It's sad, but when it comes to big overseas trips, streaming music still basically sucks. And from the perspective of an American, here's reason number one (screenshot from France).
And, reason number two.
And even if you don't care about radio, here's reason number three.
Which sort of kills on-demand, impulse listening, doesn't it? Because despite being on both sides of the Atlantic, carriers are still a huge problem for Spotify. And unless you're a pretty frequent international flyer, your mobile phone quickly becomes a destructive weapon of overages after you land. That is, even if you think you've set up the proper international roaming plan in advance (in my case, it was a 'misunderstanding' and an $800 overage bill).
Which cuts out all sorts of on-the-go streaming and discovery options on cross-country tours or anything out-of-the-way. Stuck inside covering a rainy conference in Cannes, the Spotify (and iCloud) experience was great. But for anything outside a WiFi zone, I stuck with previously-cached or downloaded content, just to play it safe.
It almost makes me want my old iPod back.
Comments Closed
David G Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Hmm
Are we confusing roaming plans with music services here?
Regardless of that, as a premium Spotify subscriber I have most of my fave playlists actually on my phone, so it does not need to connect more than once a month and then only to verify the subscription. So with Spotify I can always safely travel and take my music with me.
Paal Wednesday, February 01, 2012
This seems like an article that could have been written 3 years age. Music has moved on!
If you had used Spotifys offline-option it would have been just as your old iPod.
But when got back at your hotel you could have downloaded more songs, without any additional cost through your hotels wi-fi.
brooklyn habitat Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Really you've gotta travel to know how unworkable this is. If you're in a 200 Euro hotel yeah great it works and you used caching. But if your college kit trekking around it sucks.
Visitor Wednesday, February 01, 2012
At the moment this is a pretty serious first world problem.
Sympathiser Wednesday, February 01, 2012
One can only hope that Syrians fighting their despotic government will be sufficiently moved by your sufferings to put down their guns for a brief moment to contemplate the raw deal you've been handed. Stuck on the Riviera with no access to Pandora! Is there any greater tragedy? Your forbearance in not hurling yourself from the cliffs of Cannes (after an excellent meal, of course) can only be admired.
mdti Wednesday, February 01, 2012
food is disgusting in Cannes.. the major company do nothing about it... it's scandalous.
LexiPro Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Where are these cliffs exactly?
paul Wednesday, February 01, 2012
In that context... yeah, what are we really talking about here? I'll dish it, and take it.
/paul
dan Wednesday, February 01, 2012
I wish this article offered some explanation as to why streaming services are not available in other countries. It can't be that expensive for comapnies to offer an online based service across seas. check out this blog for more Music Industry:
http://industrytimes.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/84/
Industry Pro Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Streaming doesn't suck abroad. It is just on different platforms other than what americans are used to.
You should have been using Deezer while in France. Spotify works well too.
mdti Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Probably because the companies are divided into business units each with financial objectives or operating under different laws.
It is typical in TV, as a program has to be sold to other channels in the world, in different time (sometimes long after the first broadcast). But in TV series, this leads people that can't log into, say, US site to view episodes of the latest series, to grab it on torrent websites.... which is also used as an indicator, by other channels, of the popularity of a show in their own countries. In this case, "pirates" are "early adopters". But in music it is probably very different.
@fakesalarymanuk Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Never travel without your MP3 player (various brands standards and styles are available).
@utsavagarwal Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Super interesting article...
@NatForeignMag Thursday, February 02, 2012
Streaming abroad for both music and movies needs some work!
ladyheinz Friday, March 23, 2012
i totally agree. now it may not be a huge problem for those who are vacationing, but for those of us who are ex-pats, esp. in asia, there really aren't a whole lot of choices! seems like asia is constantly left behind, irregardless of the huge numbers of people, by these sites. i miss my spotify, pandora, etc. sniff, sniff. (and no, because of rather stringent financial constraints, being a paying member just wasn't an option.)
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