It seem’s like only yesterday that I was enjoying a service called Spotify and commenting on Twitter about how awesome it was.  Unfortunately, living in America means that I can only use it when I’m in the UK and that doesn’t happen all that often.  So what’s an American to do when he wants to listen to music sans iTunes?  He could turn to Pandora but, alas, they don’t allow on-demand listening.  He could sign up for Rhapsody, but $10 a month for web only streaming seems a little high (I just found out you do get one device with Rhapsody).  So what’s a boy to do?  Well, if you haven’t heard about it yet, you will soon enough.  I’m talking about Rdio.com, the new online streaming service that offers legal streaming of music starting at just $4.99 a month 

I recently had the chance to sign up for Rdio and let me tell you, I’m impressed.  For those who have never heard of Rdio, let me explain it simply.  Think of it as if Lala.com mated with Rhapsody.com and had a baby.  Think of it as the quintessential social media service for music lovers.  And this baby is practically perfect.  The million-dollar question is how does it compare to Spotify?  Let me start with the basics.

Put simply, Rdio is a website that offers unlimited music streaming.  Unlike Spotify, Rdio does charge a monthly fee.  Fortunately, it doesn’t get higher than $10 a month.  Rdio gives users two types of subscription options.  The basic fee is $4.99 a month, which includes unlimited use of the service on a desktop computer such as a Mac or PC.  A premium fee of $9.99 a month adds mobile app use that can be used on the iPhone, Andriod, or Blackberry device.  This means that you can customize how you want to use the service based on how much you are willing to pay.  Spotify does have a similar pricing structure to Rdio but Spotify does have one unique advantage, they have an ad supported version that gives you 20 hours of music a month for free.  Rdio doesn’t have an ad supported plan, however $4.99 seems more than fair for the services that Rdio provides.

Like Spotify, Rdio has a social network feel towards it.  Users get a public profile showing music that has recently been added but unlike Spotify, the service is much cleaner looking.  In fact, I think Rdio is down right perfect.  It’s uncluttered and shows what you’ve listened too as well as what you have recently added to your collection.  It even shows the number of songs in your library, perfect for the braggers like me.  On thing I would like to see added, however, is the ability to post what I’m listening to currently.  Even a toggle to allow on or off of that function would be perfect.  Otherwise, Rdio’s profile pages are quite functional and easy to use.  One thing in Spotify’s favor is that their app is very familiar to iTunes users.  Rdio users might have a slight learning curve but not near as much as those who use Spotify.

When you find an album or song on Rdio, you can add it by clicking the plus button or using the drop down menu and clicking “add to collection.”  If you want to play it, just click the play button and the song begins after a few seconds.  Rdio doesn’t instantly start playing like Spotify but it doesn’t take too long either.  And the audio quality is quite good, in my opinion it is as good or better than Spotify.  On the left of the page is the media player.  The features are quite limited.  You can play and fast forward, change the volume, use the jog to skip through a song, or set your music to random or repeat.  There is no equalizer or other media feature.  One button that you might notice is the “Display List of Up Coming Songs” button.  This turns Rdio into an iTunes type player as it shows you a list of what is coming up next.  A speaker next to a song means that it is the one playing.  From that same screen you can also see what has recently played and what is in your queue.  FYI, your queue is where you store songs to play next.  Once you start playing a song, you can use the media player in browser or switch to the desktop app and close the browser.

Speaking of app, Rdio does have an easy to use desktop app but in many ways it’s a little too simple.  Rido’s app is an Adobe Air application but the music needs to be loaded from the web before you can use it.  For example, launching the app without the browser open will bring up a message telling you to open the site in your browser first.  You’ll also have to load the music from your browser to get the application to start playing.  As an example, here is a real life scenario.  I wanted to listen to my Def Leppard collection.  To do this, I had to go to rdio.com, find the artist, and click play.  It’s not that bad but it could always be better, like being able to let us start the music from the app without having to log into the site first.  Spotify, conversely, is the app.  No browser required.  This means that you can access all your tunes from a simple interface.  One thing that really gives the Spotify app the advantage is the fact that Spotify allows you to listen offline.  As soon as you drop a connection, Rdio stops playing.  This is quite annoying and I’m really hoping that Rdio takes note of that.  However, there is one thing that Rdio does do that is just amazing.  Rdio’s desktop app can scan your hard drive for tunes and match it with music already in Rdio’s cloud.  This means that you can take most of your library to the cloud.  I say “most” because if Rdio doesn’t have the track, it won’t add it to your collection.  That’s unfortunate but it’s not too inhibiting unless you have a large collection of indy tracks.

Mobility is the strong suit of Rdio, however.  Both Spotify and Rdio have applications for mobile devices and Rdio is one of my favorites.  To start, Rdio does work on select BlackBerry devices; something which Spotify does not do.  In addition, Rdio supports the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Andriod devices.  Spotify only supports Nokia phones and the iPhone.  Spotify’s lack of apps for Andriod or BlackBerry has always been a bone of contention for me for quite some time.  Rdio even supports offline listening if you sync the song or albums to your phone, something that I haven’t been able to get Spotify to do.  This makes your handheld device a portable media library.  You can even search for artists or songs when you are online and listen to it right over your device in full stereo.  Most importantly, however, Rdio sounds awesome on a mobile device.  The sound quality is as good if not better than an Mp3.  Rdio is worth the price to me just for the mobility of the service. Rdio is the best BlackBerry mobile music app ever released in my opinion.

There are some things that Rdio is lacking, however.  First, it would be nice if the service would play nice with all of your collection.  For example, a button that would allow everything in the library to play would make my iPod obsolete and would really complete the service.  Second, a nasty bug occurred while I was testing the service.  After making my first monthly payment, nothing would play.  I had to log out and log back in to get it to work.  This is especially irritating but I’ll chalk it up to early adoption syndrome.  Finally, how about getting some indy labels in here?  I can’t even find my own music even though I know my music is on Spotify.  Having a good collection of indy artists could make this service the best music delivery service ever conceived.  The good thing is that all of these negatives can be corrected and hopefully they will.

So what’s the final verdict?  Well, after comparing Spotify and Rdio, it is safe to call Rdio the winner right now but only by a slim margin.  Rdio has a lot of great features but Spotify has more of a selection of tunes.  Rdio has a better interface, better mobile experience, and is priced just right, however, the free version of Spotify and the offline availability of music that Spotify provides is something that might give it a slight edge.  The major push goes to Rdio for allowing a cloud-based version of most of the tunes I already own as well as for its wonderful mobile experience.  Rdio is almost perfect and is well worth the $9.99 or $4.99 monthly fee, and it’s cloud based synching as well as it’s mobile app makes it the winner right now.  Anyone looking for a good online streaming service with all the trimmings need look no further than Rdio.  Seeing as how Spotify is not yet available in the U.S. anyway, you don’t have much of a choice.  However, you certainly won’t be disappointed in what Rdio has to offer.  Click here to check out rdio.com.

P.S. Check out my Rdio profile here and don’t forget to make me your friend.