I've been slowly realizing why the rest of the world has already gone to streaming music. Being able to pick any songs you want -- and listen to them in order -- is a nice thing. I still usually like listening to Pandora for discovery and then grab a CD from Amazon or album via iTunes, but I'm slowly figuring out that some of these albums aren't worth the cash. It's rare, but maybe $10 a month isn't insane.

(Maybe. I'm still going crazy figuring this out. Would I rather have an additional 10-12 albums a year that I can listen to whenever, wherever, or all the music I want as long as I stay addicted? Argh.)

Anyhow, free isn't bad, so I've been a Spotify ad-supported user as a middle ground between discovery and purchase. It's amazing how quickly new albums go up on Spotify for you to try out.


But the ads... ARGH the ads. Some are sooooo freaking annoying, especially that idiot middle-aged guy voice who acts like he's a stuttering teenager lamenting his inability to get across whatever emotion he's feeling in words and wants you to pick a song instead -- you know, the one that says, "[At a] Loss for words? Share a song." Stop it!


The ad doesn't make me want to listen to music. It makes me want to run away from this strange, mentally deranged dude who acts like an offensive caricature of a teenage girl.

The first ten times I heard it, I considered shelling out for Spotify (or Apple Music) to shut him up. Now, I just hit mute. Or fire up Amazon Music for Prime streaming, even though its selection is quite a bit worse.

And guess what I do after hitting mute? I forget to unmute. So Spotify is paying for music I don't hear and, worse for them, I'm missing their follow-on ads. A little silence is a small price to pay for missing annoying ads, and I'll keep doing it.

Either keeps the ads unobtrusive or you'll lose their effectiveness. And I'll probably never engage your service enough to become a customer.

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