Spotify (vs. Pandora) in the classroom

Happy holiday weekend!  Since I'm living in the happy land that is summer break, I'm breathing music during the day rather than flipping on the television.  It's amazing how much more I can get accomplished with music on instead of the tv!  

I love music in my classroom.  When I student taught, the front office of the school had classical or instrumental music playing all day everyday and it was so relaxing when you walked in every morning.  I loved it, and I want my classroom to feel that way as well.  I don't play music constantly, but I do try to have it on at different points during the day.  

Like many, I was first a cd person.  Then I went iTunes for a short while (I still stick to my iTunes for my workouts, but not for classroom use), then I went Pandora.  And I've switched again, to Spotify.  I know Spotify is all the rage right now, but it was less about being trendy and more about moving away from Pandora out of unnecessary frustration.  

Pandora frustrated me for a couple reasons... One, it loaded S-L-O-W on my school computer.  When it finally did load, I'd get about one good song before it had to buffer again.  I'd play it on my phone, which was a bit better but that brings me to Two, it stops to buffer all the time!  I don't know if it's me or my devices, but it drives me bonkers.  It also stops to see if I'm still listening, which is also inconvenient, because I am almost always still listening.  And Three, I feel like the same songs come on over and over on the stations I listen to.  I could find new stations, yes, but even then it was similar.  So I switched.  Although both services appear to be very similar, they do offer some differences that I prefer in the classroom.  Here are a few articles pointing out the main differences in services:

Pandora vs. Spotify vs. Beats: What's the difference?

Forbes

Spotify vs. Pandora

Diffen

Spotify vs. Pandora: Which is better?

Mashable

Spotify is more expensive monthly if you want ad free music (I only use the free version right now).  The pros of Spotify in the classroom are that I can play an entire album if I want to- so if I find an artist I like, I can find more of their music and play it.  Pandora would just switch to a new song next. This also helps with the censoring I like to do ahead of time just in case anything sneaks in there.

Spotify has WAY more music selection, which is especially nice because I like to play instrumental music and there are endless options available.  I especially like to play instrumental pop music while I'm working on my own, because then if someone comes in (student, admin, parent, teachers) I'm not thinking about what the lyrics might be.  (Does that stay on anyone else's mind?  Just mine?)

Here are a few of my Spotify favorite playlists:

Back to School Piano Playlist (by Piano Tribute Players)

Instrumental Pop

Any/All Classical stations

A few of my favorite artists:

Smooth Jazz All-Stars

Nazareno Aversa

The O'Neill Brothers

Piano Tribute Players

Vitamin String Quartet (on Pandora as well- I love them!)

String Tribute Players

Robbins Island Music Group

Recommended Albums:

Songs for the Classroom: Instrumental Music for Reading, Studying, Study Music for the Classroom (by Robbins Island Music Group)

Relaxed Reading 

(by Nature Sounds Artists)

Disney's Greatest (all Volumes)

(various artists)

There are WAY more options out there.  I'd love to hear what you or your teammates enjoy listening to during the school day!  

            

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