I invest in personal music. That statement means I spend money on top-notch earphones, headphones and speakers; I buy my own music(rather than download over torrent), I subscribe to Music subscription services. And I have been subscribed to Deezer for about two years now.
I love Deezer. Deezer was available to me when Spotify, Pandora and Google Play Music was not available to Nigeria. Deezer comes in-built with other apps on my LG Smart TV and I could sync my Deezer through all my devices- my Macbook, iPad, TV and Android. I liked that I could cast my music through Chromecast to my TV at home, or at the office. The Deezer API was open, well documented and easy to use- so I could configure Deezer to show my ‘Now listening’ on my blog. If I were going to be paid a commission for referrals, I would have gotten on 6 counts of referals who paid.
I loved Deezer but it may not be of any relevance any more, now that I downloaded and installed the new Apple Music app for Android. From the onboarding screen, I was bought-over.
While I have read other reviews about Apple Music like this one and this one, coming from Deezer and not being a power iTunes user, they don’t bother me. The only downsides I have noticed so far are
- It takes many clicks to get to download for offline listening or adding to your library
- It is not so straightforward finding the Downloaded songs. It takes some learning to know where to go.
- It is not so social. I miss that from Deezer where I could find out what my colleague is listening to.
- I fear Apple Music won’t come with Chromecast support(thanks to them competing with Google with their Apple TV) And that will just be horrible!
All in all, the interface is very attractive. The designers obviously went a different route from Material Design so it obviously doesn’t feel androidy. Unlike Deezer, I can see more details about every album and artist- which is a big deal for me.
I was very delighted when I noticed that iTunes had synced my playlists and artists from my Macbook.
While I am still on the three months free trial(and my opinions may change), I really wonder if I would switch back to Deezer as Deezer’s music discovery is totally weak! Especially compared to Spotify or Apple Music. Good thing they cost the same!
