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My music consumption habits have changed dramatically over the past year. I fell in love with online streaming services and left my iTunes library to collect dust with all the CDs left unpacked in my basement.
Over the past few months I’ve had an opportunity to extensively test Rdio and iTunes Match, which each take a different approach to bringing your music library to the cloud. With Rdio, $9.99/month gets you full access to the service’s library of 9 billion songs. With iTunes Match, the service acts as an online storage locker for your existing music library for $24.99/year and allows you to upgrade matched tracks to higher quality versions available in the iTunes Store.
Both services allow you to stream music from your mobile phone, but you’ll want a large data plan with a reputable cellular carrier if you plan to take your music library with you everywhere you go.
Rdio
Pros:
- Full access to a huge library of 9 billion songs.
- Imports your existing library through desktop client.
- Easily discover new artists and add them to your library.
- Listen on the web, desktop (Mac and Windows), living room (Roku and Sonos), and on your mobile phone (iPhone/iPad, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7).
- Offline support for mobile apps.
Cons:
- Higher subscription fee ($4.99/month for web streaming, $9.99/month for mobile streaming)
- Songs are no longer available if you cancel your subscription.
- Some albums are not available in all regions.
Read our full review of Rdio on Ominocity.
iTunes Match
Pros:
- Ability to upgrade matched songs to higher quality versions available in the iTunes Store.
- Uploads only unmatched songs to the cloud, saving time and bandwidth.
- Easily stream to other Mac and PC computers through iTunes and the Music app on iOS devices.
- Downloads tracks for offline play on the iPhone and iPad.
- Upgraded tracks remain available even if you cancel the service.
Cons:
- No ability to discover new artists or albums aside from purchasing through the iTunes Store.
- Mobile streaming available for iOS devices only. No support for Android, Blackberry, or Windows Phone 7.
- Must manually upgrade tracks through a complicated process.
- Matching of tracks is imperfect. Occasionally one track of an album will be uploaded while all other tracks are matched.
Read our full review of iTunes Match on Ominocity.
Conclusion
After subscribing to Rdio for several months I am completely in love with the service. When a friend recommends a band, I can launch Rdio’s iPhone app and instantly add their albums to my library. I’ve expanded my music library immensely with this great music discovery tool!
While I feel it was worth $24.99 to upgrade my poorly ripped tracks to higher quality versions, I will not be renewing my subscription to iTunes Match next year. Compared to Rdio, iTunes Match is highly disappointing. I would much rather pay a higher subscription fee to gain access to everything the iTunes Store has to offer than be limited to streaming my existing library.
If you are interested in checking out Rdio, click here to sign up for a 7 day free trial!