The Newsroom

I'm currently signed up to the three-month free trial of Apple Music, and it's pretty cool - even if I haven't used it a whole lot. Maybe it's because I use Spotify's free service on my iPad and computer and it does pretty much everything for free that Apple is giving me for free for three months, plus Spotify already has all my playlists and favorite artists saved. But the premium service costs $9.99 for both. I'm currently spending $7.99 a month for Netflix. And I get way more use out of Netflix than I get out of even the free version of Spotify. Now don't get me wrong, I love music. But I never buy $10 worth of music each month and I don't spend $120 a year on albums and singles, so the premium versions of Apple Music and Spotify aren't going to save me any money. Whereas Netflix's $7.99 pays for itself each month by watching just one movie. Netflix is an absolute steal of a deal. Streaming music services, less so. At least for me. But...

I was listening to the Christian worship group Hillsong on Spotify the other day when the service suddenly played me a Katy Perry song. And then another top 40 pop song. And then I finally got back to Hillsong. Weird, I thought. Normally, Spotify intersperses songs into its shuffle playlist (for freeloaders like me) with songs that are at least related - by the same artist, or in the same genre. So what I want to listen to gets interrupted but at least by something that isn't a jarring departure from what I chose. I accepted it as the price to pay for not paying the price for Spotify's premium service. On my drive home from work Friday afternoon I'm listening to the new Steve Taylor album Goliath. I get through 2 songs and then MILEY CYRUS plays. OH COME ON NOW! Then another Steve Taylor song and suddenly: Coldplay. So I switched to my Music app and started listening to other things. Of course, I could pay the $10 a month to get the full service and skip Spotify i...