Comment #5511

- vikie on So I want a Dog

Tags: Android apps, Android, mac, imac, podcast addict, spotify, youtube, pandora, soundcloud, music player

I've been trying to lessen the load on my imac to prolong it's life a bit since it's my work computer. The best thing I've done recently was to run the os off an external ssd through USB 2 which works surprisingly well. That 5400rpm hdd was just killing me. Would boot the machine in the morning and it'd be useless because spotlight would basically just start indexing the hard drive and I couldn't do anything else while that was going on.

I had a crappy tablet that I was using as a pandora box for while I worked but it was big, bulky and slow. I've turned it into a graphic novel machine for home since my kindle can't really do that - it does but the screen is too small, black and white and sucks at zooming in to read the text.

I figured, I had an old LG g6 laying around collecting dust, might as well use that. It's running a newer (old) version of android, is faster, has better battery life and is generally better aside from the crack in the glass of the display.

Only problem is it refuses to install pandora, I cannot figure out why. Tried the play store and even aptoid and both fail. There's more than enough space. I just don't know what to do.

It led me to try out other apps, Spotify, youtube, soundcloud, podcast addict.

Spotify
Works well, fast and responsive but god damn the algorithm sucks. Maybe I just can't figure out the app to get the most out of it, but I just prefer Pandora's way of doing things. It almost seems like the music is based more on people's playlists rather than radio station like pandora and youtube.

Youtube
It's too focused on videos, which makes sense cause it's a video app rather than a music app. There's a youtube music app, but I don't remember it being friendly. I'll try it out at some point again. Major issue with youtube is if on free version the screen has to stay active for anything to play, again makes sense as a video app. The algorithm is kind of weird too and you can easily go down a rabbit hole if not paying close attention. It's also really focused on keeping your attention so if you watch one video about something, let's say trans rights, then a lot of the suggested videos will be the same sort.

I'd also suggest using a vpn to get out of the north american market. Watching youtube here in St. Kitts does not bring up any ads at all. The minute I turn on my vpn to the states, I'm inundated with ads.

Soundcloud
So far this seems to be the best alternative to Pandora because the algorithm seems to be the most similar. The main issue is it doesn't seem to be as popular so some artists don't both posting their music to it and so there's not as much selection. There are ads, but I'm not sure if it's general ads or because I'm on a vpn, the vpn isn't necessary to use the app. I'll see if there are ads when vpn isn't open.

Podcast Addict
This is kind of in its own space because it's a mix of both youtube and the music apps. It provides podcasts, not radio stations - though one could argue they're similar enough - and some of the podcasts have switched to video podcast. The app has the most options and settings to play with, can even play videos in the background with the screen off. You'll also find all sorts of things on there that won't be on any other platform because it's relatively decentralized with no censoring unlike the other apps. I listen to dark horse and no agenda podcasts here.