Spotify data gobbling problem

[HDNumpty]

Hi all

I was very pleased when Spotify enabled higher-quality 320kbps streaming on mobiles. However, I've encountered another problem and a very expensive one at that...

Having now become addicted to Spotify, I am listening on the way to work, at lunchtime, in the playcentre with my kids, in the evening (my TalkTalk router is a bit poor and 'comes and goes' at the top of my 3-storey house) and I'm getting through 1GB of data in less than a week.

I'm with O2 who don't provide unlimited data over 3G - they charge £10 per month per 1GB of data, which is a bit stingy.

At 320kbps I've calculated that a months data only gives me 6hrs 40mins of Spotify time EVERY MONTH - which is rubbish!

I'm noww cancelling Spotify Premium AND my top-whack data contract just to save some money as I've concluded that ordering CDs from Amazon is a much cheaper way to get music - and better quality.

Anyone else run into this data problem, and which mobile provider are you with if so?

 

[Paul.]

I burned through two gigs in two weeks when iTunes Match first started. Luckily I have the original O2 iPhone simplicity tariff and I have 'real' unlimited internet. I would seriously consider looking at three if you are not tied in for too long.

 

[daveh75]

Use offline mode.

 

[John Duncan]

+1 In your playlists on the phone, mark them as 'available offline' when you're at home and connected to your wireless network, and then turn 'offline mode' on. The songs will then be loaded on your phone and you won't use data at all. You can store up to 3,333 songs on your phone, storage space permitting. Course, they always seem to unsync every time they upgrade the app...

 

[HDNumpty]

Paul - that's really frustrating as I used to be a Simplicity customer but changed to a new tariff when I bought an iPhone4

Dave - yes that would work but it means I can't access music 'as and when' - I have to download all my playlists first 'inside' Spotify - you can't sync at 320kbps, the app squashes it to 160kbps which really spoils the audio quality. I have NEVER listened to music at anything less than about 192kbps and even then, out of necessity due to a 20GB player.

John & Dave - thanks for the responses, the main point of the Spotify upgrade is the musch better 320kbps audio quality, which isn't available (yet at least) 'offline'. I also have some lossless tunes (about 160 at present) on my 8GB iPhone so space is also a problem.

 

[John Duncan]

Yes you can. The latest version of the mobile app has 320k 'extreme' quality mode.

And you can still go online and listen to stuff that's not synced if 3,333 tracks isn't enough for you (and sync them to offline at the same time if you have 'sync over 3G' turned on)

 

[HDNumpty]

Yes you can. The latest version of the mobile app has 320k 'extreme' quality mode

Yes. But it doesn't work |( it keeps flicking back to 'High Quality' when you're not looking

And I make it about 2,750 320k tracks due to iPhone memory-gobbling #GEEK-OFF

 

[John Duncan]

Ooo, so it does. Am just resyncing at extreme now...

 

[John Duncan]

Fixed in v0.4.24, to which I am updating now...

 

[HDNumpty]

Cheers John I will try that.

How's the new CA kit?

 

[John Duncan]

It's great. I'll do a review eventually, but in general it's got lots of power and clarity. Not quite as smooth as the Naim; a bit ragged in the treble perhaps, but very entertaining nonetheless.

The bluray player especially is fantastic (as you might expect for the price), and the SM6 has fantastic sound, though you could say it looks a bit dear against the new Pioneers, for example, and can't quite compete with a Squeezebox for UI or Spotify.

 

[HDNumpty]

Thanks JD I'll look forward to the review

Coming back to the thread topic, I'm a bit dissapointed by the 'cloud-based future' at the mo; very expensive for the convenience and not the best quality - we are still 'compressed' as yet but I'm sure that will change in years to come.

 

[Anonymous]

:cheers: Thanks for your answer guys was waiting for many days to get the appropriate reply tanks to all of you for your wonderful reply... :bounce: ibr flanges

 

[Hoodedcrow]

I looked into the Spotify eating my data a while ago and what I found out was that, if you use a Pc or Mac with the Spotify program running, your pc basically becomes part of a bit torrent network.

You upload parts of songs from your cache and download from others, this is a clever system for Spotify who don't have to have their servers overloaded. All this is kind of neat, but as in my case my ISP thinks I'm using a peer to peer network so they started throttling my connection.

There is at this moment no way to opt out, so what I do is use my iPad or my iinternet browser to listen to music.

I was close to cancelling my subscription also but I find Spotify lets me listen to some real obscure music that I know I’d never listen to, also it allows me to listen to an album in full before buying, so in my opinion well worth the £10 an month.