pavyedav | boredom and inherent curiosity, in one

Since I’m big into listening to music, I’ve started to do some research on online music databases.

As of now, I can’t really see a difference between Grooveshark and Spotify. Grooveshark seems to have all of the songs that anyone has ever known right in its library, in addition to a recommendation service. Spotify seems to have an extensive library too, but no recommendations. What I don’t understand is why Spotify was considered to be the game-changer for music-listening when Grooveshark was already out. The only thing I have noticed is that Spotify seems to have agreements with major record labels like Sony and Universal, while Grooveshark has gotten into several lawsuits due to using possible copyright infringement mechanisms. If anyone can enlighten me regarding the differences, that’d be great.

Meanwhile, my personal approach to listening to music is having my own library with all the songs that I like (no filler) in my iTunes, so that I can have them synced with my iPhone (or previously the iPod). I don’t like relying on having a connection in order to have music immediately. It helps me get through plane or subway rides all the time. When I get sick of my library, which doesn’t happen often because I frequently update my music, I go to Pandora and start listening. This actually helps me update my music collection further since Pandora gives some great recommendations. I also look at a lot of online blogs to discover the latest music.

Anyway, I know music is a big part of a lot of peoples’ lives, so I was curious what most people do when they want to listen to music. Do you tend to stay light and stream from services like Pandora, Grooveshark, Spotify, or do you have a dedicated library on your own system that you like to keep updated, or maybe a bit of both? It’s always interesting to see everyone’s unique approach.