of our daily lives. 

Years after years the way we consume music has evolved. There are many applications that allow you to listen to music by just using your mobile phone. All these relatively new applications have given us a tool to take music with us, in a very easy way. Not long ago, the best way to take music with you, was by taking a Discman or a portable radio which were not very convenient. Given the fact that radios would play any song that they want rather than what you want to listen to, and the Discman your only option was the disc that you had chosen before getting out. All these inconveniences made a big opportunity in the market to make something innovative where you could listen to music and have a large variety of songs to listen to. Music streaming services come in to kick the radio on their faces. According to Zoe Saunderson “Digital music consumption rose by 8.9% to 442.4 units with audio streams rising by 76.4% to 251.9 billion and video streams rising by 7.5% to 17.9 billion. These on-demand streaming figures were gathered using Spotify, YouTube, Apple, Tidal, Amazon, Google Play, SoundCloud, Xbox Music, Slacker, AOL Radio, Medinet, Disciple and Rhapsody. 80% of music listeners had used one of these sites in the past 12 months demonstrating how prevalent music streaming services have become.”

Music streaming started with “Napster” in February 2001, after having gone through all other devices to consume music; Phonograph 1877, Gramophone 1896, Cassette 1903, First Transistor Radio 1954, Vinyl’s 1975, Sony Walkman 1979, CD’s 1982, MP3 Player 1999, and then Music streaming which started with Napster in 2001, as I mentioned before. This short timeline shows how evolved music is right now. All the evolution that has happened in the consumption of music is because technology has also evolved. It would not be possible for us to listen to music from our smartphones, if there were no smartphones. everything has been a process of evolution which everything is held hand in hand, because if something evolves, you must fit in and look for new ways to solve problems that may generate or just the simple fact of providing comfort to people. 

Why did I choose Spotify instead of any other Music Streaming App; It is cheap and offers students discounts plus you have access to Hulu. You can use it without paying, you have restrictions, but it still works great. It knows what you like because it has a record on what you click and listen and on what you don’t like, so suggestions for new music are great in my opinion. I can make all the playlists that I want and follow any other person’s playlist if I like it. I have the option of downloading playlists and songs, in order to not waste my data, and that is also very convenient because when you travel you usually have to put your phone on Airplane mode but if you have downloaded your music on the app, you can still listen to it with no problem. One of my favorite features is that I can see, what people that I follow, are listening to. That is kind of creepy but if you like an artist, you can see what that artist listens to and I find it interesting. If you have two devices with your same account, you can control let's say your computer with your phone, so if you’re listening to music with your computer but you are far away from it and you want to play another song, you can control it form the app on your phone. There are playlists made for moods, top charts and new songs, and even podcasts are streamed on the application. Discovering new music is so easy because of the charts.  I could go on and on mentioning things that I like about Spotify, because it has many features that make your life easier and that is why I stick to Spotify. 

I take my phone everywhere and I don’t have to worry about forgetting my music because it is on my phone, on Spotify. If I’m not in class or I'm not somewhere where I should not listen to music, I'm always listening to music with Spotify. With my friends we have a playlist where we all bring new music so we can see what’s new and talk about it. Music has given me so much and that is why I am very thankful that today we are able to listen to music in such an easy way because looking back, it was harder to take a music device than is now a days. Technology is evolving and the way we consume things as well, but the fact that people love music has never changed, and right now Spotify has made me feel so happy with everything that I can do.